Executive Summary

Our place in the market, though just pure luck and a lot of arrogance, has put us in a position to literally change the real estate industry forever. The advent of e-commerce and the growth of the Internet has no bearing on our current business plan. The Internet, in our opinion, is just a tool used by our company to supply services directly to an agent’s home office, but still conform to all our legal obligations under state and federal laws. We have the ability to offer our agents 100% of the commission from their sale, a situation that is afforded only the most successful realtors in the industry. We can do this by charging them only $200 per month, plus $100 per listing and/or sale. If you look at our projections, we can accomplish this and still generate astronomical profits from the deal. The agents save thousands of dollars, which makes it imperative to join our company. We make a great profit, and consumers save a great deal of money as well. The agents affiliated with Amerihall are called Amerihall Realest®; this title is awarded once they have reached the highest quality of professionalism and knowledge of the real estate industry.

The partners in this program are very capable in the automation of businesses as well as knowing the needs of real estate agents. This, combined with the timeline for change via the Web, gave us this opportunity to develop a site dedicated to the needs of the real estate industry. This includes agents, clients, suppliers, and even real estate educational services. Our company envisions continuing education classes provided to our agents exclusively through our website allowing agents, for a fee, directly from their home computers, to accomplish all the continuing educational needs required by the various states. The process will be complete all the way down to automatically filling their state license renewal through the appropriate agencies.

We are, simply put, “the future of real estate” and with the cooperation of the following affiliated organizations, we believe this will revolutionize the real estate industry.

1.1 Strategic Alliances

AT&T will supply all of our Web needs as well as automate servers designed specifically for our agents allowing them to receive all of their calls through our virtual floor time plan.  Each agent will be assigned an extension number. When clients call our toll-free phone number, they will be prompted to enter the agent’s extension. This call will then be forwarded directly to the agent’s home office. If a client does not have a particular agent’s extension number, they will be instructed to enter a second option and the call will be automatically forwarded to the closest Amerihall agent. AT&T realizes the strength of our business plan and has already anticipated that our growth will be so rapid, they needed to automate their systems further just to handle the demand. Their projection, which is independent of our own, is 10,000 within the 1st year and an anticipation for 100,000 transactions on their network before retooling their system. Their strength in our future lies in their ability to supply all of our potential clients with wide-band Internet access through cable modems. We are currently looking at a script page to allow our agents easy sign up and discounted installation program. This will allow our agents easy sign-up and a discounted installation program, and will also allow our agents a direct link through our website, promoting fast Internet access at discounted rates. Our company’s growth will be directly impacted on how fast clients and agents adapt to technology: AT&T is the best bet for implementing these future products

Bank of America has provided the most services to date for our company. They recognized early on in preliminary talks with our Web developer that this company will be a huge asset to the real estate industry. In addition to providing merchant services dedicated to our special billing needs, they have also developed special script in association with our Web development staff to handle the very specific needs of Amerihall agents. Bank of America and Amerihall have developed a system that will allow our agents to deposit their escrow checks directly into our corporate account right from their virtual office terminal. The electronic transfer will be instantaneous and will print direct deposit receipt instantly to the realtors’ printer. We are the first in the industry to provide this service. The bank will also certify our escrow accounts on a monthly basis providing our clients the highest quality control in the industry. These measures surpass all state requirements for escrow managements. Bank of America’s software developers are currently working on more features with future plans to allow our agents and their clients the ability to watch the transaction progress through all stages from start to finish.

Sterling Capital Mortgage is a national brokerage firm for residential mortgages. The have offered, at no expense to us, the ability for our agents to go online through our site exclusively and run a brief credit history on the clients. The server will automatically print a prequalification letter immediately allowing the agent and client to submit with an offer to purchase a particular property. This, again, is a system that was developed specifically for Amerihall and its members.

Lowen Signs is the largest real estate sign manufacturer in the country. They have developed a dedicated Web page for our agents to order their personalized Amerihall signs and ship them directly to the agent.

1.2 Service Description

Our product will be furnished on the Internet giving our agents the power to handle all of their real estate activities. The Internet already provides them access to our regional multiple listing services. This allows them to post their listings and reports their sales. We want to offer them all of the services that a traditional office offers without ever having to visit the designated office.

The website will allow agents to pick a duty to perform and be placed on the appropriate page to accomplish that particular task.

If agents need to order paper supplies, they simply go to our vendor area and pick the style, quantity, and the personal information to be printed. This site will be connected to a printer who will fill the order and ship the material directly to their home office. We ultimately would like to see the event as totally transparent to the agent and make it seem to be just another service provided by Amerihall. The same system would apply to house signs, Errors & Omissions Insurance, home inspection agencies, and real estate lawyers. We will also offer a site to a nationally recognized mortgage company. The realtor has the ability to punch in their clients personal information and the site will immediately run a credit check and download a prequalification letter for the purchase of the new home.

