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Keller-Brown Insurance Services
9 S Main St, PO Box 215
Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania 17361
Phone:  (717) 235-6891(717) 235-6891
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Realtor Spotlight: Tad French

2020-10-02

 

 

This month, Sarah Brown sat down with realtor Tad French, with Keller Williams Realty, to hear his story and take on the current real estate market. 

Tad French, with Keller Williams RealtyTad French, Logo

 

1. Tell me about your background and the path that led you to become a real estate professional.

When my parents divorced I was only six years old.  Until that time, our family had been living in an affluent neighborhood in Arlington, VA but, in order to be closer to family, my mother made the decision to move me and my four sisters back to Scranton, PA. With very limited income, my mother struggled to raise us in a brick row-home in an alley on the south side of town. "We don't have much", my mother would say, "but what we have is clean and ironed." Though only 1,400 square feet with a single bath and a washer and dryer in the kitchen, our house was neat as a pin and we all took pride in keeping it so. I watched my mother struggle to keep that little house my whole life. "Whatever you do", she'd say, "get your education and always own your own home." My sisters and I revere our mother. I guess you could say that I took her advice to the extreme. I think of my mother often in my work as a realtor.  Whenever I help a first-time homebuyer, a single mother, or even someone who just needs an agent to recognize that their home is so much more than a house... My mother is always there, reminding me of the importance of owning your own home.

 

While serving in the US Army Reserves, I finished my undergraduate degree at St. Bonaventure University before returning to central PA where I built my first house in 2001. Borrowing the equity from that project, I was able to purchase a second home just two years later.  And so began a fascination with real estate as an investment and the power of leveraging money to control more assets. In those days, I worked in the pharmaceutical industry for companies like Eli Lilly and Abbott Labs. The income provided me with the opportunity to start investing in rental properties. With the help of a pharmaceutical colleague, I started an investment company and, shortly thereafter, a property management company. We made every mistake you can imagine in the beginning but always managed to meet our obligation to the bank and, more importantly, to learn valuable lessons that we were determined not to have to learn twice.

 

When the company for whom I had been working in 2006 was acquired by a larger firm, I was offered a generous severance package. Additionally, several hundred stock options I had earned with that firm were immediately vested at the new stock price. At 29 years old, I found myself at a crossroads and the money with which to take a chance. That year, I earned my real estate license and began practicing full time. After a few months, I was invited to join a seasoned agent in central PA as her buyer's agent. For three years, I studied under the very best agent and staff in the business, learning practical solutions, and a philosophy that I still follow today.

 

In 2008, the economy suffered a significant setback. In the wake of the financial crisis of that year, home sales slumped and there was a marked shift in the inventory and number of home sales transactions.  When I was approached by the pharmaceutical firm who had acquired my former employer a few years earlier, I decided to return to work in that sector. It was a good offer at the right time and they even paid for me to return to graduate school in pursuit of my MBA - a goal I had begun years earlier but from which I had been sidetracked for a number of reasons. While in graduate school, I met the director of wealth management for PNC Bank. Through some mutual friends, she and I had the chance to get to know each other. Eventually, she invited me to join the bank as a relationship manager on her wealth management team.   

 

With no banking or investment background other than my education, I became a vice president in the wealth management division of PNC Bank in 2011. For six years, among many other lessons, the job afforded me the opportunity to learn about lending, property valuation, and the underwriting process.  In a very real way, it was like a continuation of the residency I had begun with my former real estate colleague in 2006. I can't imagine how rare and fortuitous was my immersion in these two worlds at exactly the right time in my life. Not a day goes by in my current practice when I don't draw upon something I learned during those formative years.

 

2. What's your approach to the home buying & selling process that might make you a little different from other realtors?

When meeting with a new buyer or seller for the first time, I like to sit down with them and get to know each other a little better. Understanding the motivation or circumstance that is causing them to want to buy or sell now is key to serving them successfully. Sellers who are relocating to another part of the country or those who have already gone under contract to buy or build another home are experiencing a set of pressures that someone who is downsizing in order to be closer to their grandchildren might not feel. Taking the time to understand their equity position, timeline, and what would happen if the house did not sell at a particular price are important considerations for us to consider together.

