Estate Business

After watching friends sell their house on their own, John and Janet Selway decided that they could do the same and jumped into the market without using a real estate agent.The couple put an advertisement in the newspaper and planted a "For Sale" sign in the front yard. And then they waited.One month passed.Another month went by.Then, it was 90 days.Finally, after four months they found a buyer.Each year, about 15 percent of the 4.5 million people who put their homes on the market try to complete the transaction without an agent.

"Glengarry Glen Ross" sounds like lyric poetry, but in David Mamet's play of that name, it refers to a questionable parcel of land being sold by an even more questionable parcel of real estate swindlers.Under Suzanne Pratt's direction, Theatre Hopkins will produce this 1983 play about the underbelly of the real estate business for five weekends beginning tomorrow.Theatre Hopkins performs in the Merrick Barn on the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University. Show times are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2: 15 p.m. Sundays, with one Sunday evening performance at 7: 30 p.m. on May 12, the final night of the run. Tickets are $10 and $12. Call (410)

Baltimore City Comptroller Joan M. Pratt said yesterday that she will get out of the landlord business -- just two weeks after a 3-year-old child who lived in one of her rental units was reported suffering from lead poisoning.Though she gave no time when she would divest herself of ownership of her city rental properties, Pratt said that her attorneys are working out the final details."I think because I am a city official, I will have to get out of the real estate business," Pratt said. She added that questions surrounding her rental properties "distract me from doing what the citizens elected me to do."

Temple H. Peirce, a retired Baltimore real estate and insurance broker, died Monday of congestive heart failure at Union Memorial Hospital. The Roland Park resident was 85.Mr. Peirce, formerly a 45-year resident of Pinehurst, retired in 1985 from the real estate and casualty insurance business that he had operated for more than 50 years with his wife, the former Alice G. Waldenberger, who died three years ago.The couple, who married in 1938, opened the business in the Court Square Building in downtown Baltimore in the early 1940s.

CHICAGO -- Homebuyers typically hope they can get a great deal on a new house with the help of their real estate broker. But in the near future, homebuyers also will be offered deals on decks, patios and even cars and television sets.Residential real estate brokers, their profits squeezed from all sides in an increasingly competitive environment, are branching out more widely than ever in an effort to survive. Real estate companies are starting to link up with any business that has an association -- sometimes only a remote association -- with the home-buying process, both to create new profit centers and to fashion a compelling package for the consumer.

Aurine B. MorsellBusiness ownerAurine B. Morsell, who had owned real estate and insurance businesses in Baltimore, died Wednesday of heart failure at her home of the past eight years in Princess Anne. She was 86.She retired in 1978 as a partner in what is now Chase Fitzgerald & Co. Inc. She began working in the real estate business in the late 1930s for Edna G. Rock Realtor and shortly thereafter became associated with the Roland Park Co., the real estate and development company.After Roland Park was dissolved in the mid-1950s, she became part-owner of the Roland Park Realty Co. In 1960, she became sole owner and seven years later merged it into Chase Fitzgerald.

Nancy Hubble loves gourmet cooking, renovating old homes and collecting portraits of Napoleon. She delves into politics and tours old Baltimore mansions for fun.And guided by a small, lavender leather calendar and daily "to do" lists, she's been a whirlwind in the local real estate industry."

Sister LeonardEnglish teacherSister Mary Leonard Leonard, R.S.M., who taught at schools in Baltimore, Washington, Alabama, Georgia and Florida, died Sunday of cancer at The Villa, a retirement home in Pinehurst for members of religious orders.Sister Leonard, who was 75 and moved to The Villa last June, had been assistant professor of communications at Pensacola Junior College in Florida since 1972. For six years before that, she taught English at the Catholic High School in Pensacola.Co-author of a book, "Vocabulary for Everybody," she was a member of several professional groups, including the Sisters of Mercy Higher Education Colloquium, Phi Delta Kappa Business Fraternity and the American Business Communications Association.

Baltimore-area real estate executives are delighted by the decision of Sears Roebuck and Co. to spin off its Coldwell Banker real estate chain -- anticipating the chance to pick up agents and possibly also offices from the chain as a result."

While Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. will be basking in the glow of improved earnings at its annual meeting today , an unregulated corner of its corporate structure is losing money on one of the scourges of recent years -- commercial real estate.Despite two years of losses in that sector, BG&E is determined to stay in the business, although it has cut back development until it can sell some of its mature projects, said Bruce M. Ambler, president of Constellation Holdings Inc., the unregulated subsidiary that includes the real estate operation.

