Home Buyers Relocation Services is an Illinois real estate brokerage specializing in relocations supported by "exclusive buyer representation". From offices central to two growing markets, Edwardsville and O'Fallon, it serves all of the best communities in SW Illinois.
As such, Home Buyers Relo represents several "1st-and-only's".
As the 1st and only agency in the area practicing "Exclusive buyer Brokerage" in SW Illinois, we're recognized as pioneers in the movement, with visibility locally and nationally. (Our principal broker in O'Fallon was a charter member of, and just completed a term as president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents.)
We're also the first and only firm specializing in relocations, serving companies on both sides of the river and Scott AFB. That covers some of the most beautiful residential areas in the St. Louis region, surprisingly close-in and having some very distinct benefits.
With over 1800 "exclusive" buyers' events completed, we have served buyers employed by a huge number of area businesses and institutions. That includes a myrid of smaller firms, and certainly all of the larger employers from both sides of the river, as well as several "third parties" and relocation companies.
On the Illinois side, the US Air Force and Southern Illinois University sponsor significant numbers of relocating families, but there are hundreds of other employers important to us. It's a real cross section of industry, education and business, constantly building as part of the general growth enjoyed by SW Illinois, with promises of much more to come!
Singificant also is this fact: while these 1800 cases represent a real cross section of all-American home buyers, there are among them many "captains of industry" and professionals of all kinds. Overall, it's a group of "very discriminating buyers". Our average home value is way above the local averages. In all of these pictures, they are usually in casual dress, but their smiles show they're real people.
The
principals are Merrill and Paul Ottwein. The family has had significant
developmental and brokerage experience in SW Illinois, especially in the
Edwardsville/Glen Carbon/Troy areas. As Illinois became increasingly attractive
to in-bound transferees to the St. Louis area, they visualized exclusive
representation as the ultimate relocation tool and were among the first
nationally to commit to exclusive practice.
We have nearly ten years of immersion in the relocation process and in exclusive buyer representation. We are all members of NAEBA. Most of us have the CBR (Certified Buyer Representative) as offered to members of REBAC (Real Estate Buyers Agents Council). Merrill has the prestigious CEBA degree from NAEBA, (Certified Exclusive Buyer Agent), an ABRM (Accredited Buyer Representative Manager) degree, and holds certification by the "Buyer Broker Institute".
We've been in the ERC directory , and we're long term members of the St. Louis chapter.
We're also members of SHRM.
In our tenth year of exclusive buyer representation, we believe that "Exclusive" representation is the only possible path to unbounded buyer advocacy!
Here are a few pictures from the larger "Scrapbook" section we're getting together on our main web site. We hope to announce it to you soon. These are a few samples.
We take great pride in our hospitality....hoping to be recognized as "The
Cheers of the Real Estate World".....the office where everybody knows
your name. It's part of genuine interest in our clients' welfare, tending
to the total relocation experience, and giving attention to people as
much as property. It's not taking ourselves too seriously as we go about
supporting wise decisions on behalf of our clients.
This is the "before" and "after" photos taken for our 2000 Christmas Card ... we used the one on the right. See our Scrapbook on the main site for more, especially our choral efforts for the 1999 Christmas Card.
Our
office enjoys "Brutus"....an orphaned poodle that we've taken in, (and
Merrill takes home at night.) Here, he emerged from a nap looking for
a snack and naming the brand. Note how many pictures he's in! The full
story on our web site, along with Merrill's harmonic background...that
of a veterinarian "in his first life", he suggests. He's collating a group
of "stories" to be posted there....the funny side of veterinary life,
he claims. Look for them soon.
Merrill with wife, Gracie, and Paul with wife, Jamie, at the Gateway Board's
awards night, where Paul received recognition for his production, near
the top of the board. All of the agents are always about the same level,
but the others belong to the Belleville Board of Realtors, and they play
down the awards, (so no pictures), suggesting they don't want the other
realtors to note how well we're doing! By the way, Grace and Merrill just
celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in September....some family
pictures of all of our agents coming in the Scrapbook on the main site.
Our
office has enjoyed some national visibility as Merrill has been active
in the National Association of Exclusive Buyers Agents. Formed in 1995,
Merrill was its first treasurer, and has just completed a term as NAEBA's
4th President. Pictures show 1) his installation, in George Washington's
uniform, "Leading the Revolution in the way America Buys its Homes", and
being greeted by the outgoing president, 2) giving an award as outgoing
president to Sue Weinstein of New York for her special work in a national
referral system, and 3) literally rubbing elbows with Ralph Nader, who
has made many positive declarations regarding exclusive buyer representation,
(one in our bibliography here.)
Birthdays
of staff, and occasionally, a client become big events, and all clients
then in the office share the celebration. While a few other stories will
be posted on the main site, this picture shows a barbershop quartet secured
for Merrill's last birthday, serenading the whole office. The significance
is that Merrill has been a barbershopper since high school days.
We hope that the high levels of client satisfaction shows in the faces of the sampling of our clients shown here. All of us declare we will never go back to the traditional system. With client satisfactions consistently just tops, and personal satisfactions high because of the level of service we're enabled to do by exclusive representation....along with a reasonable reward, it's a wonderful life for us!
