A Business Better Than Imagined

Ron Croushore graduated from Penn State with a degree in real estate, thinking he might like to get into the real estate business someday. When he finally got involved as a real estate agent, it turned out even better than he could have imagined. "When I got into the real estate business," said Croushore, "I just loved it." Today his affection for the business remains as strong as ever.
A past president of the REALTORS Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh, Croushore, 57, is the CEO of Prudential Preferred Realty, which he owns in partnership with Helen V. Sosso. Both Croushore and Sosso are native Pittsburghers and have extensive experience in the real estate industry. Although it is independently owned, Prudential Preferred Realty is an affiliate of the real estate division of The Prudential Insurance Company of America.
Croushore and his partner purchased the real estate agency in 1990, although he was anything but a stranger to the business. He had started with the agency in 1975, when it was but a single sales office operating under the name Hamill-Quinlan Realtors. In 1979 Hamill-Quinlan was purchased by Merrill Lynch. It was sold again in 1989 by Merrill Lynch Realty, Inc. to The Prudential Insurance Company of America. As ownership changed hands, Croushore was given ever greater management responsibilities. When the opportunity came to buy the agency, Croushore and Sosso were ready and willing.
Today Prudential Preferred Realty has some 600 real estate agents and 20 offices throughout the five-county area. "Our strategy," said Croushore, "is that we tend to have full-time real estate agents, not part-timers. They are trained, full-time professionals who are well paid."
To make certain its real estate agents provide the best possible service, Prudential Preferred Realty has an ongoing Quality Service Certification program in place. "It is," said Croushore, "our way of maintaining the highest quality associates." Holding the certification requires a real estate agent to follow a well-defined process of service, to present the process in writing to every customer, every time, and guarantee its delivery. After a transaction closes, a seller or buyer completes a satisfaction survey that is administered by Leading Research Corporation. The survey data is collected and compiled by LRC assuring objectivity and credibility. An overall satisfaction rating for each sales professional is posted on the QSC consumer website after four surveys have been returned. This feedback, available for public scrutiny, helps keep the real estate agent accountable for professional service.
Croushore's agency represents an unusually high number of homebuilders and developers in the Pittsburgh housing market—approximately 100 of them. "New construction is a specialty with us," explained Croushore. The agency handles subdivisions "from beginning to end." Prudential Preferred Realty is also positioned to provide potential buyers with information about new construction sites and new home builders.
The real estate agency offers a wide spectrum of services, including a sellers' pre-inspection program, a buyers' automated alert system for attractive new listings, home warranties, settlement services, and mortgage services. The latter is through Pennsylvania Preferred Mortgage Company, the real estate agency's in-house mortgage company. Among its many services, PPMC provides written mortgage pre-approvals, providing buyers with purchasing power while they shop for their new home.
Relocation services are also extensive, thanks to the many subsidiaries available through the national Prudential Real Estate Affiliates. A staff of experienced experts can coordinate corporate home sales and destination services. New arrivals to Pittsburgh receive a relocation packet that offers an overview of the city and surrounding areas.
Although Croushore's real estate agency is independently and locally owned, its affiliation with Prudential has advantages. "We make all of our own decisions," said Croushore, "but we have the support of Prudential's resources behind us: training, technology, statistics, marketing." As part of the Prudential network, Croushore's agency can draw on these and other strengths of the national Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, which has 2,100 member offices and 68,000 real estate professionals across the country.
The bottom line, however, is that a real estate agency's real product is its service—helping buyers buy homes, and helping sellers get them sold. What they do is help people achieve the "American dream" of home ownership. It's a subject about which Croushore, born and raised in Greensburg, and having spent his professional life in the Pittsburgh area, knows a great deal.
Like all cities, he said, stability in Pittsburgh's housing market is measured by the degree of appreciation and depreciation, and by the number of transactions that occur during the year. "What I like about our market is that we are steady, with no big spikes, so there are no big dips." As a result, he added, Pittsburgh housing remains on an even keel, which can be attested to by the fact that the city consistently ranks in the top 15 in the country's housing affordability index.
A frequent speaker on the subject of Pittsburgh's housing to various organizations, Croushore looks at today's market as a glass far more than half full. "I remember," he said, "when mortgage rates were at 15 or 16 percent." Contrasted with such numbers, today's rates are "fantastic." This is not a time, he added, to wait out the market. Construction costs are going to go up. "Even the increase in gasoline prices will have an impact, because everyone who delivers supplies to builders is going to have to charge more. Sit on the sidelines, and you'll pay more for your next home down the road."
A champion of Pittsburgh, as well as of its neighborhoods and homes, Croushore is well aware that a home is the largest investment most of us will ever make. "But it is also," he said, "the best investment you'll ever make."