The 2011 Real Trends Top 1000 rankings are out and 12 members of the Real Living family are included on the list. The rankings were compiled by the Wall Street Journal and Real Trends, Inc. focusing on individual professionals and teams from across the United States.

Top sales representatives are slotted into four categories of rankings including the top 250 real estate professionals by transaction sides, professionals by transaction volume, teams by transaction sides and teams by transaction volume.

Here’s how Real Living and Agents ranked in the top 1,000:

Top 250 Teams by Transaction Volume
Sandy Raines/ The Raines Group Real Living HER 83
Marie Jo Atkins Real Living Lifestyles 204
Teti-Olenik (Diane Teti & John Olenik) Real Living Lifestyles 239

Top 250 Teams by Transaction Sides
Sandy Raines/ The Raines Group Real Living HER 131
Ralph Suarez Dilbeck Real Estate Real Living 226

Top 250 Real Estate Professionals by Transaction Sides
Gary May Real Living Success 131
Anngel Benoun Dilbeck Real Estate Real Living 246

Top 250 Real Estate Professionals by Transaction Volume
Tracy McLaughlin Pacific Union International, Inc. 110
Sandra Tanco Kinlin Grover Real Estate 145
Dana Green Pacific Union International, Inc. 153
Steven Mavromihalis Pacific Union International Inc. 171
John Lee Pacific Union International, Inc. 245

Once again, The Raines Group achieved the highest ranking (83rd) and is thus the #1 sales team for Real Living, nationwide. In 2011, The Raines Group has already surpassed last year’s success (with a few months still to go!) which begs the question, “Where will they place next year?”

If you are looking to buy or sell a property in New Albany, Gahanna, Blacklick, Westerville, or another Central Ohio community, please contact The Raines Group. We offer professional real estate advice and are happy to help you achieve your real estate goals. Please contact us today via our online contact form or by calling The Raines Group at 614-418-7417.

The Raines Group firmly believes in proper staging. This beautiful home in the New Albany Country Club listed with Sandy Raines, who recommended making a few cosmetic changes and staging the home. Dan Messer of Exceptional Home Services, LLC helped open up the kitchen and painted several rooms, while Linda Powell used her staging talents. The home generated a lot of interest on the market and sold!

If you are looking to buy or sell a property in New Albany, Gahanna, Blacklick, Westerville, or another Central Ohio community, please contact The Raines Group. We offer professional real estate advice and are happy to help you achieve your real estate goals. Please contact us today via our online contact form or by calling The Raines Group at 614-418-7417.

With over 250 homes sold/in contract so far this year, The Raines Group has had an outstanding 2011!

Welcome, Natalie!

Linda Sells Homes!

To keep up with the multitude of buyers and sellers, the group has welcomed back real estate consultant Linda Brincks, and added two new agents to the team, David Armentrout and Natalie DiSabato.

Linda was an active realtor with The Raines Group and recently took some time off to run a successful life coaching business. However, the time off didn’t seem to affect her real estate skills. She listed a home last week, had an offer after just two days, and put the home in contract! View Linda’s full profile by clicking here and see the home she sold by clicking here.

David has been a realtor for years as well, and is excited to join The Raines Group. He lives in the Powell area and also runs a small business focusing on cars. Natalie grew up in the New Albany area and is fairly new to the real estate field. She’s excited to help bring buyers and sellers together. View her full profile by clicking here.

If you are looking to buy or sell a property in New Albany, Gahanna, Blacklick, Westerville, or another Central Ohio community, please contact The Raines Group. We offer professional real estate advice and are happy to help you achieve your real estate goals. Please contact us today via our online contact form or by calling The Raines Group at 614-418-7417.

The Raines Group of Real Living HER was named one of America’s top real estate professional teams by The Wall Street Journal and REAL Trends.  The team is now a member of the “The Thousand Top Real Estate Professionals,” a prestigious national awards ranking sponsored annually by the two respected publications.  The Raines Group is now ranked in the top one half of 1 percent of the more than 1 million REALTORS® nationwide.

The Thousand Top Real Estate Professionals was announced on September 6, 2011 with four separate categories honoring the top 250 residential agents and agent teams for excellence in:

• Individual Sales Professionals – Sales volume
• Individual Sales Professionals – Transaction sides (in each real estate transaction, there are two sides that can be represented by a real estate agent: a buyer’s and a seller’s.)
• Team Professionals – Sales Volume
• Team Professionals – Transaction sides

According to The Thousand Top Real Estate Professionals, The Raines Group had sales volume totaling $70,892,266.00, ranking the team 82^nd in the nation, and first in the state of Ohio. The Raines Group also closed 202 sides, placing them 132^nd in the nation, and second in the state of Ohio. They are one of the few teams to rank in both volume and sides.