 

With buyers, I enjoy helping them envision the house that is right for them and their needs in the short, intermediate, and long term. More than creating a list of needs and wants, this conversation incorporates other factors such as which school district is most attractive and why? How far are they willing to commute to and from work every day? In what ways might a subdivision neighborhood with parks, street lights, and sidewalks provide an advantage over a house on the edge of town with a larger parcel of land (or vice versa)? Considering escrows for taxes, what does the monthly mortgage payment look like for one house vs. another? Asking thought-provoking questions allows my buyers to have deeper conversations with themselves or their families so that we can work together to find the right house and not just a house with the right number of bedrooms and parking spaces.

 

My formal education in finance, training in banking and property valuation, and experience as a professional real estate investor, landlord, and realtor, provide my clients with an advantage not commonly found in my industry. I am thankful for all that life has taught me. I am truly blessed to be able to share that knowledge with my client friends.

 

It is a commitment of my practice to give back 10% of our annual net revenue directly to the communities we serve. This year we were able to build a beautiful new scoreboard on the Little League field in Gelder Park. I believe that my small business should always find a way to give back to the community that supports us. To whomever, much has been given much is to be expected. I'm always mindful that my four sons are watching my example. I hope that a spirit of service to the community and our country will be my legacy as their father.

 

Tad French and family

 

3. Do you have a niche or area of specialty?

Having served in the US Army Reserves for 10 years and in the pharmaceutical industry for 12, with a physician spouse, I have become a specialist in serving our military, medical, and executive relocation clients. Many of these clients are working with relocation companies whose guidance and involvement can be either a positive or negative for clients moving from across the country or around the world. My support team and I have earned familiarity with the largest relocation firms in the country that allows us to act as a local extension of their offices. Knowing how to conduct comparative market analysis in conformity with their strict guidelines allows our sellers to list their homes with ease and confidence which is comforting to both clients and relocation personnel alike. Furthermore, relocating physicians, executives, and military personnel are often presented with financing packages that are not available to the general public. An acute awareness of these lending programs allows me to strengthen a buyer's offer when negotiating in this competitive marketplace. Those in the medical and military professions speak with their own language. Knowing how to speak that language engenders confidence and puts my clients at ease.

 

4. Do you focus more on the buyer, seller, or both?

I am happy to serve both buyers and sellers throughout central Pennsylvania.

 

5. Do you have any memorable settlements (or buying/selling stories) that stick out that might be fun to share?

Depending on the circumstances, a real estate settlement can be a very emotional time for clients. I've been entrusted to sell homes that were built by great grandparents­- homes that were lovingly cared for by generations over many years. I am honored to have helped single parents find a home that will provide stability in a tumultuous time. When parents grow older and can no longer maintain their house safely, family members call me to assist them in handling the sale with sensitivity and respect. Serving military families with relocation and welcoming new families to central PA is always a point of great pride and satisfaction. 

 

6.  What are some trends in home purchasing that you're noticing?

It's no secret that this is a seller's market. For every house listed for sale, we seem to have five or six buyers who are willing to pay the asking price within just one or two days of marketing. That dynamic has helped in some respect in that it has required our buyers to understand, more completely, the moving parts of the home buying process. Buyers are learning that the agreed-upon sales price is only one aspect of the transaction. Lenders will only provide a mortgage based upon the appraised value and not the sales price. Preparing my clients to understand property valuation and lending requirements, as well as the tools of negotiation available to them through the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors (PAR), are part of my process for client readiness. I'm finding that clients have access to a myriad of tools online. Websites and online search tools are analogous to a hiking pack on the mountain trek of home buying. These provide tools that will be useful on the journey but they don't provide the education and experience-based knowledge that a guide can bring to the process. More than ever before, clients are seeking agents who can serve as a Sherpa, helping them to make sense of the tools and professional resources at their disposal. Competition in the marketplace requires buyers and sellers to align with the best possible representation. Like most things these days, customers want to work with a specialist and they want their agent to be the "source of the source", able to bring to the transaction the very best people, whose expertise can make or save thousands of dollars while ensuring a seamless and stress-free settlement.  

