Proving that it’s not necessary to become a large real estate franchise to leave a large impact on his clients, Darryl Izakowitz founded RedBrick Properties as a virtual real estate company.
“Being virtual allows us the freedom to serve our client’s best interests. We base our entire business upon serving our buyers and sellers without any restrictions from corporate executives or a franchise” asserts Darryl.
After graduating from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a City and Regional Planning degree in 1995, Darryl chose to combine his land use and zoning knowledge with his passion for real estate, construction, and architecture. Darryl recalls “growing up I had a natural creative talent for drawing and building models. I loved architecture and enjoyed watching buildings and houses being constructed. I originally wanted to work in real estate development, but the early-to-mid ‘90s underwent a real estate recession and jobs in that industry were scarce.” Darryl immediately joined a commercial real estate firm in the Inland Empire selling industrial buildings and land. He furthered his real estate experience through selling vacation properties in Big Bear Lake, CA for a major national real estate franchise.
Then an opportunity to work for his father in the family business appeared. “It was 1997 when I joined my Dad’s wholesale business to manage the sales division. We were a large, regional wholesaler distributing paint sundries, hardware, and home improvement products to the retail industry” says Darryl. For ten years he worked closely under his father experiencing how to manage and grow a business, providing an invaluable service, and treating their customers like gold. It was always more than just sales to Darryl.
The family sold their wholesale business in 2007. Darryl remained employed by the new ownership, but “I knew that after my family decided to sell the business I wanted to return to the real estate industry. The economy was declining sharply and so were real estate values”. Darryl also recognized that the real estate brokerage community needed massive reform and change. He witnessed the consumer become “just a number” to their agents. Overall, the industry was lacking professionalism, integrity, and knowledge. It appeared to Darryl that most franchises would hire any real estate agent with a license. “Agents were quitting the real estate business in droves, and real estate brokerages were filing bankruptcy, closing down, and merging. This was the right time for me to create a different type of real estate company” recalls Darryl.
Today, RedBrick Properties is growing by one happy client at a time. As Darryl mentions, “I know it’s cliché and overused, but our entire business revolves around our clients and their real estate needs. We focus our sole attention on guiding them through a very serious, and often complicated, real estate transaction.”
RedBrick Properties is not tied to the old practices, empty promises, and lack-luster technologies typical of older real estate firms. It believes the large real estate companies are built on a promise they can’t keep by virtue of the hundreds of independent agents they provide the marketplace who all have their own sensibilities, agendas, and independent service propositions. Most, if not all, write promise checks they can’t cash.
By contrast and based on Darryl’s values, RedBrick Properties can and does.
