Four agents join Baird & Warner in Gold Coast expansion
Baird & Warner welcomed four new brokers to their Gold Coast branch: Wendy Berg, Eileen Brennan, Oliver Levy and Karen V. Peterson. The luxury agents joined the office from a myriad of brokerages: @properties, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago, Compass and Coldwell Banker, respectively.
“They fit our company’s value proposition,” Mike Fleytman, assistant manager of the Gold Coast office, told Chicago Agent magazine. “From day one they’ve just meshed with the other agents; they meshed instantly with the staff. … It’s just been a match made in heaven.”
Managing Broker Rick Druker said Baird & Warner’s longstanding Chicagoland ties are a strategic factor that benefits the brokerage in the “noise” and uncertainty of today’s market. Druker also characterized the company’s established trust and industry respect as a driving factor in many of the agents’ decisions to join the brand.
“We really emphasize the culture here and stability. All the [other] companies talk about technology and they talk about marketing, but when you’re on an interview as an agent, and you keep hearing the same thing, how do you differentiate?’’ Druker told Chicago Agent magazine. “I really do feel like Baird & Warner is in a very unique position.”
Project REAP returns to Chicago
Project REAP, a diversity initiative that works to connect real estate professionals, is returning to Chicago this March. The effort, whose acronym stands for Real Estate Associate Program, will continue work toward building and strengthening multicultural commercial real estate communities in all facets of the industry through workshops and job training sessions in the Chicagoland area.
“We’re looking to build a critical mass by linking our over 1,300 REAP graduates to current REAP students, alumni and sponsors active in CRE,” said REAP program director Osayamen Bartholomew in a news release. “The goal is to create communities of multicultural CRE professionals, market by market.”
Move Inc. names new CEO
Last week, parent company News Corp announced that David Doctorow will become the next CEO of Move, Inc., operator of realtor.com. Prior to this position, Doctorow served as the Head of Global Growth for eBay Marketplaces as well as the chief marketing and strategy officer for Expedia.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to join the team at News Corp and to lead Move, Inc.,” Doctorow said in a press release. “I am looking forward to working with the strong Move team to take the business to the next level.”