Miscella Real Estate in the News

The Sun

Enterprise: Closeup On Tri-Cities Business
By Paul Sullivan

Miscella Real Estate

Geneva firm adept at "traffic control" in home transactions

Thirteen years ago, Patti and Steve Rambo bought their second home in Geneva. Patti was so impressed with her Realtor, legendary Jamie Daniel of Miscella Real Estate, she said, "If ever I want to go into real estate, I'm going to look you up."

Eight years later, Patti Rambo did just that. "I've always been a risk taker," said Rambo, a former national sales manager for a company that sold tuition management systems to higher education.

"My kids were out of college. It was the right time. I went to work for Jamie for five years as an agent. When she decided it was time to pass the business to someone else, I considered it an extreme honor to be asked. I told her I knew I would be filling some pretty big shoes. She said, ‘Better get your own shoes.'"

Patti and her husband Steve are both brokers at Miscella, which employs eight sales agents, all full-time. Steve Rambo is a project manager of student systems at the University of Chicago and also the manager broker at Miscella. "He's the one who focuses on compliance, escrow details and back office kind of financial management. He's ultimately who keeps us in business," said Patti.

The Rambos pride themselves on the amount of referral business they've done in their five years at Miscella. "When the day is over, we want out clients to feel they got more than a house," said Patti. "We want them to feel they got the lifestyle they wanted. Moving is one of the most stressful things in life. We think of ourselves as traffic control with trades people, lenders and all the other people involved in a real estate transaction."

With the proliferation of Internet real estate sites such as Zilla.com, there's a lot of information available to buyerss and sellers. "We're dealing with a more informed customer these days," said Patti. "But there's nothing that compares with a walk-through; to see it, touch it, look at the neighborhood. Buyers typically don't want to negotiate directly with a seller. In a For-Sale-By-Owner transaction whoever has the strongest negotiating skills gets the best deal. Buying and selling real estate by yourself is like looking up your medical symptoms on the Internet and self-prescribing."

If you have all the skills of a plumber and electrician, said Rambo, then maybe you can do those HGTV projects yourself; otherwise, better hire a pro. "I would never take a house transaction flippantly. And I'm a risk taker."

Letter to the Editor

Geneva resident possesses keys to well-rounded life

Kane County Chronicle
May 15, 2005

By GAIL JARDINE

Jamie Daniel can truly call herself a well-rounded person.

Throughout her life, the Geneva resident has surrounded herself with marriage, family, politics, religion and even business, and has gained much from her experiences.

Daniel started life as a Southern girl. She was born in her grandmother's home in Grand Junction, Tenn., and grew up with her family on the outskirts of New Albany, Miss., a small town of 3,000.

"When I wanted to go into town, I rode my horse," she said. "It was just a mode of transportation. I've never understood why anyone would want to ride a horse for fun."

As a child during the 1930s, Daniel enjoyed the pleasures of small-town life. She roller-skated, camped and danced, and -- for 11 cents a ticket -- spent time in the movie theater.

In high school, Daniel took every class offered -- "except home (economics) and typing and bookkeeping. It turned out those were the courses I needed most," she said.

Two years out of high school, Daniel married a cotton broker. She slipped into the role of a good wife, mother and hostess, and charity volunteer.

"That's the life expected of a Southern woman," she said.

The couple had four children -- Jay, Daniel, Anne and David Phyfer. Daniel lived a pleasant life that included full-time help. One woman came in from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and another at 3:30 p.m. to cook dinner and get the children ready for bed. A man-of-all work lived on the place; doing yard work, errands and chauffeuring the children to their many activities.

"My work managing the household ended at noon," said Jamie. "Then I got dressed and spent the rest of the day at the music or bridge club, at a tea or just visiting."

Daniel also was a member of the Methodist Church. Weekly studies on issues of social concern, national and home missions and the Bible were an important part of her life.

Daniel remembered the 1948 election, when one program sought to have "every Methodist woman an informed voter." With a group of Methodist women, she went to the courthouse to a precinct committee meeting.

When she told her husband of her adventure, he was highly embarrassed, and asked, "Why did you go and make a fool of yourself?" She replied, "I wanted to see how politics worked." He said, "I would have told you!"

New marriage, new life
In 1954, Daniel's husband died and two years later, she married her sister's neighbor from Memphis, Tenn.

"He had the opportunity to transfer to Joliet and, knowing he would always be an outsider in New Albany, we decided to move to Illinois," Daniel said.