“The best individual agents and teams – including The Raines Group’s award-winning efforts – were nothing short of phenomenal considering the challenging real estate market,” said Steve Murray, founder of Denver-based publishing and communications company REAL Trends, which compiled the list.  “Ironically, if you look at the top 250 in each category you will find that collectively, their sales volume and transaction sides held up quite nicely compared with the market as a whole.”

“Becoming a member of such an elite group as the The Thousand Top Real Estate Professionals is an incredible accomplishment in any market, but what The Raines Group did during these challenging times is impressive on so many levels,” said Marti Gallardo, vice president, Global Sales, Vertical Markets Advertising for The Wall Street Journal.  “Their efforts topped 99.99 percent of the more than 1 million REALTORS nationwide.”

“I am absolutely thrilled to be named to The Thousand,” said Sandy Raines, CEO of The Raines Group. “Even with the market’s challenges, it’s incredibly gratifying to help clients find their dream homes as well as help them sell their properties quickly and for the highest price possible.”

The four lists of the The Thousand can be found at:

http://realtrends.com/products/top-1000-sales-professionals/individual-sides

http://realtrends.com/products/top-1000-sales-professionals/individual-volume

http://realtrends.com/products/top-1000-sales-professionals/team-sides

http://realtrends.com/products/top-1000-sales-professionals/team-volume

In just under 2 weeks New Albany’s McCoy Center for the Arts will kick off its 2011-2012 season with a powerful night of music at the Pythian Theatre-King Arts Complex. Committed, a 6 man a cappella group (who are the winners of Season Two of NBC’s The Sing Off) are known for their powerhouse vocals that stretch from harmonizing melodies to booming bass. Their versatile song catalog runs the gamut from gospel worship songs, to tight-harmonized jazz, to doo wop.

Purchase tickets here. Ticket prices: $25; Discounts available for Students and Seniors.

In October the action moves back to the McCoy Center’s Shottenstein Theatre.

Below is a list of the rest of this Season’s Attractions.       (Click the name to buy tickets!)

Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble

Tuesday, October 18th, 7:30pm Schottenstein Theatre- McCoy Center

Jim Brickman – A Holiday Celebration

Wednesday, November 30th, 7:30pm Schottenstein Theatre- McCoy Center

Columbus Children’s Theatre – Aladdin

Sunday, January 8th 2:00 & 3:30pm, Mershad Hall-McCoy Center

National Touring Company- Fiddler on the Roof

Thursday, January 26th 7:30pm, Schottenstein Theatre, McCoy Center

Best-selling Author- Michael Gates Gill “How StarbucksSaved My Life”

Friday, February 24th 8:00pm, Schottenstein Theatre-McCoy Center

Capitol Steps

Friday, April 13th 8:00pm, Schottenstein Theatre-McCoy Center

If you are looking to buy or sell a property in New Albany, Gahanna, Blacklick, Westerville, or another Central Ohio community, please contact The Raines Group. We offer professional real estate advice and are happy to help you achieve your real estate goals. Please contact us today via our online contact form or by calling The Raines Group at 614-418-7417.

Two businesses, one new and one established, are moving to Main Street in New Albany.

Their plan is to provide patrons with a different kind of dining experience, one that is completely local.  All of the food on your plate made with fresh, local ingredients, and all art created by local artists.

Hayley Gallery of New Albany is moving from Second Street to 270 Main St. and will adjoin a new restaurant called ella, which stands for “eat local, love art,” at 266 Main St.

Hayley Savage, owner of Hayley Gallery, has a stake in both businesses. She is partnering with Amy Schottenstein on ella and they have chosen New Albany High School graduate Travis Hyde as the restaurant’s executive chef.

Hyde said when he learned about ella, he felt “like a kid in a candy store.”

“This is something New Albany has needed for a long time,” he said. “We’re going to do great things out here.”

Hyde said the plan is to have a place that is not pretentious and would appeal to parents who want to eat out with their children, as well as parents who want to celebrate their anniversary without the children.

“We want to use as much locally sourced produce as I can get on the menu,” he said.

“As the seasons change, the menu will change, with the produce and spices,” he said.

An example of an appetizer at ella is an almond-crusted mozzarella cheese topped with sage pesto and prosciutto, with the cheese made in-house at the restaurant. The menu will have salads, including one with fresh beets, candied walnuts, apple and fennel.

Desserts will be made on site, as well, and accented by Jeni’s Ice Cream. Hyde said he is planning a caramel apple bread pudding and a chocolate cheesecake with a pretzel coating and banana compote.

Savage said ella is expected to open sometime in November.

“We are hoping and planning to be open before Thanksgiving,” she said.

“I think it’s going to be amazing,” Hyde said. “There’s no concept like it.”

Savage said the gallery will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays until the restaurant opens.

“Once the restaurant opens, we plan on having hours to mimic, as much as we can, the hours of the restaurant,” she said. “We want people to come into the gallery when they are waiting on a table.”

The partners and several community members are excited about the possibilities when the gallery and restaurant open.

