What happened in 1976? Some think of the bicentennial, the winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, or Patty Hearsts guilty verdict.

 

We like to remember that Red Oak was founded in a garage at 855 Ramona in Albany. That makes Red Oak Realty 40 years old this year. Its hard to believe a business founded in a hot tub would have evolved into a major player in the East Bay real estate market.

 

The 100+ agents, staff and managers gathered to celebrate Red Oak at the annual Kick Off breakfast. Held on February 23 at the Mira Vista Country Club in El Cerrito, was an opportunity to remember the past and look forward to the future.

 

• For the fourth year in a row, Red Oak grew faster than the market in both units and dollar volume.

• Red Oak listings sell faster and further over list price than any of the 10 largest brokerages in the East Bay. They had the lowest cancellation rate, too.

• It looks like clients are pretty happy with the results. Not only do they give an average rating of 3.8 out of 4 stars for performance, but Oakland Magazine readers voted Red Oak as the best Real Estate Company in Oakland and the East Bay for 2015.

Marketing has been going well:

 

• Red Oak launched a unique ad campaign in San Francisco Magazine. Nice to see the effort pay off: It was recognized as

• Best Print Campaign by Whos Who in Luxury Real Estate.

• redoakrealty.com's traffic grew 24% since last year. Part of this was driven by the fully custom responsive website that was launched in 2015. Thirty two percent of traffic now comes from mobile devices.

• After a full year of focusing on social media, thousands now follow the company on Facebook and Instagram.

Not bad, right?

 

Red Oaks successes were purely the result of its fabulous agents. At the Kick Off event the company was proud to announce 2015s top producers. They were:

 

• Top Producer Company-Wide: Andrea Gordon

• Top Producing Agent Berkeley Office: Grace Bishop

• Top Producing Team Berkeley Office: The Lederer Team

• Top Producing Agent Oakland Office: Angelo Raymundo

• Top Producing Team Oakland Office: Team510

• Top 5 Agents: Deidre Joyner, Sara Garabedian, Julia Temple, Michele Senitzer and Barbara Hendrickson

• Top 5 Teams: Leif Jenssen, Charity Ankrum & Tamir Mansour; Pat & Gillian Leaper; Eli & Bill Fletcher; Heidi Long & Dana Cordeiro; Tracy Davis & Lee Goodwin; Jose Fernandez & Stacey Merryman

They were also happy to give awards for other special skills, including:

 

• Highest transaction: Sara Garabedian

• Rookie of the Year: Esther Goldberg-Contreras

• Bon Voyage and Enjoy Your Retirement: Arlene Leonoff

Nancy Gardner, a real estate management coach, consultant and trainer, presented her forecast for 2016. As the number of East Bay transactions declines at an increasing rate, it is critical for agents to focus on personal and market metrics, delivering a simplified as stress-free process for clients. This means a strong digital presence, generating valuable content and increasing speed of response to online leads is critical.

 

With these trends in mind, Red Oak is launching several programs to assist agents with their marketing efforts. Whats more, the company will focus on generating quality content for consumers on a variety of platforms, from native advertising, to social media engagement, to an exclusive agreement with Visit Oakland (but more on that later).

 

It may seem maudlin, but the event created a strong bond of respect and appreciation. Red Oak is honored to be connected to so many wonderful people.

 

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