Happy Holidays Steve,
I wanted to send a quick Hello to you and the entire Canton Caerusnet team. You probably know that I keep in touch with and still use some Members of the group. I have been remiss in not sending this sooner!
You may have heard from Scott Shay that I sold the house I bought a little over two years ago and Dave and I bought a new house together in Canton. We reached out to Scott from Berkshire Hathaway Homes Sales to assist us. This was back at the start of COVID. Dave’s condo was in Wixom. He had been in it a little less than a year and the builder was still building new ones! Scott secured a good offer for a solid price and the deal closed quickly even during the pandemic. It took less than 45 days start to finish! On my prior Canton home, can you say “OMG!” – I had over 60 (heck, it may have been over 70) showings scheduled in the first 3 days and we had 4 offers within 48 hours, including a cash deal, all at asking price or above. We closed in less than 30 days. The best part of all…Scott helped us find our dream home! It is amazing! The location is perfect, the yard is beautiful, it is the perfect size with all the upgrades we were looking for. It was literally the first house he showed us. We looked at several more just to be sure, but we knew this was our home!
We used Todd from Success Mortgage for the loan on our new house. He got us a great rate, worked through our questions, suggested ways to reduce our cost and got us to closing on time! This was my second mortgage with Todd and he has been great each time. It doesn’t sound nearly as fun and exciting as what I wrote about Scott, but hey the financial realm typically isn’t (can you say insurance???). What matters in this arena is simplicity, best interest rates, lowest costs/fees, professionalism and service. Todd and his team encompass all those things.
Steven B from Raymond James … such a great professional and a truly good person! About two years ago I reached out to Steven to assist me with my financial portfolio. When I called him he asked what accounts I had, where they were and how much money was in them. I am usually pretty good with finances and such but after my divorce (there were some moving pieces with the finances even a year or two later) and a move, I had sort of lost track of where the various accounts were and how much was in each. I heard Steven pause and he simply said “This is why you need me. I will keep track of all of it, you won’t have to worry about it.” Then he chuckled and said “but we do need to find it first!” Steven walked me through moving a couple of “old” retirement accounts over to him as well as my daughter’s education accounts. Each year I go in and meet with him and we review how my accounts have performed and where things are at. He has done a great job of investing my money! Even though my current 401K must remain with my employer, Steven still reviews it and gives me suggestions. I highly recommend him and as a matter of fact I do! I really appreciate the fact that he is a young professional. This is a benefit in my mind. No need for me to find someone else in the future because I will (hopefully) retire before him. Plus, if he has secret to help him retire “that” early then he is probably sharing it with me!
The other day I had a client with a unique situation with work comp. Their work comp is handled by their payroll company and I was curious about how Employers Liability and subcontracting exposure would get picked up. I work with some VERY knowledgeable work comp people but in this situation, they weren’t even sure how this would be handled. I reached out to Valerie K. from Paychex and left a message for her. I let her know that while unfortunately I did not have a referral for her I was hoping to pick her brain. She called me back in less than 5 minutes. While my customer is not with Paychex and Valerie couldn’t speak to the specifics, she was willing to spend 15 minutes talking with me and was able to give me a good bit of information about how work comp through Paychex is handled, which lead me and my client in the right direction.
Finally, my shout out to Caerusnet – Congratulations to you and the Canton Group for becoming a Showcase team! Yes, it was a lot of work, but you all got there! Due to my professional change (I still love my new job) it no longer made sense for me to be part of a networking group. However, Caerusnet works! While the goal isn’t always to use each other’s services ourselves but rather to refer to other people, it is clear that I have made professional connections which I continue to use. Stacey from Stacey’s Salon continues to be our families hairstylist and will remain so! Just this morning I referred Megan from Hands of Time Estate Sales to someone in one of my Canton Facebook groups looking for an Estate Sale Company.
My point is the benefits of belonging to the group continue even as people exit the group. The beauty of it is that the ROI continues and the investment for Members is worth it.
Please feel free to share this. I wish all of you the best, stay safe and healthy!
Thank you,
Lori Boyer CWCC
Account Executive / Assured Partners