Intero Showcase recognized for economic impact
Real estate company’s staff doubled in size after merger
The Appeal has been featuring short stories about winners of various awards at the January Yuba-sutter Chamber of Commerce Gala.
For Intero Showcase, 2018 was a year of unprecedented growth, seeing its staff double in size following a merger with ERA Real Estate.
The Yuba-sutter Chamber of Commerce recently recognized the real estate company with its 2018 Economic Impact Award for contributions to the economic vitality of the area, stating Intero has invested in and trained their staff, created jobs and contributed to a flourishing economy.
“We weren’t expecting the award, which is why I had nothing prepared when they named us. It was just very unexpected, and we were totally humbled by it,” said Ernie Phelan, co-owner of Intero Showcase.
Phelan and his wife, Donna, have been running the local Intero franchise for the past five years. The company deals with everything from residential and commercial to agriculture real estate. Intero Showcase agents focus their efforts in Sutter, Yuba, Colusa, Butte, Yolo and Placer counties.
“We were approached last year by one of the long-standing brokerages in town to merge, so we merged with ERA. We bought them out in August and basically doubled in size,” Phelan said.
With the merger, Intero Showcase went from about 25 agents to around 55 agents. Despite the addition of so many new faces, Phelan said, the mission remains the same, which is to treat employees like family and establish longterm connections with their clients.
“We are more of a family-oriented business. We consider our employees family, and we invest in their success because we are only successful if they are,” he said.
Intero holds training sessions about four to eight times a month, helping employees learn about different platforms and ways of communicating with clients. Being a franchise, they also have access to some of the leading technology in the industry through the parent organization in Silicon Valley.
“Even though we have all the bells and whistles at our disposal, the job still boils down to people talking to people. So, we put a lot of focus on how we are communicating with our people on a constant basis,” Phelan said.
The company is also working with a builder on a new, 180-lot housing development in Colusa County. The work started last year, which was another significant milestone for the company.
“We are experiencing a housing shortage in this area, so we are trying to work on that, especially with the wildfire survivors, which we know that has increased the need for housing,” Phelan said.
Phelan said crews intend to start moving dirt on the project as soon as the ground dries out this spring. He expects 2019 to be just as busy as last year.
“We are grateful and humbled by the Chamber’s award,” Phelan said. “We will do our best to live up to it on a continuous basis.”