In the wake of a quiet resignation by a longtime staff leader and months after an interim executive took the post, the Greater Springfield Board of Realtors has hired Jessica Hickok as association executive.
Hickok, former vice president of operations for Dizmang Properties Inc., a property management and investment firm for more than 200 single-family residences, said she began the work of managing GSBOR’s staff of eight following the board’s approval Dec. 27. There were 25 candidates for the position.
Hickok, who said she wasn’t looking for a job, fills the GSBOR post vacated by 39-year executive Sharon Wells after Wells left in July for undisclosed reasons.
“I was fortunate in that I had a 13-year real estate career and I was very plugged in with the board. I was the incoming (Multilist Service board) president in addition to serving on a couple of different committees (and) being involved with the state and national associations,” Hickok said. “I was spending so much time here doing committee and volunteer work, and I realized that my heart had this passion for seeing this organization grow.”
GSBOR board member Bob Fitzgerald served as interim executive the latter half of the year at the request of the board.
Fitzgerald, who closed Fitzgerald First Realty on Dec. 31 and joined Assist 2 Sell as an agent, declined to say why Wells was no longer working for the organization.
2012 Board President Shirley Cofer has declined to disclose the circumstances around Wells’ departure.
Current Board President Ed Peterson did not return a call for comment, and Wells could not be reached by press time.
Hickok is only the third association executive in GSBOR’s 79-year history, according to executive assistant Sylvia Derks. Lou Sable was the founding executive in 1933, and he was succeeded by Wells, who served GSBOR since 1973.
A leg upFitzgerald said Hickok is well-suited to answer to two separate boards of directors – the GSBOR board and the Multilist Service Board of Directors. The local Realtors board claims roughly 1,700 members in Greene, Christian and Webster counties, according to
GSBOR.com.
“She has lots of folks to report to. Most of us just have one or two bosses and she has a lot, so that is a challenge,” Fitzgerald said. “Another one: We are members of the Missouri Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors, so in her position, she is going to need to stay current with local changes, but also state and national changes. She has been active in both, though, so I think she has a leg up.”
He said the MLS board and GSBOR work in tandem to provide local real estate agents the tools they need to properly serve buyers and sellers.
Hickok started working at Dizmang Properties as an assistant to owner Paul Dizmang, and she advanced to handle the firm’s real estate education and training courses and manage some 600 tenants in its property management division. She also coordinated listings and pending contracts.Hickok received her real estate license in 2000 and has a Graduate Realtor Institute designation from the Missouri Association of Realtors. In 2010, Hickok served as the chairwoman of MAR’s Young Professionals Network, a group she co-founded to connect young real estate professionals with seasoned veterans. She was named to the 2011 class of Springfield Business Journal’s 40 Under 40.
Market movesAs Hickok settles in at GSBOR, the market’s numbers are moving in the direction Realtors like to see.
The average home selling price across Greene, Christian and Webster counties in 2012 was $128,801, a 5 percent increase compared to $122,922 in 2011. Last year, a home’s average number of days on the market was 94, down from 98 in 2011.
Miles Noennig, a real estate agent with Carol Jones Realtors and a member of the GSBOR Board of Directors, said the local market still seems to favor buyers.
“Inventory is down, and that typically indicates a buyer’s market. During the last couple of years, buyers and sellers have been dancing with each other, but I think it’s a buyer’s market because both buyers and sellers now have more realistic expectations as far as where prices are. But there’s a shortage of inventory now and sellers are getting multiple offers again,” Noennig said, adding that eight months worth of inventory is an average level historically.
“It was at 11 and a half months at its peak, and we’re at less than six months of inventory now.”
Throughout the year, Noennig expects to see modest growth in home prices.
“Part of the problem we had was escalating sale prices. I think if we can settle in to 2 percent to 3 percent increases per year, we ought to be happy about that,” he added.
