The Wall Street Journal and REAL Trends, Inc. have released  their 2011 Top 1,000 Report which ranks the top real estate agents and teams, and Alain Pinel Realtors (APR) is proud to announce that 7 of our agents and 3 of our teams were ranked as top sales professionals among over one million REALTOR®’s in the country. This includes Mary Gullixson of Alain Pinel Realtors Menlo Park office who was ranked the number two agent by sales with a volume over $226 million in 2010.

Included in the list for Top 250 Agents by Sales Volume:

•  #2 – Mary Gullixson (Menlo Park)
• #47 – Kathy Bridgman  (Los Altos)
• #96 – Nicki Naylor (Sonoma)
• #122 – Judy Bogard-Tanigami (Los Altos)
• #158 – George Montanari (Los Gatos)
• #208 – Debbie Sharp (Burlingame)
• #221 – Sherry Bucolo (Palo Alto)

Included on the list of Top 250 Teams by Sales Volume:

•  #172 – Pat Cox, The Cox Team (Danville /Blackhawk)
• #185 – Caitlin and Gloria Darke (Menlo Park)
• #250 – Steve TenBroeck and Jeff Stricker (Los Altos)

Alain Pinel Realtors congratulates all of these agents on their remarkable achievement.  We pride ourselves on the exceptional quality of services we provide to our clients and are proud to have these agents represent us. Through their hard work and dedication, these agents have not only distinguished themselves as some of the best in the entire nation, but they have also helped APR remain among the highest ranked residential real estate firms in the nation.

The REAL Trends 1,000 (formerly 400) is an annual report featuring the top 250 residential sale agents and agent teams in four categories:  Individuals by Sales Volume, Individuals by Transaction Sides, Teams by Sales Volume, and Teams by Transaction Sides.

Worldwide ERC®, the association for workforce mobility, has presented Michi Olson, APR Vice President of Relocation and Business Development, with the 2011 Meritorious Service Award. This award is in recognition of Michi’s dedicated service and significant professional contributions to Worldwide ERC®, and the workforce mobility business community.

Congratulations Michi!

The recently released REAL Trends 500, an annual research report which identifies the country’s largest and most successful residential firms, is reporting that APR has held our #6 national ranking for a second year, with nearly $6.8 billion in closed sales volume for 2010! We are also still the #1 residential real estate firm in California.

The REAL Trends 500 identifies the most successful residential firms as ranked by closed transaction sides and separately by closed sales volume. This report represents the most trusted standard of measuring the performance of the nation’s leading realty service firms.

APR has been awarded the prestigious RELO® Quality Certification by the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® network, making them one of only 29 brokers out of the 600 firms in LeadingRE to have been awarded this prestigious title! APR is also the only company in all of California to have earned the certification.

RQC is the first program in the relocation industry to quantify and qualify what true relocation service excellence means. APR earned the certification only after meeting stringent standards and completing a rigorous and lengthy application process, overseen by a committee of leading industry professionals.

The Oakland Association of Realtors has named Helen Nicholas, of the APR Montclair Village office, Realtor of the Year for an unprecedented third time!

Helen is deeply dedicated to civic and professional volunteerism, serving on several boards and committees, and is known for rarely saying “no” when she is asked to pitch in. She serves as a Director for OAR, as a Chair of the Local Governmental Relations Committee, and as a Director of the Piedmont Pines Neighborhood Association. Some of her other activities include serving the California Association of Realtors as Key Contact for two state legislators, and acting as a Federal Political Coordinator providing advocacy to Congress on behalf of the National Association of Realtors. Helen also supports the Oral Lee Brown Foundation, a local organization founded by Oral Lee, a Realtor who in 1987 told a first grade class in a deprived neighborhood of Oakland that she would pay their way through college if they would stay in school.

Helen moved to Oakland´s Montclair District over thirty years ago and began her real estate career soon thereafter, knowing that the skills she had developed in her first professional pursuit as a classroom teacher would serve her clients. Helen earned her Real Estate Broker license in 1983 and the Certified Residential Specialist designation in 1996. She is also a Certified Relocation Specialist.

We are pleased to announce that our new Tiburon office is now open and ready to serve clients in the Belvedere Tiburon area. The new office is located at Point Tiburon Plaza, 1751 Tiburon Blvd in Tiburon.

This follows our entry into the Marin and Sonoma County markets in 2009, with the opening of offices in Corte Madera, Novato, Ross, Mill Valley and Sonoma.

The 3,000+/-sf office space features modern design and amenities, along with the cutting-edge technology tools that APR is known for. The new office will be home to 15 select Tiburon/Belvedere marketing specialists.

Steve Dickason, Vice President of of the APR Marin Office, will oversee the new Tiburon office and ensure delivery of APR’s comprehensive services and support to local agents and clients.

This will be our 32nd office in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Michi Olson, APR’s Vice President of Business Development and Relocation, has been appointed vice chairperson of the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® Advisory Council. The Advisory Council is a leadership group comprised of top business development professionals who offer their talent and feedback to the LeadingRE management team, mentor other members, and serve as ambassadors for the network regarding the various tools and benefits available to members.

Michi, who assumes her role as vice chairman this March, serves as APR’s primary point-of-contact for company-wide relocation services, including our affiliation with LeadingRE. She manages APR’s corporate relocation network and assists thousands of families annually when they move from one state to another for work purposes, or increasingly, to global destinations in job-related moves. She is also responsible for developing new strategic business opportunities and initiatives for APR.

Joining Michi on the Advisory Council are 11 other real estate professionals from around the country.

We are once again setting ourselves apart as a technology leader within the real estate industry by becoming one of the first local real estate brokerages to deploy QR codes in our local, regional, and national advertising. By simply pointing your smart phone camera at the QR code, you can directly link to our website.

Try It!
Tag the QR code shown in this APR print ad:

Don’t have a QR code reader application? Most apps can be downloaded for free or inexpensively from your phone’s app store whether you use an iPhone, Droid, Blackberry or other Smartphone device.

The C.A.R. Leadership Team for next year is now in place and Don Faught, Vice-President and Managing Broker for the APR Pleasanton and Livermore Valley offices, is the 2011 treasurer. Congrats to Don!

Join Michi Olson, SRES, Vice President of Relocation and Business Development, Alain Pinel Realtors, at a free presentation and discussion exploring how to sell your home and enjoy the pleasures of retirement living.

Michi will take you behind the headlines to give you her perspective on what’s happening in the real estate market. Find out first-hand what a specialist in real estate predicts for the months ahead.

The event will be held at:

Forest Hill Manor
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 – 2 p.m.
551 Gibson Avenue, Pacific Grove, CA 93950
(831) 657-5200 Toll Free (866) 657-4900
www.foresthillmanor.org

We hope to see you there!