In a Recent Interview with the Milwaukee Journal...

Agent Recruited into His Life’s Work

By Robert Warde April 21, 2013

Chris Fleege started in commercial real estate about 20 years ago. He answered a blind classified ad about investment real estate, meeting with a broker who encouraged him to get his license. “The broker who brought me in had a brother who was selling speculative homes and I placed my license with him, learned the residential side and have been selling homes ever since,” he said. Fleege discusses his career in real estate in this edited interview.

What do you enjoy about selling real estate?

Over the last 20 years, there have been a lot of ups and downs. The thing that has kept me in the business has been that passion for meeting new people and helping them achieve the American Dream of owning their own little piece of the pie.

What do you consider to be your biggest challenge?

The changing market and working with a lot of people who are in distressed situations has been my biggest challenge. A lot of people are still under water with their mortgages, and I am helping them get out from under that. You get a lot more drawn in on the personal side and sometimes feel more like a counselor than a realtor. That has been a challenge.

What have you done differently during the downturn?

You have to be constantly reeducating yourself on new business practices and having the right tools to overcome the challenges of today’s market. I have always done a lot of work with first-time homebuyers, and there is a lot of joy with those transactions.

What makes you different as a real estate agent?

I pride myself on the personal service I provide to all my customers. I am a seven-days-a-week realtor. I recognize just what a big deal buying and selling real estate is, and the importance of homeownership as a whole. I treat my clients like they are my family. I build lifelong business relationships. The company sends surveys at the end of the transaction and my marks are high, so I feel good about that at the end of the day.

What qualities make for a good realtor?

A good realtor has to be very sensitive to people’s needs. There is a very large emotional tie to every transaction, and you have to recognize there are a lot of feelings involved.

Tell me about the condition of the worst house you had to li

One of the houses in the worst condition that I tried to show was a duplex a couple of years ago. I was trying to show it to a client. We started on the second floor of this foreclosure property. There was major freeze damage and some buckled floors. On the first floor there was ice on the walls. When we turned to the basement, the entire basement was a solid block of ice up to the second stair.

What do you believe are the more challenging deals?

Coldwell Banker is a specialist in relocation real estate, and we had some difficult ones there. People are moving and, in the challenging market, the numbers are never what people would like them to be. I have been to at least three or four transactions in the past 18 months where we had challenges with value and appraisals. Emotions can run very high in those situations.

Have you had any mentors?

The first broker who brought me into the business certainly was a mentor and provided a lot of insight into the mechanics of the real estate transaction. When I moved to my second company, that broker was really the driving force as far as teaching me the nuts and bolts of the business. He taught me all that would lead to success.

What is the most important advice you have been given?

The most important advice was: Keep showing up and good things will happen.

What do you do for recreation or to relax?

I have a 14-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son, and the time when I am trying to unwind is when I am with my family. Most of the time we are chasing with the kids from one activity to the next.

What charitable groups do you work with?

I do support Coldwell Banker’s charitable foundation. They do a lot of good work for housing-related charities. They recently made a large donation to the Ronald McDonald House.