Our agents share their knowledge, experiences and the latest Vermont real estate news.
Congratulations Steven Foster for being an official winner of the Top 15% Award from Homesnap!
Homesnap looked at the data for more than one million agents nationwide and Steven was one of the select few to win a Top Agent Award! He earned this distinction based on his impressive productivity throughout the past 12 months.
Want to work with this phenomenal agent? Contact Steven at 646-841-4747 or stevenpfoster@kw.com.
The Stowe Area Realty Group at KW Vermont-Stowe real estate team is now Hickey & Foster Real Estate, which will be helmed by Mike Hickey and Steven Foster as part of the larger Keller Williams family.
The new partnership brings together more than a dozen residential and commercial agents of the former Stowe Area Realty Group and The Hickey Real Estate Group with real estate sales and marketing experience reaching from the Northeast Kingdom down into central Vermont.
The Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa was named Single Transaction of the Year (US$25M & Under) 2021 at the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) in Los Angeles, CA. Winners were announced on Jan. 25, 2022, during the three-day conference.
Ken Libby of Stowe Area Realty Group at KW Vermont-Stowe - now Hickey & Foster Real Estate - represented the seller.
The ALIS awards honor the hotels, companies and executives responsible for the most influential hotel industry deals. Nominees were evaluated based on outstanding business performance in various industry sectors.
The ALIS Single Asset Transaction of the Year Award recognizes a hotel or resort in which more than a 50 percent ownership stake has been acquired (transaction closed) in the Americas between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2021.
The Stoweflake Resort and Spa was purchased for approximately $13 million by MCR Hotels, a hotel management company. The sale was finalized on Dec. 23, 2021.
Finalists in this category also included the Allegria Hotel & Spa in Long Beach, NY, and the Ocean Crest Resort in Moclips, WA.
Congrats to Ken Libby, the entire team and everyone who made this amazing real estate sale possible! See all the winners here.
The KW Vermont-Stowe leadership at the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) Convention in San Diego on November 13, 2021: Ken Libby, Mike Hickey and Steven Foster.
The Stowe Area Realty Group at KW Vermont-Stowe real estate team is now Hickey & Foster Real Estate, which is still part of the Keller Williams family and will be helmed by Mike Hickey and Steven Foster, long-time Stowe Realtors® who work out of the same Mountain Road office.
Ken Libby semi-retired from real estate at the end of 2021 after more than four decades as a Vermont Realtor®.
As of January 2022, the new partnership brings together more than a dozen residential and commercial agents of the former Stowe Area Realty Group and The Hickey Real Estate Group with real estate sales and marketing experience reaching from the Northeast Kingdom down into central Vermont.
“The union of these two teams combines talented agents with local, state and national real estate knowledge plus continued access to Keller Williams’ state-of-the-art technology and extensive agent network,” Hickey said.
Hickey is a leader in the Vermont real estate community. He is president of the Vermont Association of Realtors® and was voted by his peers as the Lamoille County Realtor® of the Year for 2020. He is the former lead broker/owner of The Hickey Real Estate Group.
“We are lucky to have formed a more powerful ‘super team’ merging our two groups,” Foster said.
Foster brings a focus on commercial and investment properties. As a nationally licensed EMT, he volunteers as a member of Morristown’s rescue squad and serves as a board member for the Morristown Planning Council. Foster was named the 2021 Lamoille Area Board of Realtors’® Realtor® of the Year Award. Foster was a member of the Stowe Area Realty Group.
“With two of the most recent Lamoille County Realtors® of the Year leading this new collaboration, I am excited to see the firm adapt to changes in the market and establish new partnerships to guide them into the future,” Libby said.
An updated logo and branding is in the works for the new Hickey & Foster Real Estate. Stay tuned!
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Libby will still be an active member of the now-formed Hickey & Foster Real Estate, but his role has changed from lead broker to advisor and mentor to the agents as of the end of 2021. Not fully retired yet, Libby is looking to finally “slow down” after 40-plus years in the real estate business.
Libby concluded the year with a number of successes, as he helped broker the purchase of the Stoweflake Resort and Spa for approximately $13 million by MCR Hotels; the sale was finalized on Dec. 23. He also donated roughly $50,000 for a new scholarship fund for the town of Stowe’s parks and recreation department. The Bunny Libby Scholarship Fund is named in memory of Libby’s late wife, Joan “Bunny” Libby, who died in 2018 but who served on the Stowe Recreation Commission for 17 years.
