Jim Albertson - Bio

LifeStyleProperties.net


A 2008 Kansas City FIVE STAR Real Estate Agent

 

With the formation of LifeStyle Properties in the spring of 2004, Jim Albertson brought the experience and knowledge gleaned from his 30-year real estate career to the real estate marketplace. As a top volume commercial real estate broker, as a corporate real estate executive, as an award winning Century 21 broker and as a successful new home development, sales and marketing specialist, Jim has shown his ability to produce results through his leadership as well as his own personal production. Jim holds a real estate brokers license in Kansas and Missouri.

After graduating from Emporia State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business, Jim spent a few years in retail management and industrial purchasing. The foundation of his business career was built with such firms as J.C. Penney, National Can Corporation and Black and Veatch Consulting Engineers. His real estate career began in 1978 with Century 21 Fairway, where Jim took the firm from its opening and built it into an office of 25 residential agents. Jim developed an interest in specializing in commercial real estate and beginning in the early 1980's he was able to work in many areas of commercial real estate including office, retail and industrial leasing, investment sales, site selection, land sales, project development and auctions. Much of his work was on a national basis with projects from New York to San Diego for such clients as Goodyear Tire, Food-4-Less, Daly Homes, Western Auto, AT&T, Southwestern Bell, Spot-Not Car Wash and Lee National of New York City. Jim was successful in working with almost all of the fast-food industry retailers of the time, other national franchise organizations and even the federal government as an executive with the Resolution Trust Corporation. In 1983 Jim served as Chairman of the Commercial Investment Division of the Johnson County Board of Realtors and in 1988 was honored as the Top Commercial Salesperson of that same Board.

In the beginning of the 1990's, with a strong desire to spend more time in Kansas City, Jim plunged into the residential development and construction business with his purchase of Leawood Falls, a 200 unit project in Leawood, Kansas and the formation of Southwood Homes, a residential construction company. It was during his time working on Leawood Falls that Jim became acquainted with Tom French, the highly regarded Johnson County homebuilder. Jim decided to focus on sales and marketing, joining together with Tom French in 1996 to form Century 21 Heartland Realty. Century 21 Heartland Realty, under Jim's leadership grew to become one of the top five Century 21 office's in the Century 21 Heartland Region as well as the top Century 21 office in the Metro Kansas City area and the State of Kansas. The firm was involved in over $100 million in new home sales as well as substantial activity in resale, relocation and commercial real estate sales, leasing and development during Jim's time there.

Working closely with Thomas French Construction, Jim played an important role in increasing this well known and highly successful Kansas City homebuilder's sales by two-fold. Besides assisting with the identification and acquisition of sites, Jim assisted Mr. French with the development of several new home communities. For Thomas French Builder, Inc. Jim developed and implemented the marketing plans and managed the sales activities for several new home communities such as Edgewood, Willowbrook, Kingston Lake, Kingston Meadow, Club of The Country, Kennett Place, Quincy Court, Fieldstone and The Woods Villas. The homes in these communities ranged in price from $180,000 to $1,000,000. In his work with Tom French Jim was responsible for the sales management and/or developing marketing plans for other communities such as: The Village of Quail Park, Stonebridge Court, Holly Ridge and The Cottages of Fairway Woods.

In addition to the work for Tom French, Jim has also worked closely with:

Currently Jim is assisting with the sales and marketing for several projects including:

The Active-Adult segment of the new home industry is of great interest to Jim. Almost all of the projects named above are by design, directed toward the empty-nester and mature segment of the market. Early in his new home career Jim began building some of the first maintenance provided villas for the Active Adult market as part of the Leawood Falls development. Working with Tom French Jim developed a high-level of understanding for the Active Adult market and "Empty-Nestors" from on-site experience, focus groups and other market research. Jim was first a member of the Senior Housing council with the National Association of Homebuilders in the 1990's and that group went on to become the 50+ Housing Council As a member of that Council Jim participated in the Building for Boomers and Beyond Conference, 50+ Housing Symposium in 2006 and 2007. He now chairs the newly formed 50+ Housing Council for the local HBA of Kansas City and focus' most of his attention on the Active Adult segment of the housing market.

In 2006 Jim formed Lifestyle Homebuilders, a residential construction firm specializing in the Active Adult market. The firm utilizes Universal Design in the new homes that they build. To improve his understanding of the needs of the Active Adult market, Jim has earned his CAPS (Certified-Aging-in-Place Specialist) designation from the NAHB and is active with the Universal Design Housing Network. Jim works closely with the National Ageing in Place Initiative and was recently asked to speak at their Kansas City conference. At the International Builders Show in 2008 Jim became the first in Kansas City to be honored with the CAASH designation (Certified Active Adult Specialist in Housing) from the NAHB as well.

Jim's new home sales training has included all four courses of the National Association of Homebuilders' Institute of Real Estate Marketing (IRM I,II,III,IV) the Certified New Home Professional (CSP) course and Advanced CSP(New Construction as a Selling Tool) along with the new Sales and Marketing course. Combing those courses with the Essential Closing Strategies and Working with and Marketing to Older Adults has earned Jim the Master New Home Marketing Professional (CMP) designation from the NAHB. He has also served as Chairman of the Sales and Marketing Council for the Greater Kansas City Home Builders Association as well as being asked to assist in teaching the Certified New Home Sales Professional course for that organization. Jim is a student of such sales, motivation and management experts as Bob Schultz (New Home Specialists), Will Nowell, Brian Tracy, John Maxwell, Zig Ziglar and Todd Duncan.

This training has taught Jim to take a retail approach to new home sales with the emphasis on an organized sales process combined with strong discovery, demonstration and closing skills combined with a consultative selling and Value Match approach for the Active Adult buyer. Jim passes along those skills in his sales management and in his new home sales training classes. Jim also provides consulting services to various builders, developers and lenders regarding the development, sales and/or marketing of projects or specific homes or properties.