With home prices sliding, interest rates falling and worried sellers looking to deal, this may be a good time to become a homeowner. But is it a good time to become a real estate agent? During the boom, young people -- and those looking for a midlife career change -- were drawn to real estate. Money magazine listed "real estate agent" among the Top 20 jobs for the "young and restless." As the market slows and competition increases, young agents are feeling the pinch, perhaps more than others.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, unable to expand its roster of television stations, disclosed yesterday that it has spent $35.1 million to acquire and invest in commercial real estate in Maryland and elsewhere. David D. Smith, chief executive of the Hunt Valley broadcaster, told analysts yesterday that the real estate deals fit the company's strategy of finding high-return opportunities outside television. The company has seen returns as high as 20 percent on some of its ventures, he said. But the move puzzled some analysts, who questioned whether shareholders of a broadcasting company want their management investing in real estate.

Roadside signs serve a purpose Much has been written and said about signs (including my signs). Throughout Anne Arundel County, there are numerous roadside signs indicating open houses, school events, yard sales, community activities, sales by owners, builders' activities, rentals, new homes, food or fund drives, directional purposes, garage sales, business activities, bake sales, sports events, political campaigns, arts and crafts events, church events,...

Will of the majority is disregarded In response to Larry Helminiak's letter in The Sun for Carroll County on Jan 8, I have a few comments. No matter how much he and the handful of other Option 1 supporters try to spin it, Option 2 was the popular choice. He mentions that only 50 people showed up at one or more of the public meetings. Another report I read earlier stated that about 70 people repeatedly attended the meetings, and were the same "activists" (i.e., Option 2 supporters) that one might expect would show up. What I haven't heard about is the groundswell of support for Option 1 at the meetings.

NEW YORK - Some people in the real estate business never know, when they get up in the morning, whether the uncontrollable urge to buy an apartment will strike during the course of the workday. "Sometimes when I walk into a place for business, the hair on the back of my neck stands up," said Diane M. Ramirez, the president of Halstead Property. "I can see the finished product, the pearl, and I feel the creative juice of knowing what it could be if I just got my hands on it." Dolly Lenz, a broker who is executive vice president and managing director of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, often has the same reaction to properties she is scouting.

John Delaney Hubble Sr., one of the area's well-known names in real estate and a former Baltimore city official, died Wednesday of an apparent heart attack in his car in downtown Baltimore. The Lutherville resident was 69. For decades, his name was synonymous with real estate investment, development, deals and construction in and around the city. "From a real estate standpoint and a professional standpoint, he was extremely bright. He was very savvy. He knew how to put the deals together," said Bob Altieri, president and chief executive officer of Carrollton Bank in Baltimore, a longtime friend.

Francis G. Bartlett Jr., 79, real estate Francis Gilpin Bartlett Jr., who owned an Easton real estate business, died of a stroke Jan. 12 at his home there. He was 79. Born in Baltimore and raised in Easton, he was the grandson of the Rt. Rev. John Gardner Murray, Episcopal bishop of Maryland from 1903 to 1929. Mr. Bartlett was a 1943 graduate of St. Paul's School and served in the Army's medical corps in the latter part of World War II. He then joined his father's Bartlett Realty Co. in Easton and later owned it until retiring in 2000.

Robert Franklin Miller, a con artist who has posed as a chiropractor, a lawyer and a world karate champion, was convicted this week in connection with another fraudulent scheme. He pleaded guilty Tuesday in Baltimore County Circuit Court to four counts of felony theft -- charges that stem from a phony real estate business he operated from the summer of 2001 through the spring of 2002. Miller is scheduled to be sentenced March 16 and under terms of the plea agreement could receive up to 12 years in prison.

Every Wednesday through April 21, baltimoresun.com's tax experts will answer your questions this tax-filing season. Our experts are Jim Dupree of the Maryland office of the Internal Revenue Service in Baltimore and, this week, Gregory S. Horning of Stout, Causey & Horning in Hunt Valley. To be included next week, please use the form at the right side of this page to submit your questions. I am a full-time employee at a local company. I also am a real estate agent, which is considered an independent contractor.

Banks would have to wait at least another year to enter the real estate business under legislation approved by congressional negotiators last week. Real estate brokers succeeded for a second year in persuading legislators to add to the Treasury Department's funding bill a one-year delay on regulations that would let banks manage real estate and broker home sales. House Appropriations Committee spokesman John Scofield said lawmakers approved legislation Thursday that includes the provision.