Illinois REALTOR®: Year of the Professional

Year of the Professional

IAR President Mike Onorato says reputation, education and innovation will be keys to succeed.

By Mary Schaefer, CAE, IAR Director of Communications

In late September, one week after being installed at president of the Illinois Association of REALTORS®, REALTOR® Mike Onorato returned to the campus of his alma mater at the ­University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, to speak to a group of students gathered for the evening meeting of the student real estate organization. Onorato, packed with his 27-year real ­estate career wisdom, set off to inspire these eager students about future real estate careers.

According to Professor Roger Cannaday, ­Acting Director of the Office of Real Estate Research at U of I, this is the first time that the ­president of the Association has addressed the ­student real estate association.

“When you think of the numbers of ­REALTORS® who decided in the last year to drop from the ranks of the real estate profession, it was humbling actually to see the look of enthusiasm in the eyes of the students interested in pursuing a ­career in real estate,” Onorato said. “I was ­honored to be asked to return to speak on behalf of the real estate profession and hopefully to inspire those in attendance to consider real estate as a chosen career path.”

For it was by happenstance that Onorato ­entered the field of real estate himself. After ­graduating from U of I with a Bachelor of Arts ­degree in English, he thought he might pursue higher education, either a law school degree or MBA, but instead returned to his hometown of Coal City, ­Illinois at the encouragement of his ­father to work in the family real estate business. Onorato serves as broker/owner of Onorato Real Estate, manages 12 agents in his office and specializes in both residential and commercial real estate.

Coal City is nestled along the I-55 corridor about 20 miles south of Joliet close to the Grundy and Will county line with a population base of about 6,000. In spite of the urban sprawl and development occurring in Will County, Coal City has remained pretty isolated from experiencing the population expansion once anticipated would ­happen if the real estate boom continued. Onorato Real Estate is located in the center of town on Broadway Street.

Onorato attributes much of the success he’s earned in real estate to the early advice and ­mentoring from his father. Born to second generation Italian-immigrants, Onorato claims his father was ‘old school’ and showed him the ropes from the first day in the business from how to answer the phone and pursue leads to sealing the deal to ­writing contracts, he says. “He coached me in a very positive way that certainly made a lifelong ­impression about what it takes to be successful in real estate,” he says.

He remembers those insightful expressions his father offered to him on his first days in the ­business such as, “You only lose your reputation once,” and “no single transaction is worth the price of your license or your reputation.”

It was this advice that stayed with him throughout his career. These key phrases he still ­recites on a weekly basis and shares with any new agents he comes in contact with. Onorato remembers selling a house on the first day in real estate and was hooked ever since.

“The first house I sold back in 1982 was a $35,000 VA Assumption something you ­certainly don’t hear offered today,” he states, but was certainly very common back in 1982 when the market had a different contracted real estate lending environment. He reflects back on the 1980s as being a very turbulent time in real estate when a very low percentage of mortgages were actually secured with a conventional lender unlike today.

“When I got in the business in 1982, you had to do a lot of preemptive work to get ­people into homes. I would say that maybe one in every three or four transactions the buyers went to the bank for financing. Most mortgages were assumptions or ­contract for deed loans in those early days when I first began selling,” he said. “As ­REALTORS® we certainly had to learn more about our client’s ­financial position at that time as we didn’t end up sending to them to the bank as the banks ­didn’t have the money to lend.”

 

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Onorato is a past president of the former Grundy County Association of REALTORS® and the Three Rivers Association and has served on various committees at both the local and state level. He is a past REALTOR® of the Year for the Three Rivers Association of REALTORS® ­honored for his commitment to the real estate profession. This year he serves as chairman of the IAR Executive Committee and Leadership Committee.

His involvement in the REALTOR® Association has also expanded in recent years to the National Association where he currently serves as a member of the State and Local ­Issues Committee. Onorato currently serves as chairman of the Grundy County Board of Review.

Here is a conversation with 2010 IAR President Mike Onorato:

What goals have you set yourself this year? My goals are determined jointly with the IAR leadership team. This is a collective process. One of the items I’ve talked about this year is improving in the area of risk reduction. If you ask the average manager/broker/owner in the course of the day where they spend a significant part of their time on it is in the area of risk management. We could do a better job in organizing all of our activities in the areas of risk management in some format—to be a quicker resource for broker/owners.

With the rewrite of our license law, we have a lot of work to do in terms of getting the members aware of all the changes. We really have a lot of work cut out for ourselves in putting the classes in place, along with the educational aspects of all of this. There are rules with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation we have to codify and change to make sure they match the changes in the license law.

With the corrections the market is currently undergoing, do you envision the market will be healthier as a result? There is reason for optimism if you look at the overall cycles of business. We are headed to better days. We still have a lot of issues in this industry to work through before we get to that point and I am still really concerned with the vast amount of potential foreclosures that could slow our housing recovery down. There is going to have to be more governmental action, assistance or input or injection of capital into the system.

This year is the year of the professional…what does that theme mean to you? I encourage REALTORS® to learn something new about real estate marketing, about running your own business, or about the new dynamics of customer service. Take a class, commit to earning a professional designation, mentor someone new entering the business. I am personally committed to getting my CRB designation. You are never too old to learn something new especially if you want to stay relevant in the business. You have to upgrade your skills, sharpen the saw, you have to do things to grow professionally or you are going to be left behind. Think outside of what you normally do—think of new ways to reach clients. You have to adapt to changing technologies and wade into the waters of social networking technologies.

What is the Association doing to ensure optimal levels of service are still maintained with fewer members? Whatever we do in this economy our members need us more than ever. It is foolish on our part to directly cut back on programs, products and services and we owe it to our members to do what we can to maintain those and expand some of them in this market. What we have done as a leadership team is prioritize. We have looked at declining revenue streams and projects and prioritized and made some internal cuts that really don’t affect products and services yet.

At the end of the year—what do you hope you have achieved? To leave this association in better hands and in a better position than it was at the beginning of my term and to stay strong. We are so focused on finances right now and keeping our financial strength and vitality of the association. I definitely want to make sure that happens and see us not cut back on programs and opportunities but to expand those opportunities. I want to see us with a new license law in place.

Your golden rule in real estate: Treat ­people as you would ­expect them to treat you.

What do you enjoy in off hours? Cooking and travel.

Currently reading: The Dan Brown book, The Lost Symbol.

Favorite sports team: I grew up in house full of Cub fans and was a White Sox fan. I am a huge Chicago Bears and Illini football fan.

Favorite vacation spot: Ft. Lauderdale and South Florida.

Favorite food: Italian. I’ve never met a carb I don’t like.

What motivates me: Desire to be better every day. Nothing motivates me more than please and thank you.

Best advice I can give to someone just ­entering real estate: There are tremendous opportunities there. You are captain of your own ship—You can do so much and achieve so much. It is not going to be handed to you.

• 2010 IAR Leadership Bios [1]

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