Becoming a realtor was an easy transition for Brad Blumenshine.
He’s watched his mother navigate real estate for 30 years; his wife for 20 years; his sister-in-law and niece are realtors.
Now, the former owner of Cramer Siding and Window, who spent almost three decades of his life in home construction and improvement, is happy to open his own RE/MAX Collection office in Mahomet.
“This was just an easy fit for me,” Blumenshine said.
Setting up his business on Main Street in Mahomet was also an easy choice.
“I’m really impressed with Mahomet because it reminds me a lot of my hometown Washington Ill.;” he said. “the pride that people have in the community, and the pride they have in each other.
“Everything goes along with the school district or the park district.”
Blumenshine purchased the building at 405 E. Main St. three years ago with the vision of building a showroom with Cramer Homes.
“The front section of it is our showroom for new home construction,” he said. “That’s been tremendous. And it’s really a nice fit because people walk in and they’re greeted with beautiful granite in the kitchen and they see samples.”
The back space of the office is for Blumenshine to talk to buyers and sellers as they take the next steps in their lives.
Blumenshine’s hassle free process from beginning to end comes with the RE/MAX Collection vision.
“For every one of my customers, I do a free certified pre-home inspection,” Blumenshine said. “So I have a certified home inspector come in and we go through the whole house. And I pay for that.
“I do that so that when it comes time to negotiate a price or closing, there are no hiccups. Nothing is found that surprises somebody: leaky crawl space or bad wiring or something like that.
“It’s a small price for me to pay, so that all of my clients have a smooth process from beginning to end.”
Ultimately, that process and those benefits are why Blumenshine chose to become a broker with RE/MAX. Aside from the fact that his wife, Prudence, works with RE/MAX also, Blumenshine wanted to be part of the RE/MAX Collection division that specializes in luxury homes and properties.
As the sole RE/MAX Collection agent in downstate Illinois, Blumenshine also offers a selection of services like staging, carpet cleaning, drone photos, exterior power washing, house cleaning, dumpster and landscaping services, among other choices for sellers.
“I just felt there was a need for people in that price range,” he said. “That type of home, to have a little bit more service, and just a few more things that complimentary services that come with it, that they wouldn’t have otherwise gotten. They would have had to pay for it on their own.”
His vision is to make the home selling and buying process easy for the consumer.
“I built my own home 15 years ago here in Mahomet,” he said. “Building your own home, you kind of get to learn a lot of things that you wish you knew before: pitfalls and mistakes and stuff like that. And I did them all, just like most people do.
“By moving into real estate, I just felt like I had a skill set with knowing the bones of a house rather than just the pretty stuff. That really set me up to be able to help people out with buying or selling a home.
“It just came naturally to me. A lot of people just look at the colors and granite countertops and carpet and hardwood, but I look at the roof, the structure, the mechanics, the HV AC location. You’ve really got to get down and really take into account a lot of things when you’re buying and selling a home.”
