Marlene Rubenstein and her daughter Dena Fox of Baird & Warner’s Marlene Rubenstein Group are one such team. They believe their personalities complement each other, as does the generational difference between them. Fox, 29, earned her license when she turned 21 and had helped Rubenstein from time to time, but they did not come together as a team until 2013. They also brought in a buyer’s agent in the suburbs and in the city to help. They both still meet every client, but often older homebuyers choose to work more with Rubenstein, while younger ones choose to work with Fox. They also break their business down by location, as Rubenstein handles Highland Park and the North Shore, and Fox focuses on the city.

“We can play off of each other’s strengths,” Rubenstein said. “She’s 29, I’m 59. She comes from a finance background and spent years in banking and working for Discover to launch their home equity business, whereas I spent years in sales and marketing. She’s very analytical and vertical. I like to do everything at once.”

Another advantage to family teams is that they can handle succession issues smoothly. If a parent builds a successful business and has a child working with them, then transitioning control of the business to the younger generation can be built into the business plan and can work to protect the brand that has been developed.

Succession was certainly on the minds of Elizabeth Ballis and her daughter Deborah Ballis Hirt when they joined forces to form the Ballis Group in 2011. For one of Chicago’s top-producing teams, not having a succession plan in place for such a successful business would have been folly, and they were not about to make that mistake.

“I’d been doing this for about 36 years, and I wanted to have a partner who is working as hard as I am working to continue to grow and sustain our business – someone that I would know and would feel comfortable when the time comes to step back a little, and then step back all the way,” Elizabeth said.

Not that the partnership ends when one party retires, Deborah clarified.

“Elizabeth will always have a role with The Ballis Group, even once she is retired,” Deborah said. “We work well together and have felt like we have made all of our business decisions by consensus. So, I hope that as we transition for Elizabeth’s retirement, we are able to build our team so it can continue to represent Elizabeth’s superior level of service and dedication to our clients. I feel confident that with a gradual transition, we will be able to keep The Ballis Group as a top-producing team.”