Some St. Louis residential real estate firms have changed hands over the years, others have stayed ‘in the family’—but most have enjoyed noticeable growth despite the transitions. T&S talked to several local firms to find out what has spurred their success whether the market is booming or slow.
gladys manion real estate
Stafford Manion, owner and president of Clayton-based Gladys Manion Real Estate, is the grandson of its founder and namesake, and enjoys keeping her memory alive. Manion says resilience and a positive attitude have kept the firm open for more than 80 years, even through difficult periods.
“We had never experienced anything like the market challenges from 2008 to 2010,” he says. “I went two or three years without earning anything myself. But we kept advertising and charging forward, and we stayed afloat. I did not want the company to go under on my watch.”
Manion says he learned a great deal about perseverance from his tenacious grandmother. She launched the company in 1936 at a time when real estate firms employed few females. “Gladys wasn’t a hard woman, but she was a driven one,” he recalls. “To start a business like this during the Great Depression took guts.”
Gladys ran the firm until 1960, when she passed the torch to her son James, who turned the company over to Stafford in 1987. “There were about three agents when my grandmother was in charge, but now we have a management team and 40 agents,” Manion says. “Other firms have tried to buy us, but I like to think Gladys is looking down and feeling proud of the fact that the family company is still here.”
redkey realty leaders
Founder and CEO Jill Butler says RedKey Realty Leaders understands its success is closely tied to employees’ happiness. “We do everything we can to keep work enjoyable,” she says. “Our motto is ‘Love, service and fun.’ We spend so much of our lives at work that we should be able to have a good time while there.”
RedKey was launched from a hotel suite in 2012 before moving to its office in Frontenac. The company quickly grew into additional space in the building and later opened a Chesterfield location. Butler says she hopes to open a third office soon.
She was the only agent in the beginning, but now the company employs about 170 agents. “The early days were fun,” she says. “We would meet clients at the hotel restaurant, and other real estate industry people would stop by our suite. It had a bar, so realtors and hotel guests would show up for drinks. They were all rooting for us.”
Butler invested in a company limousine that ferries employees to birthday lunches and takes clients to closing appointments. Staff members receive ‘fun money’ for their birthdays, and retreats keep employees centered. The staff enjoys hiking outings and volunteer projects as well. Butler says, “We think it’s possible to have fun and be of service to others. That’s definitely been a big part of our growth.”
laura mccarthy real estate
This Clayton-based firm is yet another founded by an entrepreneurial woman, says president Kathy Beilein. “Laura McCarthy started it in the early 1940s, and news articles at the time talked about the barriers she was breaking,” she notes. “It really was a new standard of achievement.” When McCarthy moved to Florida, she opened another office there and later sold the company to a group of agents. “One of them, Harriet Strickler, ran it until 1970 befor
She says Tom Ryan’s innovative leadership helped convince her to join the firm in 1981. “He was doing groundbreaking things, using demographic data to boost sales, comparing industry data to previous years, and producing reports that showed the best times to put clients’ homes up for sale,” she explains.
Beilein says the commitment to having informed agents and consumers continues today. “Recently, we retooled our office,” she says. “We realized our agents needed a collaborative space and better technology. So we took down some walls and started over.” She says the office went from “a sea of desks and paper” to a modern environment with efficient workstations, big tables and seating areas. “You want your work space to be one that actually works,” Beilein notes. “We try to give our agents what they need before they know they need it, so they can do the same for our clients.”
berkshire hathaway homeservices select properties
President and CEO Maryann Vitale Alles says her company has found St. Louis an ideal place to put down roots. It opened here in 2002 and grew quickly, buying a Prudential firm and transitioning from that brand to the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Select Properties name.
“The industry really changed when information went online and became mobile,” Alles says. “During the big market downturn, we had several thousand square feet of office space, but not many people were coming in. They could do everything from home. We joked to clients, ‘Just come in your pajamas, we don’t mind!’” The company’s leadership realized that streamlining its brick-and-mortar presence made sense, and they consolidated from 12 metro area offices into nine.
Alles says Berkshire Select is a big booster of important causes, raising more than $700,000 to date for Sunshine Kids, a nonprofit that helps young cancer patients. And she says employees are treated like family, which helps ensure the company’s future growth. She is particularly proud of its Leadership Bench, which develops new branch heads from within. “We have 575 agents and 50 administrative staff, and I believe in knowing them all,” Alles says.
Janet Horlacher, principal and daughter of founder Janet McAfee Weakley, says her firm is excited to be celebrating its 42nd anniversary this year. Weakley launched the company in 1975 after the real estate business she was working for suddenly closed.
“With a loan from her dad, my mother started Janet McAfee Real Estate in the basement of our home and eventually moved to an office in Clayton,” Horlacher says. Now based in Ladue, the firm is “centrally located for the clients we serve,” she notes. It counts about 85 full-time agents and 60 others who want to stay involved in the business.
She says mergers have helped the company spread its wings in St. Louis. In 2008, she and president Ted Thornhill made the move to absorb Edward L. Bakewell Realtors, a 90-year-old firm headed by Sarah Bakewell. “Sarah’s company was a family firm as well, so it was a natural fit for us,” Horlacher says. The agency also merged with St. Albans Realty about three years ago.
Looking to the future, they recently launched a new ‘e-lead’ platform that uses cutting-edge mobile and wireless technology, software and social media to generate sales. “More than 98 percent of homeowners and buyers look online for real estate information,” Horlacher says.