March 25, 2005

Room for another real estate firm in Evergreen?

(From left) Some of the employees in the new Silver Creek Intero offices include, back row: Beverly Guzman, David Ngo, Barry Adams, Dan Pfister, Chris Hawkins and Primo Guzman. Front row from Left to right: Yolanda Moreno, Lisa Moreno, Shigemi Tajima, Jaime Pfister and Lucy Chacon.

Intero Silver Creek says, ‘Yes!’

By Bea Baechle
Editor

Intero Real Estate Services, founded in 2002, is taking the Bay Area by storm, with 1,158 agents and growing. With its rapid expansion, it’s no wonder that one of its 24 offices just opened up in southeast San Jose.

Strategically located just south of the Silver Creek area of Evergreen, east of Blossom Valley and Almaden and north of Coyote Valley, Intero is poised to service this booming area in its elegant 5,600 square foot office on Silver Creek Valley Road. With 26 agents hired today, Intero plans to someday employ 65 to 70 agents here.

“We are very excited about the opening of our Silver Creek office,” said Gino Blefari, founder, president and CEO of Intero Real Estate Services. “With such a growing and dynamic market as the Silver Creek Valley, we understood the importance of having a significant presence to service the needs of this growing area.”

With headquarters in Cupertino, Intero may be a new real estate firm, but Blefari had more than 20 years of experience in real estate sales, development and management, from local to national operations when he started the company. He created Intero to address what he felt was a void in the industry and a lack of viable choices for both agents and consumers.

With a passion for mentoring, he recruited many former colleagues to his management team that he felt could grasp his cornerstones for success: time management, discipline and commitment.

Intero Silver Creek
Chris Hawkins, vice president of Intero Real Estate Services and the managing officer of Intero Silver Creek, was one of them. Hawkins, a Bay Area native who grew up in Los Altos, worked under Blefari his entire real estate career.

Because of his reputation for skillfully managing real estate transactions, Hawkins has also been an instructor at Intero’s Art of Real Estate education program for the past two years. He teaches the skills of presenting and negotiating contracts with emphasis on proper dialogue, managing expectations, and demonstrating value to clients.

“We’re big on education,” said Hawkins, who listens to audio books on the way into the office from his home in Los Altos, where he lives with his wife Leah, his daughter Mia and his new newborn son Joseph.

“We’re a company that will hire agents that are not as established or downright new in the business, because we’re confident that we can train and develop people who want to grow,” he added.

Lucy Chacon is one such agent, starting a new career with Intero after 10 years as a stay-at-home mom. “I love it. It’s a great place to work,” said Chacon. “When you have a question, there’s always a resource. Intero really provides a lot of resources.”

Yolanda Moreno, of Moreno and Moreno, agrees. “I’ve been with Intero for about a year, and in the time since we started, we really feel that Intero has been behind us to help us succeed.”

“The training, leadership and management are just top notch,” adds her sister Lisa Moreno, “and they really, really want you to succeed individually and as a whole team.”

Continued growth
Intero also works at making sure established agents continue to grow.

“Sometimes the biggest obstacle to great success is good success,” said Hawkins, meaning that some agents may feel that once they’ve got it down, they don’t have to learn anymore. “We’re real good about always getting our people to the next level. To some people, that feels like pressure. For others, they thrive in that environment. We realize this isn’t a place for everybody.”

Hawkins was interested in this area because of the changing socio-economic demographics and the influx of new homes east of 101 ever since the Silver Creek Valley Country Club first began selling homes here.

He acknowledges that Intero has its work cut out for it in the Evergreen and Silver Creek Valleys, since many residents are not as familiar with Intero as they are with more established real estate companies that have been located in Evergreen much longer. But he’s up for the challenge.

“We’ve become the dominant player and real estate provider by demonstrating high levels of professionalism and competency,” said Hawkins, who graduated from San Jose State University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration-marketing and a minor in advertising.

“In the real estate industry as a whole, people think we’re all the same and don’t do anything differently,” he continued. “The industry is not good at conveying the value. We want to seek industry leadership through sound business practices and an unwavering commitment to ethical standards.”

Real estate agent Dan Pfister feels that Intero is fulfilling that goal. “Coming from a very large real estate company, it’s an honor to work for a company that has the professionalism and integrity that Intero has.”

Intero Foundation
To support the communities in which it works, the company established the Intero Foundation, a nonprofit charitable organization with a mission to primarily contribute to causes that benefit children. Every agent contributes a portion of their commission checks.

In its first full year of operation, the foundation raised $68,000. In 2004, that number jumped to $220,000.

“Undoubtedly, we’ll find something that aligns with our mission out here,” said Hawkins, noting that the foundation makes large contributions to a few organizations to make a more significant impact rather than doling out lots of small contributions.

“The law of abundance says the more you give, the more you receive. We understand the importance of being a positive element in the community, and we also understand that could have positive business ramifications,” he added.

For more information about Intero, go to the Web site www.interorealestate.com. For more information about current and past housing market trends, go to California Association of Realtor’s Web site, www.car.org.