Kelly Warren & Associates Opens Real Estate Office

BOARDMAN, Ohio – Five years ago, David and Amy Thomas were searching for a new home in the Mahoning Valley. They called a local real estate agency with the hopes of being able to tour a home that very same day, even though it was a Sunday.

The company connected the Thomases with one of its agents, Kelly Warren.

“We called Kelly on a Sunday when most people are working and she came out and helped us and met us at the house a half an hour later,” said Amy Thomas. “We purchased that home and that’s how we met.”

After that, Warren helped the Thomases buy seven rental properties and a commercial space for Amy Thomas’ business, Bloom Salon & Boutique in Austintown.

“She’s available for all of her customers at all times,” Thomas said. “Any question or concern she’s answered and every transaction with her has been seamless.”

Working for the past 18 years as a real estate agent for Keller Williams Chervenic Realty, Northwood Realty and Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, Warren helped as many people as she could to buy and sell their homes. This year she earned her broker’s license and opened her own real estate agency, Kelly Warren & Associates.

“When you do things yourself you can do them the way that you want them, which means better service for our clients and better advertising,” Warren said.

Warren opened her agency in August and employs 21, 15 of whom are real estate agents. On Wednesday, a ribbon-cutting was held to celebrate with family, employees and customers at the new 2,200-square-foot office at 755 Boardman-Canfield Road. The agency works with clients to buy and sell residential and commercial properties in the Mahoning Valley.

“We started closing houses right away,” Warren said. “We have a full staff and full team of agents so we’re prepared. Some agents are brand new this year and some have been in it for 30 years, so we’ve seen everything.”

Warren alone has sold more than 300 homes since January, she said.

“It’s been a really good market, so it helps make our job easier and helps make our clients’ lives easier,” she said.

New-home construction is increasing and the high-end housing market has been slow, but houses priced between $75,000 and $150,000 are selling quickly, she said. “If you have a pretty home, three or four bedrooms, and it’s in Boardman, Canfield, Austintown or Poland in that kind of price range, those are moving,” she said.

Currently, the average time a house stays on the market is 50 days. “Which is good because in the past the Mahoning Valley has sometimes been up to a six-month market,” Warren added.

Kelly Warren & Associates uses the latest technology in the real estate industry to help sell and buy properties. Among the technology used are professional photographs, video tours, 3D walk-through tours and drones for aerial photography of a property. And the company is 99% paperless with a majority of its clients signing documents online.

Warren’s husband, James, joined Kelly Warren & Associates as vice president of the company. James said the company’s marketing strategies through social media and the internet are two of the reasons why the business has been successful.

“A lot of our clients find us on the internet,” he said. “We see every stage of life in our business from beginning to end, and why people need bigger homes and why people need smaller homes. We’re lucky we get to help people with that.”

The real estate agency plans to expand by hiring more agents and offering training and continuing education classes to area agents in the basement of its office by 2019, said Kyle Cunningham, director of operations.

The agency looks to bring in speakers for the classes and have room for 40 to 50 agents for continuing education courses.

“We just kind of jumped into opening an agency and did it because helping more people has always been our main goal and we wanted to provide great service along with that,” Cunningham said. “Growth is always the next step.”

Pictured: Kelly and James Warren, president and vice president of Kelly Warren & Associates, along with Kelly’s mother, Marlene McMahan, cut the ribbon to the new office.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.