Our system will allow agents to be billed by credit card for all services, including monthly fees.

Our company will carry a blanket Error & Omissions insurance policy. Amerihall will pay the insurance carrier one fee annually and bill agents a quarterly fee of approximately $60 each.

Finally we will offer all the agents a nationally advertised toll-free number. This number will be advertised on participating Realest® signs with their phone extension. A caller will dial the toll free number and be prompted to provide the extension. The phone call would then be forwarded to the agent’s home office.

The number will also be a nationally advertised general number for the company allowing us to market the same number to all of our prospective clients via traditional advertising techniques. When a prospect calls the toll-free number and chooses option #2, AT&T automation will search out the closest Amerihall agent using the address finding service and forward the call to the agent. If the service fails to find an Amerihall Realest® agent in the area, the call will return to the corporate office and then be referred to a non-participating agent with an expressed agreement that they will pay a 20% referral fee to our office.

This feature will allow us to pay for national advertising to increase our public attention, without having to over-burden the individual agents with high advertising costs. As technology progresses, we are interested in ultimately doing all of the phone features in-house.

We will have a live online help desk, available during business hours, to answer all of our agents’ questions and concerns. There will also be an email help desk constantly online.

In addition to all these feature, the agents will be able to download all of the forms used in the sale and management of real estate via the website.

In the future, our virtual office will take advantage of a live chat through NetMeeting, which will allow all agents (with the appropriate equipment) to communicate with each other, as well as deal with questions and concerns directly with our staff.

We would also like to offer all the agents their own email address that corresponds with their Amerihall image.

1.3 Description of Company

Amerihall is a culmination of the ownership of several real estate companies both franchises and partnerships. Hall Properties Realty, Inc. has been in business for over 18 years with ownership in a commercial real estate sales and management company. Hall properties has also owned franchise rights for a residential real estate franchise D.B.A. Re/Max Junction. We have focused our real estate sales on creative marketing through the use of technology.

We have found shortcomings in real estate sales technique as a whole. The traditional real estate office follows a plan where brokers supply an office and basic equipment (i.e. phone, fax, computer, printers). They also supply all prerequisites dictated by state law, in that the company will have a place of business that is open for inspection by the appointed agencies of the state during normal business hours. The office and all pertinent documents for running the business will be open for inspection through the designated business hours. They also must supply at least one designated broker who answers to the state agencies concerning all real estate related issues.

There is no limit to the number of agents under one broker’s license, and the only rule designated by the state concerning the amount of agents is that all of their licenses must be displayed conspicuously in the office.

In the traditional office, the company receives 20%-50% of all commissions received from sales generated by the agent. This can amount to tens of thousands of dollars, and they still charge the agents for all miscellaneous items, which can run into hundreds of dollars monthly.

The Re/Max plan is a simple desk fee that is paid monthly on a triple net lease. This means an agent pays an average of $2,000 per month for desk rental and pays a shared fee for all other expenses (utilities, salaries, supplies, etc.).

In both cases, the agent is still liable for all personal advertising that is set up in a way to benefit the office as much as the agent. They are never guaranteed to get the fullest return on their investment.

Our plan is to take advantage of the Internet and provide individual agents with the ability to work out of their own homes using a computer, fax, and Internet connection to service all of their clients’ needs, thus eliminating the overhead of an expensive office. The agent gets to advertise in a fashion allowed by law and receives all the proceeds from their investment. Amerihall agents pay our company a flat fee of $200.00 per month and $100.00 per transaction. In return, the agent receives 100% of their commissions.

1.4 Mission

The mission of Amerihall is to change the way we all do business in real estate by reducing the expense of a traditional office and replacing it with a virtual real estate office using the Internet. We are literally saving real estate agents $30,000 to $50,000  per year, which will increase their profits and put them in a position to underbid all other conventional realtors in the commissions charged to consumers, ultimately saving the consumer thousands of dollars on the sale of the property.

1.5 Financing Requirements

The owner invests a total of $125,000 into the company. The rest will be funded by new membership and sales of services.

Our interest in seeking outside funding is solely for the purpose of expanding on a national level. The funds will be used for developing and marketing Amerihall through the continental United States. We will be using a direct marketing campaign through lists received through the Freedom of Information Act from the individual state licensing agencies. Our campaign will be modified only slightly to accommodate the different state laws and regional policies associated with real estate agents.