Recently
REALTrends®, a trusted source in residential
brokerage, and Tom Ferry International, a top coaching and training
company, released their annual 2020 REALTrends® + Tom Ferry
America’s Best Real Estate Professionals list that included
many McColly Real Estate Brokers.
"I'm
very proud of our REALTORS and how productive they are,” says
Ronald McColly, who founded McColly Real Estate, the largest
independent residential real estate company in Northwest Indiana
and the Chicago Southland, and Central Illinois, in
1974.
Those
recognized by REALTRENDS this year are:
Individual
by Transaction Sides:
Sandy Boyer, McColly Rosenboom Watseka office
—72 Transactions
Julie Elisha, McColly Real Estate Portage —56
Transactions
Kelly White, McColly Real Estate Portage —70
Transactions
Brent Wright, McColly Real Estate Portage —91
Transactions
Medium
Teams by Volume & Transaction Sides
Lisa Grady Team, McColly Schererville
office
Ranked #4
with $47,539,833 in Sales Volume
Ranked #7
with 179.5 in Transaction Sides
Small
Teams by Transaction Sides
Michelle
Arseneau Team, McColly Bennett office—102.80
Transaction Sides
Schreffler-Winterroth
Team, McColly Bennett office —99 Transaction
Sides
Brenda Versnel Team McColly Real Estate Winfield
—80 Transaction Sides
Beginning
when she was a teenager, Brenda Versnel always loved helping
friends remodel, organize and decorate. She was a stay at home mom
with two daughters who moved to Indiana when her husband accepted a
job at Bethlehem Steel. With her children grown, she was asked to
work as an assistant in a real estate office.
“I
realized I could be a better assistant if I had my Real Estate
license,” she says, who acquired her license in 2000 and
started working at McColly ten years later. “The support at
McColly helped me to concentrate on the more important issues I
needed to dedicate my time to and help build my business with our
team. My daughter, Samantha Parkhouse has been working with me for
seven- plus years. After teaching second grade for ten years in
Crown Point, she brought those organizational and negotiation
skills to her Real Estate career. Iris Varlan has been on our team
for eight years and is patient and dedicated to each of her
clients. We like to say that we go the extra mile and pride
ourselves in helping each family.”
Initially
an elementary school teacher, Lisa Grady became an agent/broker 15
years ago and started working for McColly Real Estate 11 years ago
as an individual agent. She soon realized that as her business kept
growing, she couldn’t keep up with all of her clients on her
own.
“So
I decided to form a team of individuals who have the same goals and
values that I do,” says Grady who grew up in Griffith and
whose family has lived in Crown Point for almost 30 years now.
“I wanted agents on my team that would represent my character
and values when I could not be present. I have a wonderful group of
agents that all work together to ensure the success of all of our
clients. We understand that buying and selling can be incredibly
stressful at times.”
Grady
credits her love of decorating, gardening and just a pure love of
home and family as leading to a career where she can incorporate
all her passions.
“I
feel very blessed and honored to be ranked by Real Trends and must
give Ron McColly and all the McColly staff a huge shout out and
express my gratitude for all they have done for me over the years.
Many agents move to numerous companies throughout their careers.
Ron McColly has a long-standing agent list and that says so much
about the way he runs his company. I was fortunate to have my path
cross with his many years ago.”
Julie
Elisha has been at McColly Real Estate since earning her license 11
years ago. Her background includes studying, drafting, and working
for 11 years for her father, a land surveyor and developer, who
built subdivisions in the area. These are important assets to her
job, that taught her to see beyond the decorative aspects of the
homes she sells.
“I’m
the kind of REALTOR who goes into attics and crawl spaces,”
she says. “I know about quality, materials and construction.
I can see if walls are bowed, if there’s water in places, if
the house is set too low. I always say to my customers it’s
easy for a home to look pretty but it’s more important to
look at the bones of a home.”
Elisha
says neither the number of homes she sells nor their price matters
to her.
“Whether
it’s $100,000 home or higher, to me it’s all about
integrity and about the clients,” she says.
Brent
Wright, who has worked as a REALTOR for McColly for the past
decade, says he’s never seen a real estate market like the
current one.
“It’s
so busy,” he says, noting that a lack of housing inventory
means many homes get sold quickly after being put on the market and
often get multiple offers at the asking price or even higher.
“It’s partly because interest rates are so low and also
because that now more people are working remotely, they
recognize they don’t need to live in a big city like Chicago.
They can get more home for their money in one of the very nice
communities we have here in Northwest Indiana.”
Wright
has always been a go-getter, starting a small online business when
he was 19 that specialized in aftermarket automotive lighting and
bought his first home a year later with the idea of flipping real
estate. It wasn’t until five years later, in 2010 that he
attended the McColly School of Real Estate and earned his REALTOR
license.
“I
learned so much there,” he says.
He’s
proud at being ranked in RealTrends® America’s list of
best agents but says what he loves most about his job is being able
to help people successfully navigate major changes.
“Whether
they’re buying or selling, I'm helping them through a
hard transition,” he says.
Becoming
a REALTOR was a natural for Kelly White. Her mother owned a real
estate company and her father was a builder. White worked for
Willow Creek Lumber until they closed.
“Then
I got my license and started working for my mom in 1986,”
says White, noting that much has changed in the real estate
business since then.
“There
were no computers, no faxes, no Multiple Listing Service, no lock
boxes—if you were going to show a house, you had to go to the
real estate company that was handling the sale, pick up the key,
drive to the home, take your clients through it and then drive back
to the listing office to return the key. That certainly has
changed, as adding the most up-to-date technology is part of
McColly’s mantra.
“We
care about what our agents have in their toolbox and want to fuel
their immediate and long term success.” said Monica
Decker, McColly’s Director of Marketing &
Technology.
“You
can do a lot more business with technology,” agrees White.
“But you have to make sure that you don’t lose rapport
with your clients. It’s important to have that personal
touch. My clients are like my family. I now am selling homes to the
grandkids of my clients. It really is like family. I enjoy being a
REALTOR so much that I get up each day happy to go to
work.”