“I think Stowe, particularly, is the best place in the world to raise a family,” Libby said. “It’s been a pleasure and an honor to help Vermont families and business owners fulfill their real estate goals throughout the last 40 years.”
“Mike, our entire team and I would like to thank Ken for all his dedication to the community, leadership, professionalism and years of service to the real estate industry. We look forward to Ken being available as a mentor and guide in the coming months, offering expertise to new and seasoned agents alike,” Foster said.
Hickey added, “Ken is a wealth of knowledge and a strong advocate for homeowners as well as the real estate profession. His encyclopedic knowledge of Stowe real estate will be an invaluable asset as we head into 2022.”
Libby began his career in real estate in 1979 and became a full-time agent in 1992. A 50-year Stowe resident, raising three kids with Bunny, Libby has served the community as police chief for 17 years, a youth coach, an active member of the Green Mountain Council of the Boy Scouts of America (named its 2019 Citizen of the Year) and a mentor in the greater Stowe area.
In 2019, Libby received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), one of only 96 recipients so honored in the 109 years of operations of the association. He’s won numerous other awards, including being named twice the NAR Commercial Realtor® of the Year for Vermont. He served the NAR in a number of roles as a member of the board of directors, executive committee on two different occasions and on various task forces.
Libby has been president of the Lamoille Area Board of Realtors® and held many leadership positions in the organization. In 2012, the board selected him as its Realtor® of the Year. He served as President of the Vermont Association of Realtors® in 2003 and in 2016, was named its Realtor® of the Year (2007 and 2012) and received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his dedication and service to Vermont real estate and its agent community. Libby was also the Vice President and Past President of the Associated Realty of the Americas, an invitation-only association of luxury Realtors® from Mexico, Canada and the United States.
Ken Libby and his children accept a plaque in honor of his late wife, Joan "Bunny" Libby, for her dedication to the Stowe Recreation Commission and the family's donation to create the Joan "Bunny" Libby Recreation Scholarship Fund to help send children to the Stowe Recreation Program.
If you are interested in contributing to this scholarship fund, please contact Matt Frazee, Parks & Recreation Director, at mfrazee@stowevt.gov.
Information/photo credit: https://www.townofstowevt.org/
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An excerpt from the Stowe Reporter:
In other business, the town [of Stowe] was donated roughly $50,000 for a new scholarship fund for the town’s parks and recreation department. [Go to 6:15 minutes @ Recording of 12/14/21 Selectboard Meeting via Zoom]
The Bunny Libby Scholarship Fund is named in memory of Joan “Bunny” Libby, who died in 2018 but who served on the Stowe Recreation Commission for 17 years.
The money is a rough estimate because it comes in a unique format: Bunny’s husband Ken Libby has donated 800 shares of stock in Exxon Mobil and, as of the end of November the stocks were worth $63.13 a share, or $50,504.
Libby said his wife was keen on making sure youth participated in recreation programs, “and if there was a kid who couldn’t afford it, she’d pay for it.”
[Board chair Billy] Adams said, in thanking Libby for the gift, “I’m usually not at a loss for words, but I am this time.”
"I’m pleased to congratulate the Baraw family on the sale of the Stoweflake Resort & Spa after more than 50 years of ownership. The Stoweflake is one of the two largest resorts in Stowe with a spa ranked as one of the best in the United States. I loved working with them and the buyer, MCR.
I’m excited to see the transformation of this property after MCR enhances the property with their planned 5-7 million dollar investment.
Thanks to the Baraw family for allowing me to be your advocate through this transaction made very difficult by COVID."
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The sale of the Stoweflake Mountain Resort and Spa was finalized on Dec. 23, 58 years after it first opened around Christmas, 1963. The resort has been managed for over half a century by three generations of the Baraw family. ... There will be no day-one changes, but planned renovations will likely occur next summer and the hotel management company hopes to unveil the new and improved Stoweflake in time for the 2022-2023 ski season.
Read more in the news article about the sale of the Stoweflake property in the Stowe Reporter.
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KW Vermont-Stowe leadership at the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) Convention in San Diego on November 13, 2021: DSA Ken Libby, Vermont State President, 2022, Mike Hickey and Lamoille Area Board of REALTORS, REALTOR of the Year, Steve Foster.