iHOUSE Website Customer Close-Up Winners

Neil Case is a successful broker from Antioch, CA, a suburban town on the edge of the Bay Area that has been dramatically effected by both the booming Housing Market of a few years back and the sub-prime lending crisis that followed it. According to Neil, “Antioch is on the edge of suburbia for the Bay Area so our market always has the wildest swings. When the market was great, it was on fire because it was so good, but then when the market turned down, our market turned down to the extreme and now it is starting to swing back again.” Like in many places it has been a hard couple years. While he was riding out the down swing Neil says his income was cut by… Read More

Alicia DuBose is a successful Detroit, Michigan broker who owns her own company, DuBose Realty Group. Unlike the vast majority of REALTORS®, Alicia does not specialize in the purchase and sale of single family residences. While Alicia is a licensed broker and her associates are licensed agents, DuBose Realty Group specializes in Property Management. The thing that truly sets Alicia apart is her innovative and comprehensive marketing strategies that keep her at the top of the Detroit rental market.

“We are a full service Property Management company. What I mean by full service property management is…“ Read More

Wendy and David are a husband and wife team with a story that is far from ordinary. Wendy is the broker and David (who is not a REALTOR®) handles all of their marketing. Originally from England they have only been part of the Orlando, Florida real estate market for a couple of years, but together they have made Wendy the 10th ranked REALTOR® in both sales and transactions for Orlando in 2007. This year she has realistic hopes that she will be ranked even higher when the statistics for 2008 come out in January. Wendy says, “We are very competitive. We like to be number 1. I have been very pleased with how successful I have been in a short period of time.” But this is not the first time that Wendy and David have risen to the top of their field.

Back in England, before ever becoming involved in real estate, Wendy was an operating room nurse, while David worked at… Read More

Nanci Buczynski and her husband moved around a lot. Moving 13 times meant Nanci was at the buying and selling end of plenty of real estate transactions, and she wasn’t even a real estate agent at the time! When Nanci and her husband “retired’ to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, Nanci wasn’t content without something to do. She got a job with a local REALTOR®, assisting him with marketing duties such as creating virtual tours and adding pictures to his website. However, once she got her feet wet in real estate, she wanted more.

Nanci has now been a Hilton Head Island real estate agent for about 10 years. The island boasts a variety of real estate, including residential communities, villas, condos, and vacation homes. Hilton Head is about 12 miles long by 4 miles wide and is widely known as a resort community. The island’s population of about 35,000 inhabitants primarily works… Read More

Twelve years ago Kevin Nash and his family moved to Germantown, WI. During the home buying process, Nash decided that real estate seemed like an interesting industry he too could succeed in. Before joining Coldwell Banker in 1998, Kevin Nash was a stay-at-home dad, and self proclaimed “soccer mom” with two small children. Once he made the move of going into real estate, his children were with him on listing appointments, showings, or in the office on a daily basis for the first 5 years. With this work and family balance as well as a flexible schedule, Nash was able to achieve Top Performer status every year for his entire real estate career while remaining dedicated to his family.

Kevin Nash and his family felt so welcome when they moved into Germantown, a mostly rural community in the Milwaukee area, it is no wonder that the community has helped foster Nash’s growth over the years. Throughout the town he is known as K NASH… Read More

The Cincinnati real estate industry was not something Dennis King saw himself entering into back in the early 1980’s, while working as a meat cutter. After college, King began exploring various options for a career path utilizing his education in business and marketing. Job opportunities came from the likes of Proctor and Gamble and Campbell’s Soup Company, but nothing felt quite right, so he decided to stay with his current job and enjoy the benefits of seniority for the time being.

After 17 years with Kroger, he was looking for a change and decided to give real estate a try in 1982, shortly after buying his first home. “I had never known any real estate agents, I was hesitant…” Read More

Lori Lange is an Associate Broker for the Lange-Yartz Home Team at Prudential Kansas City Realty along with her business partner and long time friend Lee Ann Yartz. Their team tag line is “We’re Sold on KC!” and it is clear from how she describes the Kansas City Metro Area and her own town of Overland Park why they feel that way. “Kansas City is a very family oriented community, with great public schools and lots of recreational opportunities. Overland Park is definitely growing in both population and business and Johnson County is probably the most affluent county in our Metro Area. If you look at Money Magazine, Overland Park and Olathe, which is a neighboring community are always in the…” Read More

