Canyon to Coast

2012 a year of milestones for Surterre Properties®
by Bill Quinnan, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – The last year has been one of several major milestones for Surterre Properties, a Newport Beach-based, full-service real-estate firm with offices in Corona del Mar, Irvine, Monarch Beach and San Clemente. In 2012, the firm opened six offices, completed more than $2 billion in sales and was ranked second among midsize companies in The Orange County Register’s Top Workplaces section, which also honored Surterre president and CEO Gary Legrand with a special award for leadership.

Employees praised the firm for its sense of purpose in helping people find homes and achieve financial goals, its work environment, integrity and use of cutting-edge technology.

Among the features distinguishing Surterre from other real-estate firms are its in-house advertising agency, its aggressive Internet-marketing program and its green initiatives.

The staff of Surterre’s advertising agency, led by Chief Marketing Officer Paula Ansara-Wilhelm, has received more than 25 awards for marketing excellence. The agency offers on-demand printers, custom-designed marketing materials, including flyers, brochures, and direct-mail pieces, along with ads subsidized by Surterre. Having a team of on-site designers and production artists enables agents to advertise more frequently and effectively than agents at other firms, according to Surterre’s Web site.

Surterre’s Internet marketing program is designed to expose homes to more than 130 million potential buyers each month. To reach buyers across the globe, the firm has optimized its Web site to translate into more than 50 languages. It also invests in search-engine optimization and pay-per-click on leading search engines worldwide and syndicates its listings to international portals across six continents. In addition, it has created a Chinese version of its Web site, which has been enhanced to appear in search queries made on China’s leading search engine, Baidu.

The firm also offers its own smart-phone application, available for free on iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices, which instantly connects prospective buyers to the features available on its Web site, such as property descriptions and pictures, information about Surterre agents and access links to the firm’s blog, Facebook page, Twitter feed and YouTube channel.

Agents are equipped with such tools as an e-mail system that is accessible from home computers, laptops and mobile devices, as well as in the office, and a voice-over-Internet-provider phone and messaging systems. The firm has a fully staffed IT department on hand 24 hours a day and holds classes to help agents stay current with real-estate–related technology.

Surterre Properties is a certified EcoBroker and a U.S. Green Building Council member. Through the process of obtaining EcoBroker certification, agents learn strategies that can potentially make homes more environmentally friendly and help clients save money while buying or selling a property.

The firm endeavors to maintain an eco-friendly working environment by using recycled materials for printing purposes, as well as chairs and workstations made out of recycled plastics, and makes a concerted effort to find business partners that use eco-friendly materials in their businesses. Surterre donates a portion of its profits to local environmental organizations and participates in quarterly eWaste drives at its Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Monarch Beach offices.

Surterre was cofounded in 2006 by Legrand and Ansara-Wilhelm. Prior to founding the firm, Legrand served as manager for Coldwell Banker Previews International’s Newport Center branch and as an investor and Chief Financial Officer for Coast Newport Properties, a boutique luxury real-estate firm. Ansara-Wilhelm’s previous experience included helping to rebrand Coast Newport Properties and launch Strada Properties, as well as developing and managing creative campaigns for other real-estate industry leaders.

The firm has closed more than $6 billion in sales since opening six years ago.

“Ever since the beginning and since I’ve been in a few different corporate atmospheres, I wanted it to be different for everybody,” Legrand said in a video interview for The Orange County Register. “I wanted everyone to want to come to work, to enjoy coming to work and feel that they can make a benefit and make a difference every single day.”

Legrand believes his firm’s social networking efforts are a key component of its positive work environment.

“We get to know each other on a personal basis versus just a business basis,” Legrand said.

“And that’s enabled all the agents and employees to work well together and employees wanting to come to work because they know each other and they socialize with each other and they respect each other, and we have a great camaraderie throughout the whole office.”