 

7. What's a misconception you think people have about the home buying process?

From first-time homebuyers to downsizing retirees, those moving around the corner to those moving across the country, most clients admit an element of fear that the home buying process will be difficult and unnecessarily expensive. Vince Lombardi once said, "You cannot be confident if you are confused." Helping my clients to understand property valuation, the appraisal process, and the true cost of ownership to include mortgage costs and escrowed taxes is one of the best ways in which I can bring peace to the process. Working with a cadre of trusted and local mortgage professionals who act as an extension of my own staff, I am able to help clients to remove the mystery, streamline the paperwork, and set realistic and precise expectations that aim to under promise and over deliver. Conservative estimation in the early days of the search makes for a happier and more successful client at the settlement table.

 

8. What are some common mistakes home buyers/sellers make that you wish could be avoided?

Knowing how your credit score affects your ability to qualify for a mortgage is integral to your success in the home buying process. Good counsel, early in the process, should ensure that you understand how to preserve your creditworthiness throughout the duration of the transaction. Even if your score is excellent when you apply for a pre-qualification letter from a lender, entering into other revolving lines of debt such as a car loan or credit card, could negatively affect your lending terms. At worst, the underwriting process may determine these changes to be significant enough to render your application a denial. Even where an individual can sustain the additional debt, a lender may determine that they are now a greater risk. This can result in a higher interest rate. It is always best to forgo entering into any revolving debt or paying off any large outstanding balances until after settlement on your new home. For home sellers, there is a temptation to try to make very costly cosmetic improvements to the house before putting it on the market. Not only is this unnecessary, but it may not result in a better sale price after all. Rather, I recommend that sellers order their own home inspection. Even though you may have been living in your home for several years, you may be unaware of issues with your mechanical systems, foundation, roof, or other infrastructure. Knowing about these issues ahead of listing, a seller can make practical improvements over time with contractors they know and trust. When sellers leave the home inspection up to the buyer's discovery, more often than not, the findings are upsetting and more costly to resolve. In the worst-case scenarios, sellers may even lose an otherwise favorable deal simply because they were not prepared to deal with the discovery of an expensive repair. The best advice I can give sellers is to make sure that everything in the house is clean and in working order.  

 

9. Can you share anything about your experience with Keller-Brown? Do you have any stories to share about how we helped one of your buyers?

As a local real estate practice, our clients have come to rely on us as the "source of the source" for all things real-estate related in central PA.  Over the years, I have learned that my partners in banking, insurance, and legal services, among many others, are what set me apart from my competition. Through trial and error, often on the recommendation of a respected colleague, I have had the chance to work with the very best professionals and small businesses in the Midstate. I can't help but compare what my clients and I experience each time we choose a new agency or service provider. It's one of the reasons we are so proud to know Sarah Brown and her colleagues at Keller-Brown Insurance Services. As a family-owned business, committed to serving our central PA community for over 115 years, Keller-Brown provides my clients with access to world-class products and insurance services right here in their backyard. As small business leaders in the community, my people can look to Sarah and the Keller-Brown team with confidence. Always eager to answer our questions about how to save money on the best insurance coverage as well as helping us navigate complex insurance issues, the Keller-Brown folks provide credibility on which I can rely, knowing that theirs is a partnership my clients can trust.

 

10. What links can we share so that our readers can learn about you or the properties you have listed?

My website is www.wesellharrisburg.com

I am available on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HersheyWestProperties and Linkedin at Tad French, Realtor 

I am always available to assist buyers and sellers on my direct line at (717) 919-2605 or by email at TadFrench@KW.com

My legal name is Richard French but most people call me Tad. It's a nickname I've had since birth that even my mother calls me to this day. Tad is the name by which I am more commonly known and it's the name under which I practice real estate.

 

Tad French, with Keller Williams Realty with his family

 

 

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