Inman

Intero joins the club

Fast-growing Intero Real Estate Services, an independent real estate company based in Cupertino, Calif., has joined The Realty Alliance, a national invitation-only real estate networking and think-tank group, company officials announced today.

Intero, formed by Gino Blefari, a former senior vice president for real estate powerhouse NRT Inc., has grown to more than 825 salespeople and 15 offices since its start in October 2002.

Robert Moles, former president and CEO of Cendant Corp’s Real Estate Franchise Group, joined Intero as chairman, director and shareholder earlier this year. “We’re excited about the opportunities that this new relationship will offer our company,” Moles said. “This new affiliation will enable us to better improve our products, programs and services and continue striving to be the very best in the real estate industry.”

The Realty Alliance, a for-profit corporation formed in 1997, has strict financial standards that must be met as a condition of membership, and all prospective member-companies must have closed a minimum of $500 million in residential real estate sales volume for the previous calendar year. Also, prospective member-companies must have completed a minimum 5,000 transaction sides of residential real estate for the previous calendar year. The alliance has about 50 member-companies across the nation.

Member-companies are required to provide yearly financial information and production figures that are used to provide benchmarking criteria to all members, according to an announcement today. “In addition, member firms are encouraged to maintain strict performance and client satisfaction standards to retain their membership status,” the announcement states.

William Charles McKee has served as president and CEO for The Realty Alliance since its inception in January 1997. The Realty Alliance formed as a combination of two groups: the Dozen and the Mastermind groups. McKee formerly served as executive vice president of the Greater Dallas Association of Realtors from October 1990 to April 1995. Lewis Glenn, chairman of The Realty Alliance, is president and CEO of Harry Norman, Realtors in Atlanta, Ga., and Harley Rouda Jr., vice chairman of the alliance, is CEO and managing partner for Real Living.

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