In 1974, Gerald Ford ascended to the presidency upon the
resignation of President Richard Nixon; “The Sting,”
starring Robert Redford won the Academy Award for Best Picture and
Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly With His Song
“was named the Best Song of the Year.
Closer to home, Ron McColly, who grew up in Gary, opened a small
real estate office with four agents in Merrillville, Indiana.
Robert Redford is retiring from acting next year and this
year’s top song is Ariana Grande’s “thank u,
next.”
But McColly Real Estate, voted Best Real Estate Local
Company/Team in the Times Best of the Region for the last four
years, now has nearly 500 sales associates with 22 offices in both
Indiana and Illinois and in 2017 posted 4,728 total transactions
sides closed with $846+ million in open sales volume, ranking 137
in the Top 500 Brokers in the U.S.
As McColly Real Estate grew, so did their investment in the
communities they served.
“Since 1974, Ron McColly has privately been a local
philanthropist,” says Monica Decker, director of marketing
and technology, noting that McColly Charities are an important part
of the organization. During the holiday season, the company
participates in Toys for Tots and partnered with the Salvation Army
in the McColly Coat Drive. Year round, Ron McColly has been very
active with a multitude of charities, recently having donated
$100,000 for the expansion of the Southlake YMCA.
“We have a lot of charities we support, and Ron is also
very active in the community—I can’t go to a charity
event without seeing him,” says Realtor Diane Cline who has
worked for McColly Real Estate for 37 years.
A few months ago, Cline attended the 17th annual Pink
Ribbon Society Breast Cancer Awareness Tea and saw that McColly
Charities had donated a pair of diamond earrings valued at
$2000.
“If I hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have known
because Ron never talks about things like that,” says
Cline.
“My dad treats everyone fair,” says Rhonda
McColly-Fleener who earned a teaching degree. However, she decided
the family business is where she wanted to be and took a position
in the marketing department after college and remains with the
company more than three decades later.
But that’s not unusual. Instead of the typical turnover in
the real estate business, many of the McColly Realtors have been
with the company for twenty years or more.
“That’s because we’re a family, not a
franchise,” says McColly-Fleener, Chief Operating Office of
McColly Real Estate, noting that knowing the market and being out
in the community are several of the many reasons McColly Real
Estate has been so successful. “We aren’t just another
agency selling houses in Northwest Indiana—we’re an
integral part of the communities we serve.”
General Manager Tracy Parus, who has worked for McColly Real
Estate for 23 years, is a prime example of the company’s
commitment to community.
“Being a Realtor is so much more than just selling
homes,” she says noting that McColly’s mission has
always been, since day one, to create long term relationships and
trust with their customers and clients in order to develop a
culture of sharing and caring for the communities they serve.
That’s important to the McColly staff continues Parus,
because the McColly Charities gives their Broker Associates the
opportunity to become an integral part in making the lives of
others better.
Since 1995, when she began working as an agent, Parus has seen
the company’s exponential expansion of market share and
locations.
“The growth that I have been part of through the McColly
Companies and through our affiliation with the Leading Real Estate
Companies of the World® has been exciting for me--our footprint
has been enlarged through the success we are experiencing in
Indiana and also with the growth we have had the pleasure to
experience in Illinois,” says Parus.
“Whether buyers are looking for property in LaPorte,
Indiana or farmland in Paxton, Illinois and any type of real estate
in between, our agents have the local expertise to best serve our
clients’ needs, since we live in the same locales,”
says Decker. “Our affiliation with the infrastructure of the
Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® network and their
Luxury Portfolio International® with headquarters in Chicago,
London and Singapore, creates a dominant global presence. LeadingRE
is the most productive real estate and relocation services network
on the face of the earth. Only 1 in 5 brokerage applicants is
granted membership into this exclusive, by-invitation-only
organization. With clients moving due to employment opportunities,
moving to be closer to loved ones or looking to purchase a second
home, the relocation division is there to assist.”
McColly not only invests in the community but also its Realtors,
creating long-term agents who are well training and able to use
cutting edge technology in servicing clients.
“McColly is all about human interaction,” says
Cline. “That includes networking and honesty.”
That is why, says Decker, McColly Real Estate has been in
business for 45 years and will continue to be around for so much
longer.