Pictured left to right: Jeff Bennett, Katie Wietbrock, Bill Rathjen, Tim McColly and Monica Decker.
Editor’s note: McColly Real Estate participated in this conference before the pandemic was declared. We applaud the company for reaching out to bring global knowledge to our local real estate market to ultimately improve the selling and buying experience for everyone.
McColly Real Estate is leveraging global real estate knowledge here in Northwest Indiana and surrounding communities after recently joining real estate leaders from around the country at the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® (LeadingRE) Conference at The Wynn Las Vegas.
LeadingRE is a collective of some of the globe’s top independent brokerages. The annual conference is their chance to focus on quality, leadership, and innovation in a collaborative setting. It even attracts internationally renowned speakers, artists, economists, and tech experts, such as Platon Antoniou, a portrait artist who has worked with Barack Obama, George Clooney, and Bill Gates.
“The Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® Conference allows me to learn from the best names in real estate,” said Tracy Parus, General Manager for McColly Real Estate Corporate. “I have a greater appreciation of the world’s largest community of independent real estate firms. The networking relationships that are formed can create referrals for a lifetime and the educational programs are, in my opinion, world-class and current.”
A crucial part of McColly Real Estate’s business is staying connected with brokers across the country who can help their clients around the Region find properties in other states. The LeadingRE Conference allowed McColly’s top brokers to meet some of those experts.
“I don’t know that I really comprehended the importance of the LeadingRE network before I went to the conference,” said Kathy Schroeder, Broker at McColly Crown Point. “It lets us provide our clients with good agents around the country and around the world. Thanks to LeadingRE, we know that we’re referring our clients to the best agents, people they can trust.”
McColly Real Estate’s conference team was made up of brokers who had received the most referrals from agents around the world. Diane Farino, Broker at McColly Schererville, was one of them.
“This is an elite group of Realtors, and you have to earn your way into it,” Farino said. “I look at LeadingRE as being kind of like a VIP club. Our buyers and sellers are getting all the benefits of being a part of that VIP club that they wouldn’t be able to get otherwise.”
Farino has already helped clients with resources and connections she built thanks to LeadingRE.
“I sold a few properties just last year, two in Georgia and one in Florida, because of the networking opportunity we had,” she said. “It’s a lot easier to refer our clients once we’ve met with these brokers in person. The conference is another avenue for us to expand our knowledge and experience in order to offer better service to our clients.”
This year’s conference was Bill Rathjen’s third straight, and he has grown to see it as a very motivational event.
“It gets you out of your rut,” said Rathjen, a broker with McColly Real Estate’s Valparaiso office. “It’s easy to start doing business the same way, day-in and day-out. The LeadingRE conference gives perspective on other ways to get things done, and how people tackle the challenges of real estate business in new ways.”
To learn more about McColly Real Estate, visit www.mccolly.com. For more information about Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, visit www.leadingre.com.