“The 9,000 employees who work in New Albany each day want additional restaurant options and often leave the city to get them,” said New Albany Mayor Nancy Ferguson. “Ella will change that with its close proximity to the New Albany business park and its fresh, local food options. It is just what our employees and residents have been asking for.”

If you are looking to buy or sell a property in New Albany, Gahanna, Blacklick, Westerville, or another Central Ohio community, please contact The Raines Group. We offer professional real estate advice and are happy to help you achieve your real estate goals. Please contact us today via our online contact form or by calling The Raines Group at 614-418-7417.

When looking to buy a home, you can find some of the best tools for the search in the palm of your hand, now that the number of real-estate applications for smartphones has exploded.

Here are some of the free ones that might come in handy. You can download them from Apple’s iTunes Store, the Android Market and BlackBerry’s App World store.

Trulia

For the iPhone or Android, this app offers insights into neighborhoods. When searching by location, users can find reviews by locals of area restaurants and schools. To gauge a neighborhood’s purchase activity, Trulia’s heat maps shows the concentration of sales in a community.

iHandy Level

This app, one of the most downloaded level apps in the iTunes and Android stores, allows you to measure the slopes and angles of a home. Fire up the app, put the phone wide-angle on the surface you are inspecting, and let it calibrate the angle of the floor and kitchen counters and the verticality of walls and windows.

Compass Free

This app, for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry, can be of real value to prospective homebuyers who practice feng shui. Most phones have compasses loaded in, but there are many apps with the Chinese feng shui compass, which is used to analyze energy in a room.

Zillow Mortgage Marketplace

The app, available for iPhone and Android, allows you to figure out what your mortgage payment would be with real-time updates of average 30-year fixed interest rates.

Complete Foreclosures

This new app, for iPhone and Android, lets users search RealtyTrac’s 1.5 million foreclosure listings by city or ZIP code. The results are displayed on a map or in list form with details about each home such as price, number of bedrooms and baths and square footage. Pictures are typically available, and the app gives an estimated market value. Users can pay 99 cents for more details about a home.

If you are looking to buy or sell a property in New Albany, Gahanna, Blacklick, Westerville, or another Central Ohio community, please contact The Raines Group. We offer professional real estate advice and are happy to help you achieve your real estate goals. Please contact us today via our online contact form or by calling The Raines Group at 614-418-7417.

Gideon Hart Homestead, Westerville, Built in 1820

Those interested in history, or just fascinated by some of the beauty that comes with historical woodwork would be pleased to hear that HER Real Living’s latest listings include one of the oldest homes in the area. So old that when it was built Jefferson was president, slavery was law, and The Civil War was still far in the future.

Gothic Revival Home, New Albany, built in 1825

Listed on the National Historic Site as the oldest home in Westerville. Beautifully restored and updated. The Gideon Hart home includes the original 5 Inch plank Ash hardwood floors and Lush landscaping with enormous old trees. The Gideon Hart Home and HER’s listing of the Gothic revival home in New Albany were recently featured in an article in The Columbus Dispatch about the more than 20 homes for sale in Central Ohio built before 1840.

The Gothic Revival New Albany home started as a one-room schoolhouse erected around 1825. The home was expanded, probably in the middle of the 19th century, in a Gothic revival style.

The interest in these homes that draws press like The Dispatch as well as potential buyers lies in their history and the authenticity that comes with it. HER Real Living’s Marylin Vutech -“It does have all the beautiful upgrades you would see in a new build, but the spaces are still those you’d find in an old house, such as no walk-in closets. These aren’t generic spaces like you’d find in a new four-bedroom, 21/2-bath home.”

If you are looking to buy or sell a property in New Albany, Gahanna, Blacklick, Westerville, or another Central Ohio community, please contact The Raines Group. We offer professional real estate advice and are happy to help you achieve your real estate goals. Please contact us today via our online contact form or by calling The Raines Group at 614-418-7417.

Enjoying the last moments of summer at Market Fest

If you saw the rides in New Albany this weekend and felt compelled to check out the festivities you were not alone.

Billed as a last hurrah before the start of a new school year the new version of the Market Street Festival was created as a replacement for the annual Fall Fest event, previously an October staple for the New Albany community.

“We felt like there are so many events in the fall already,” said Market Street Festival Chairman Greg Ecleberry. “We wanted an event so that families could come together and celebrate the end of summer.”

There were plenty of good times to be had. Gut-churning carny rides, shrieking kids, a rock climbing wall, stands selling beer, wine, and pina coladas for thirsty and frazzled visitors. Lots of different kinds of food including the classic kettle corn.. mmmm kettle corn.. and a guy on the stage singing Fire and Rain. A fitting end to the freedom of our sweltering summer.

If you are looking to buy or sell a property in New Albany, Gahanna, Blacklick, Westerville, or another Central Ohio community, please contact The Raines Group. We offer professional real estate advice and are happy to help you achieve your real estate goals. Please contact us today via our online contact form or by calling The Raines Group at 614-418-7417.