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – 去年对于Surterre房产公司是具有里程碑意义的一年。2012年，Surterre房产公司一共在Newport Beach, Corona del Mar, Irvine,Monarch Beach 以及San Clemente等地开设了6个新的办公室，并且完成了超过二十个亿的销售额。这样优异的成绩使得Surterre房产公司成为橘子郡所有中型房产公司里排名第二位。除此之外，因为他们优秀的领导才能，Surterre公司的总裁以及首席执行长官还受到了额外的嘉奖。

Surterre房产公司的员工也对公司称赞有加，因为Surterre房产公司有着自己明确的目标：那就是帮助顾客找到他们理想的家并且帮助他们实现他们金融上的目标。Surterre为员工提供了舒适的工作环境，对员工以诚相待，并且提供科技的运用帮助员工更快更好地完成他们的工作。Surterre房产公司与其他房产公司最大的区别在于它的广告代理商， 富有竞争力的互联网营销项目以及它对于绿色环保概念的提倡。

由市场部经理Paula Ansara-Wilhelm所带领的Surterre广告代理商部门的员工，因为他们优秀的市场推广使得他们获得了超过25个殊荣。市场部门的员工为市场推广做出了很多的努力，其中包括他们为Surterre公司所印制的传单，手册，以及包含Surterre公司广告的邮寄信件等等。通过 Surterre公司网站上的介绍，Surterre公司还拥有一只包含设计师以及艺术家的团队，使得房产经纪们可以比其他房产公司更快更好地推广自己公司的房产。Surterre房产公司的互联网营销项目每个月可以向一千三百万的潜在顾客推荐它们的房子。为了更好的与世界各地的买家沟通，Surterre公司把自己的网站翻译成了超过50种不同语言的版本。Surterre公司还优化了自己的搜索引擎，并且在全世界的知名搜索引擎网站上设置了点击付费的功能。不仅如此，Surterre公司还将自己公司的房产信息同步到了6个大洲所有著名的门户网站上。除此之外，Surterre公司还将自己的网站翻译成为了中文，这样一来，来自中国的买家可以很轻松的在百度这样的网站上搜索到Surterre公司的信息。

Surterre公司还推出了在智能手机上可以使用的程序，在iPhone, Android以及黑莓手机上都可以免费试用。使用这款程序，您可以直接通过手机到达Surterre公司的网站，在上面您可以看到房产的介绍，图片和Surterre公司房产经纪的介绍，公司博客的链接，Facebook首页，Twitter以及YouTube频道。房产经纪也配备了很多与客户沟通联系的设备，例如，房产经纪的私人邮箱与个人电脑，手提电脑，手机，办公室电子设备以及语音互联网提供商的电话和信息系统都是相连接的。Surterre公司还配备了24小时工作的IT部门，可以有效地帮助房产经纪解决所有关于房产上高科技运用所产生的问题。

Surterre房产公司不仅是一个得到认证的EcoBroker,还是美国绿色建筑委员会的成员。在获得EcoBroker认证的过程之中，房产经纪们都掌握了可以使房产变得更加绿色环保的技能，并且可以帮助买卖房产的顾客节省更多的花费。Surterre公司全力地打造了一个对环境没有污染破坏的工作环境。公司通过使用回收的材料用于纸张的打印，并且公司的椅子，办工桌都是由回收的塑料所制成。除此之外，Surterre公司还致力于寻找有着同样环保热忱的商业合作伙伴。

Surterre还向当地的环境组织捐献了一部分所得利润，并且举办和参加了每一个季度在Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Monarch Beach办公室减少电子垃圾的活动。

Surterre公司是在2006年由Legrand和Ansara-Wilhelm共同创立的。在创立公司之前，Legrand在Coldwell银行,Newport Beach分行担任经理，并且他还是Coast Newport房产公司的投资者和首席财务官。Ansara-Wilhelm’s之前的经历包括：帮助重新命名Coast Newport房产公司，建立了Strada房产公司，以及发展并且管理了多家房产公司领导的竞选工作。

Suterre房产公司，从六年前创办至今，总共完成了超过了六十个亿的销售总额。Legrand曾在一次采访中说道：“因为我曾在很多不同的公司工作过，所以我希望我的公司和所有其他公司都与众不同。我希望所有人都愿意并且享受来我的公司工作，除此之外，我还希望所有人都可以从工作中得到收获并且每天都可以发现自己的一点改变。

Legrand相信他的公司的强大的社交网络是支持公司积极向上的工作氛围的一个重要因素。Legrand曾表示：“我们每一个人都要去从另一个的私人方面去了解他（她），而不是专注于他（她）商业上的表现。通过这样的了解，公司的每个房产经纪和员工都愿意来工作，并且可以很好地相互帮忙，合作，因为他们觉得彼此了解对方，尊重对方，并且建立了很好的社交关系。这样一来，整个办公室以及整个公司都建立了一种互助互爱的良好工作氛围。”