real-estate
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Sean Miku and the complicated business of keeping it simple
He started simpliHŌM with $30,000 and four agents. As the brokerage expanded, Sean Miku found that making life easier for other people required a different kind of ambition.
Thomas J. Baltimore Jr. and the value of changing your game
He gave college basketball a year, then chose a different court. The co-founder of RLJ and chairman of Park Hotels & Resorts has spent his career deciding which bets to keep - and which opportunities to pass on.
Jeffrey Campos and the work after the wish
From restaurant shifts in New York to recruiting and AI automation, the Sharp 2.0 founder has kept working on what happens after an introduction. A Costa Rican beginning, a Lady Gaga reunion and a career built around getting people to the next step.
Graham Weston and the art of getting people to stay
After helping build Rackspace, Graham Weston turned to the problem a job offer couldn't solve: making San Antonio a place people wanted to choose.
Ken Gross and the trouble with retiring
After selling his first alarm business, Ken Gross tried real estate, bagels and championship basketball. Then the founder of Connect America went back to the work he knew.
Bob Hamrick and the business of staying in the room
He bought a Las Vegas brokerage with Molly Hamrick in 1998. Through a housing crash, a CityCenter assignment and years of agent coaching, his most consistent investment has been in the people across the desk.
The business behind the open house
Keller Williams Palos Verdes Realty sells homes. Its more revealing proposition is the business it helps agents build around them.
Xcellence Realty makes the split the selling point
The Florida brokerage puts agent economics at the center of its pitch. Behind “100% commission” sits a more interesting choice: pay for shared infrastructure, or pay for help doing the work.
Voro puts a price on independence
What happens when a real estate brokerage stops taking a slice of every sale? Voro turns that question into a subscription - and lets agents decide where the savings go.
Connect Realty puts the agent first
A real estate brokerage with an unusual customer in mind: the person selling the house. Inside Connect Realty’s bet on shared tools, better commissions, and someone to call when a deal gets complicated.
StartVirtual and the art of letting go
A virtual assistant can answer the phone. StartVirtual’s bigger bet is that a business owner can learn to stop answering every question.
FBS learned when to stop saying yes
The employee-owned company behind Flexmls built its business by listening. Its harder lesson was learning which customer requests could pull a shared market apart.
Zach Taylor Real Estate asks: why split the check?
A $21,000 brokerage bill gave Zach Griest an idea. A monthly fee, a flat transaction charge and a surprisingly useful office turned it into a business.
Amit Birman and the business of letting go
After years of financing things that get built, Amit Birman took charge of Shikun & Binui. His next move was to ask which businesses the builder could afford to keep.
Stewart Title sells peace with the past
Every property has a history. Stewart Title built a business checking it - then began buying the tools to handle what happens next.
Charles Young and the art of starting over
From professional football to rental homes, Charles Young built a career inside changing organizations. At Sun Communities, his next assignment is taking shape around a more focused map.
Angela Kleiman and the value of staying close
After running investments, finance, and operations at Essex Property Trust, Angela Kleiman took the CEO’s chair in 2023. Her West Coast strategy turns on a practical question: what can neighboring apartment buildings do better together?
Jeff Hanson and the people who stayed
The companies changed names. The partnership kept going. Jeff Hanson’s route to the CEO chair at American Healthcare REIT runs through a $4 billion sale, a three-way merger, and decades of building with the same partners.
Muteab Al-Tukeas and the distance between a plan and a building
Before becoming Dallah Health’s CEO, Muteab Al-Tukeas worked in civil engineering, project management and corporate strategy. His route to the top is a story about the work between deciding and delivering.
Stephen Kotler and the long way back to the family business
He built a rental team in New York, helped take Douglas Elliman west, and returned to brokerage alongside his son. Stephen Kotler’s career keeps circling back to the people who need a place to land.
AMH found a better way to grow: build the house.
The rental company grew by buying houses. Its more revealing move was learning to build them - and designing the machinery that keeps them rented.
Timothy Naughton and the art of making room
He spent decades helping AvalonBay grow, then helped his successor learn the business. From apartment brands to an Arlington children’s fund, Timothy Naughton’s career turns on a practical question: who gets room to thrive?
JM builds the home before the home.
The Nordic developer has spent decades taking control of the steps that precede a front door. Now it is testing how much better building can do for a hesitant housing market.
Allan Merrill and the bill after the keys
He helped take Beazer Homes public, then spent fifteen years as CEO asking what a house costs after the sale. With Beazer now acquired by Dream Finders, Allan Merrill’s argument for better-performing homes enters a new chapter.
Joseph Margolis and the meeting that made room for a different future
He nearly passed on a meeting with a self-storage entrepreneur. Twenty-eight years later, Joseph Margolis is preparing to hand over a business with more than 4,400 stores - and a few lessons about when to change your mind.
Michael Liebowitz and the price of knowing what people want
Before he took charge of Douglas Elliman, Michael Liebowitz built a career around the details that make a deal work. His next wager joins the arithmetic of risk with the very human business of finding a home.
Essex Property Trust: The value of staying put
Essex built an apartment business around places where building is difficult. Its West Coast focus explains both the appeal of the company and the risks that come with it.
Greg Williamson’s theory of the room
A Brooklyn Heights childhood, a classroom and a benefit concert belong to the same New York story. For Greg Williamson, the next opportunity often begins with bringing people together.
Peter Scott and the arithmetic of staying put
After years advising property companies and managing Healthpeak’s finances, Peter Scott took charge of Healthcare Realty. His next assignment put the emphasis on what happens inside a portfolio: the leases, the spending and the decisions to keep or sell.
UBSI and the power of showing up together
A teacher needs one house. A dealer needs a stream of buyers. The UBSI Group builds a business in the space between those two facts.