Ana Alancastro is the Broker-Owner of Mountainside Realty in Hendersonville, North Carolina. After working 6 years for local brokers in the Hendersonville area, she decided to branch out and become an independent broker. While it was risky, things started to work out fine. Did she plan to open her own company? No it was a last minute, spur of the moment thing. “Since I began my own operation on January the 4th of this year, I have picked up 3 listings within just a few weeks. In addition, I am in the process of picking up another few listings.” Ana uses her iHOUSE website and emails to network and get people to view her website. She is now working on increasing… Read More

“Real Estate is way too much fun to call it a job!” says “Downtown Darryl” Hunt. “Downtown Darryl” is a RE/MAX® agent in Orlando, FL who loves what he does. “I don't view it as a job. I have way too much fun in my business to even call it a job. Seriously I do!” “Downtown Darryl” has been a real estate agent for 11 years now and he is also licensed as a mortgage broker. Darryl has established himself in Orlando with a brand and niche that is recognized by many people in Orlando and his office even mentions his website in their recruitment interviews. “They ask, ‘Have you heard of Downtown Darryl?’ Pretty much 8 times out of 10 they say yes.” Read More

In the quaint Alaskan town of Seldovia, there is one doctor, one school, one year-round restaurant and one REALTOR®. With a population of only 300 people year round (900 during the summer), and accessibility only by boat or plane, Seldovia would seem like a difficult place to make a living. But not for RE/MAX® agent Jenny Chissus, she’s devoted her efforts exclusively to the people and properties in Seldovia, and thereby managed to handle almost 90% of the local real estate market. You may wonder how Jenny ended up as a REALTOR® in this remote wilderness in the first place… “It’s funny how sometimes everything you’ve done in your past careers and experiences leads up to the perfect job for you…” Read More

“A lot of people think being a REALTOR® is easy and you can make your own schedule. Being a good REALTOR® actually requires a lot of discipline and a hard working mentality.” says Kelly Colley, who is a perfect example of how discipline and hard work pay off in the real estate industry. In Montgomery, Alabama, Kelly co-founded Alabama Homefinders, Inc with her husband Robb, after being a licensed REALTOR® for only one year. Read More

Even when she was a new agent, Sandra Patti was no stranger to the real estate industry. Her father was a builder in the New York area and Sandra relocated to New Jersey when her husband’s job was transferred there. After holding administrative jobs in two real estate offices, she became a licensed real estate agent and has been practicing for the past eight years. Having grown up on Long Island, Sandra found the rural area of Central New Jersey to be the perfect place to raise her family. Read More

Michelle Johnson was in business for over 25 years before she became a real estate professional. She always knew that she would pursue real estate. By building her skill set with experience in relevant fields, including marketing, presentation and business, she is now a successful REALTOR® in the niche area of Sherwood, Oregon. Read More

Laura Roskelly started her real estate business 7 years ago after settling in Crofton, Maryland with her retired Navy husband. Laura was no stranger to real estate, she knew she wanted to be a real estate agent in her early 20’s, but she was hesitant about striking out on her own and specializing in residential property. With the help of her supportive husband, she successfully realized her dream. Read More

Stephanie Webb has been in the real estate industry since 1998 and her husband JD has recently joined her. Stephanie moved her way up, after initially being exposed to the real estate business as a clerical assistant. Before starting her own business, she was a buyer’s agent focusing on marketing and technical support. “I looked at my husband and said, ‘This would be good for both of us.’ I brought him into it as something that we could do together and enjoy.” Stephanie and her husband also do treatment foster care and have 3 children. Of their foster family, Stephanie says, “It’s healing to the soul to be able to help a child. We’ve been able to do foster care primarily because of our careers in real estate.”

John Ernstrom and his wife Trish share a long and successful career in Resort and Retirement Real Estate in the picturesque beach communities of Seabrook and Kiawah Islands of South Carolina. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Jim worked in building and construction and later joined his wife in property sales. “Real Estate was a household phrase in our family, a business that we both knew quite a bit about. After our kids went off to college, we moved to the beach coast of South Carolina. We used to vacation here and always loved it here. Now we are happy to assist buyers and sellers in the area. We like to think of ourselves as Good Ambassadors of the island.” Read More