The couple chose Geneva as their new home because it seemed to be most like New Albany.

"In a year, I knew eight out of 10 people I met on the street," she said.

In addition to her children from her previous marriage, Daniel and her new husband had two children of their own, Jon and James Lindenberg.

"I didn't have the help I'd had, of course, but the older children served as baby-sitters," she said.

Daniel got very organized, setting aside certain days for washing and certain days for ironing, reserving Wednesday for herself.

Daniel also found time to join the Woman's Society at the Geneva Methodist Church but found that the group was more social than studious. When her pastor's wife suggested that she try the League of Women Voters, she uncovered one of her passions. She was president of the local league from 1959 through 1963 and served on the state board from 1963 to 1972.

In the work force
In January 1973, with the children married, away at college or at prep school, and with her league term at an end, Daniel entered the work force as a public information officer for Mark VII, a company proposing to build a new town on a 3,000-acre site adjacent to Elburn.

After almost three years of public meetings and studies, the company failed to get zoning approval and relinquished its holdings to Borg-Warner Equities, the mortgagor.

When Borg-Warner asked Daniel to come to work, she replied, "Yes, by the week, by the day, or by the hour -- but I don't ever want to be anyone's employee again."

Borg-Warner officials agreed and told her first task was to find a buyer for the land. Daniel got her real estate license and went to work. However, interest rates were soaring, and selling real estate was not an option, so she pursued other business ventures.

Daniel began working with Frank Skowronski, a Washington consultant, preparing applications to launch branches of savings and loan institutions. She did the demographics and writing for the 2-inch-thick documents. Her partner did the presentations and made other contacts.

The first women's bank had just been formed in New York and, at Skowronski's suggestion, Daniel and some of her league friends put together a proposal for a woman's savings and loan.

"We had the money, we had the experienced staff -- but the Federal Home Loan Bank Board looked at us like we were crazy," Daniel said. "They wouldn't even consider the application,"

However, Skowronski's connections with the State Department and the Department of Commerce brought more opportunities in the late 1970s. Daniel found companies that might profit from contracts to furnish products and expertise for Saudi Arabia's $40 billion five-year plan for infrastructure. She also worked on employment generation ventures in the English-speaking Caribbean.

However, the project saw little development. The IRS began enforcing regulations prohibiting "kick-backs" to procurers in Saudi Arabia, and it became impossible to get orders without those referral fees to obtain access to decision-makers.

Just as things began to fall into place in the Caribbean, the funding arm in the Department of Commerce, the Agency for International Development, was scuttled by President Reagan.

Community and corporate activities
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Daniel continued to volunteer during the infant years of Tri-City Youth Project (now TriCity Family Services), as a board member of Restorations of Kane County (now Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley) and a founding member and first corporate secretary of Mutual Ground.

For five years, she was a board member of Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois. She continued to be active in her church, serving as a lay member to the annual five-day conference for 21 years.

In 1976, Daniel formed Miscella Inc., an umbrella for the miscellaneous things that she was doing with Skowronski and Borg-Warner.

When Borg-Warner Equities' 3,000 acres finally sold in 1981, real estate became her primary activity. The property's new owner did not want the 17 farmsteads, so Daniel sold each one separately, and became known as the "farmette lady."

Another of Daniel's passions is helping preserve Geneva's historic buildings. She was instrumental in saving two from demolition by helping relocate them. She also served on the steering committee for the development of the new Geneva History Center.

Daniel also worked on the Economic Development Committee for the Geneva Strategic Plan and on the city's Retail Task Force, which now is the Geneva Business Commission.

She also is on the board of River Park of Geneva. The 10 volunteers are guiding the development of the 1.8-acre riverfront land purchased by the city five years ago. The park is more than half-way completed.

Daniel's efforts have not gone unnoticed. She was named the Fox Valley Association Realtor of the Year in 1991 and received the Chamber's Wood Award in 1992. She has served on the boards of both organizations.

Two years ago, Daniel and John Gamble, her partner at Miscella since 1998, bought a historic house at 4 S. Sixth St. in Geneva, appropriate for a company that has focused on downtown. Earlier this month, they sold the company to colleagues in the company who are interested in more diversification. However, she still plans to stay involved in the business.

"Caring for people has to come first. We at Miscella intend to remain really different in the kind of service we give. It's all about our customer, not about how many houses we sell. We build relationships with the goal of being our customers' Realtors for life."