The Mike MacGuire Team: Providing full-throttle service

Mike MacGuire is a top-producing Realtor and co-founder of The Platinum Group, Realtors. One thing he’s not, though, is a salesman.

“Selling is convincing somebody to do something they don’t want to do,” MacGuire says. “Consulting is giving them the proper information they need to make an educated decision. That’s my philosophy in the business.”

After leaving a career on the options and equities trading floor of the Pacific Stock Exchange, MacGuire earned his real estate license in 1991. Since then, he’s seen the market rise and fall and has consistently remained among the top producers in Colorado Springs and nationally -- but not because he believes in the hard sell.

In fact, when people ask him to evaluate their situations, MacGuire advises about 40 percent of his potential clients to sit tight and wait a few years before putting their homes on the market. He looks at equity, how long clients have owned the home and how much they owe on a home before offering his advice.

“I’m trying to get everybody to think about a five-year plan,” MacGuire says. “If they’re going to purchase today, I need them to hold (the home) for five years. If they’re in a situation where they’re a little bit upside down, I need them to stay there for five years and they’ll probably be just fine.”

MacGuire enjoys his role as trusted advisor – he still gets calls from clients he served more than a decade ago, who just want to know whether they should remodel their kitchen or replace their gutters. The best part of being a Realtor, he says, is the challenge that comes with adapting to changes in the market, law and other variables.

“It’s like being a guide over a mountain pass,” MacGuire says. “I’ve gone over this mountain pass so many different ways, and know how to navigate through the types of storms you can encounter. … I love the challenge of it.”

The MacGuire Team at The Platinum Group, Realtors, consists of MacGuire, his Customer Care Manager Rebekah Burley and new addition Shelley Pelle, a real estate agent who has been in the business for 5 years. .

The team’s feedback site, www.mikesfeedback.com, is full of testimonials raving about the service they’ve received from The MacGuire Team.

MacGuire is one of the founders of The Platinum Group, Realtors, which opened in 2005 as seven successful local Realtors who decided to create an independent company without national affiliations, so they could make key decisions without having to go through the bureaucracy often associated with big national brands. They expected to have about 15 agents; they now have 65.

“People just started coming to us,” MacGuire says. “A lot of them are very, very successful. They are some of the most successful and productive Realtors within the community.”

The Platinum Group doesn’t hire newly licensed Realtors, so everyone on the team is a seasoned professional. With so much experience on board, The Platinum Group knows a little something about doing business in a down market. Rule number one: Don’t cut back on marketing.

“The number one thing Realtors will typically quit or back off on is marketing,” MacGuire says. “That’s the number one thing sellers need. They need someone who keeps the throttle on and keeps the gas moving.”

Instead of cutting back, MacGuire makes a commitment to get his listings in front of as many people as possible, through as many venues as possible. His listings are featured in print, online and on every real estate website you can think of – complete with as many photos and as much information as possible. The goal is to make the homes, and all the information, easily accessible to the consumer without making them log in first.

“Buyers will do everything they can to maintain their anonymity as long as they possibly can, and they will come out from hiding when they’re ready,” MacGuire says.

Companies that force potential buyers to provide personal information before they can get useful data on a home risk having buyers leave the site before they’ve seen the listings. MacGuire just wants to get buyers’ eyes on the listings he represents.

“I don’t care if my listing shows up on other companies’ websites and looks as though it’s theirs,” MacGuire says. “That means I’m doing my job for my seller.”

And to make sure those eyes linger, MacGuire helps his sellers get their homes into the best possible condition. He often uses cleaning services, handyman services, stagers and more to spruce up a home to prepare it for sale. If a seller doesn’t really need something like a handyman, they can allocate that money to something else, like cleaning up the backyard. “It’s always based on their needs, what we can do and how we can help,” says Burley, MacGuire’s assistant.

In the end, every transaction comes down to one thing: looking out for his clients’ best interests.

“If I can sit at a closing table and I’ve got smiling customers sitting there … that’s really important to me, and that is why more than 95 percent of my business is repeat past clients or past client referrals.” MacGuire says. “

For more information or to schedule a consultation, call 719-536-4324 or visit www.macguireteam.com. For feedback regarding the MacGuire Team’s service, visit www.mikesfeedback.com.