Russell Lands presents annual awards

Real Estate sales teams celebrate banner year!

Russell Lands, one of the South’s largest recreational developers, recognized their real estate sales team’s efforts for its past fiscal year. Russell’s sales organization includes Russell Lands On Lake Martin Real Estate, which specializes in the sales of its developed property, and Lake Martin Realty, which specializes in the sales and marketing of properties owned by individuals on Lake Martin and the surrounding area.

Both sales organizations’ fiscal year ended on September 30, 2016, and the gross sales volume was very impressive – especially for waterfront property sales. For the 12 months ending on September 30, 2016, the sales volume reported by member firms of the Lake Martin Area Association of Realtors MLS for waterfront property was $346,576,392. The sales volume for the Russell sales organization was $173,450,143 or 49.6 percent of the total market share for waterfront property.

“That sales volume was particularly impressive to me,” said Steven Arnberg, Vice President for Real Estate Sales for Russell Lands, “because our sales team represents only 20 percent of the agent population for our MLS. Twenty percent of the people doing 50 percent of the business is very impressive.”

“What is even more impressive was that the top two agents in our MLS, Becky Haynie and India Davis, (as measured by gross sales volume) are part of the Lake Martin Realty team,” continued Arnberg. “Another associate, Rhonda Jaye, ranked fourth in the system, with Rhonda Watson and Damon Story filling out the top ten at numbers 8 and 10, respectively.”

“We are very proud of our team’s achievements. We had the top two agents, three of the top five, five of the top ten, ten of the top twenty, and fifteen of the top thirty producers according to Lake Martin Area of Realtors MLS sales statistics,” said Arnberg. “What really excites me about our team is that many of our people had significant sales growth as the market contracted slightly from a near-record 2015 on Lake Martin. For instance, Leroy Sellers increased his volume by over 50 percent, Jeff Cochran by over 100 percent, and John McInnish by over 350 percent.”

“When you look at our sales team, we are populated by a ‘who’s who’ in the real estate business on Lake Martin. In addition to our top performers, we also boast Michelle Brooks as a proven winner, as are Jan Hall, Randall Rogers, Emily McDaniel, Mimi Rush, Amy Duncan, Hugh Neighbors, Haley McKelvey, and Sawyer Davis. Each of these agents would be top associates at any other firm. I am proud to be able to have them on our team,” said Arnberg.

Arnberg summed up Lake Martin Realty’s and Russell Lands On Lake Martin Realty’s success. “Our business model is pretty simple. We focus on the Lake Martin market only. We possess hundreds of years of combined experience in the sales, construction, and development of real estate on Lake Martin. We provide the best training available in our market, a dedicated marketing team, and the widest selection of properties available on Lake Martin. Last year, we handled 316 transactions on Lake Martin. Those transactions occurred on over 800 miles of Lake Martin shoreline. What many people don’t realize is that more than 90 percent of our business is with individuals who trust the Lake Martin Realty team with the sale of their property. The sale of our developed properties is just a small but very important piece of what we do. Over the years, we have handled thousands and thousands of transactions on Lake Martin.”