CJR appoints sales manager in pivotal move

Realtor Antonio Serrano has a fresh start under the shelter of a new home.

As Serrano waits to close on the sale of the Springfield franchise rights for Assist 2 Sell, he and his team are getting acclimated at Carol Jones Realtors. On July 30, Serrano began leading an office of roughly 90 Springfield agents at CJR, including the eight who followed him away from Assist 2 Sell as his personal bankruptcy continues to unfold.

The move signifies CJR’s attempt to regain the company’s place as the top agency in Springfield, said President Shaun Duggins.

A couple of decades ago, CJR was the No. 1 residential agency in town in terms of sales – a title that these days belongs to Murney Associates, Realtors with more than 30 percent of the Springfield market. CJR holds nearly 10 percent of home sales in the Springfield market, according to data compiled by the Greater Springfield Board of Realtors.

Duggins said CJR General Manager Rick Witeka first reached out to Serrano in March.

“We are constantly looking for ways to expand and build our brand. We were also looking for what we needed to be a top-notch leader in the Springfield market, and Antonio rose to the top,” Duggins said, noting he and Witeka shared the Springfield sales manager responsibilities while the position was open about two years.

“We went after the best.”

Serrano was installed this year as president of the Springfield Multi-list Service and in March was named 2013 Broker of the Year, the top honor by the local Realtors’ board.

Two months later, he and his wife, Realtor Christy Serrano, filed for Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy protection.

While the couple averaged $6.5 million in annual sales at Assist 2 Sell the last two years, the Serranos reported in the May bankruptcy filing gross monthly combined income of $8,000.

The bankruptcy filing lists the couple’s personal assets at $56,740 against liabilities of $5.1 million, with most of the liabilities, $4.9 million, coming from creditors holding unsecured, nonpriority claims. However, the value of much of the couple’s business assets has yet to be determined by the bankruptcy trustee.

Five businesses involving Serrano are listed as personal property with undetermined values: Ozarks Property Management LLC, Serrano Properties LLC and New Home Sales LLC, all 100 percent owned by Serrano; and Vast Properties LLC and Mulligan Properties LLC, both representing a 50 percent share.

Serrano manages around 100 rental properties throughout the area under multiple businesses and partnerships.

Four of the five LLCs also are listed as creditors in the filing. In all, businesses that Serrano owned or held an ownership interest in account for 46 creditor claims totaling more than $3.77 million. For instance, Vast Properties has claims exceeding $2.15 million, and Mulligan Properties has claims totaling $715,000.

New Home Sales, the organized entity for the Assist 2 Sell franchise, has claims totaling $480,500. Serrano expects to close Sept. 14 on the franchise rights sale to Rick McGee, the former local franchisee.

The Chapter 7 filing, Serrano said, was necessary after a commercial property on Republic Road failed to secure a tenant and went into foreclosure.

“Ultimately, there was too much money owed. I couldn’t reach an agreement with the bank, and it left me no choice but to file bankruptcy,” Serrano said.

Among the unsecured claims are two judgments by Great Southern Bank totaling more than $500,000.

Serrano said the bankruptcy trustee is in the process of estimating the value of the couple’s interest in the properties listed in the filing, so a dismissal of the listed property debt is not certain.

“But realistically, if you have a rental house today and you have to evict a tenant and sell it for what a trustee (could get), there is really no equity in it. So, we need to reaffirm all that debt, which we are in the process of doing,” Serrano said.  

Serrano said the bankruptcy case had nothing to do with the move to CJR. However, he acknowledged their financial position was preventing the couple from investing in technology and marketing, which made the move more attractive.

Realtor Brett Reinhart, among the Assist 2 Sell team members who produced over $25 million in 2013 sales, said he felt a sense of loyalty to Serrano and the group.

“We were ready for new and better adventures. We’ve all been together for over a decade,” Reinhart said, adding CJR was attractive because of its marketing and technology support. “They are trying to rebuild, and there was a lot of opportunities with the staff and technology in place – stuff we really never had, and Antonio really couldn’t provide that anymore. It was the right move for everybody.”

Serrano said he was involved with a focus group in March that shed light on CJR’s growth potential.

“A lot of the conversation revolved around the public’s perception of Carol Jones as a big player in the market. The perception from a Realtor’s standpoint was that Carol Jones has gone through a lot of changes, but the last two or three years, you could see that Carol Jones had gone through a lot of positive changes,” Serrano said. “(CJR administrators) were trying to grow their company again and make some changes so they could be what they used to be.”

Shortly after the March focus group, Serrano said CJR’s Witeka visited with him about joining the Carol Jones team. By July, Serrano said he sat down with his agents to begin seriously considering their options.

“As a business owner, you look at ways that you can improve your market share and improve services to your clients, improve services to your Realtors. Sometimes there are things that you want to do, but you don’t have the resources to do it. So, it all played together around the same time,” Serrano said.

Reinhart said he sees the bankruptcy as a personal matter and one that doesn’t concern him.

“It’s personal. It has nothing to do with business,” he said.

Similarly, Duggins said he is not making any judgments about the filing.

“We don’t take an active stance in his personal affairs, whatsoever. We hired Antonio for his management abilities,” Duggins said.

An Aug. 6 court filing – the most recent action in the case – called for an extended timeline to Oct. 13 for the U.S. Trustee Program to decide whether to dismiss the case.

Web Editor Geoff Pickle contributed to this story.[[In-content Ad]]