EXECUTIVEAGENT MAGAZINE
Executive Agent of the Month
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or Nicolas Nicolaou and his team of real estate professionals, excellence isn’t just something they aspire to; it is the standard to which they hold themselves every day. With the backing of elite global real estate brand Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, the team is leading residential sales in North Orange County with a reputation for unrivaled market knowledge and extraordinary service delivery. They are also adept at helping banking institutions facilitate the quick and strategic liquidation of bank-owned real estate with equal distinction.
Written by Haley Freeman - Ian Wiant Photographer
In 2014, Nicolas was one of the leading one percent of agents nationwide honored with the Best of Trulia Top Agent Award for exceeding customer expectations at every level of business. Nicolas Nicolaou Real Estate Services (NRS) was also recently awarded four Orange County territories by Redfin, one of the fastest-growing real estate brokers in the U.S. These territories include: Anaheim Hills, Dana Point, Yorba Linda & Villa Park. The NRS team was selected based upon their proven record of client satisfaction and expertise in these local markets. Nicolas is a Westinghouse scholar who earned his degree in government and politics from Saint John’s University in New York before going on to a successful career in the fast-paced entertainment world, where he produced custom scenery and lighting packages for television commercials, music videos and live performance events for Sony music and their clients. “We managed entire campaigns for the talent,” Nicolas explains. “My pre-law background gave me a hand up on the competition, since I knew how to architect contracts to minimize risk and maximize reward. I learned a lot about risk management and negotiation.” Nicolas further refined his skills after he relocated to California and began working with a company that produced high-budget auto show displays. He was promoted from production manager to director of sales, controlling tens of millions in business. ExecutiveAgent Magazine
From L to R: Nicolas Nicolaou, George Younes, Joe Leonardi After the Great Recession, Nicolas saw fresh opportunities in real estate. “All of my relatives came from Greece. With no education and no pensions, it was the investments in real estate over the years that put them in a position to retire. Witnessing that made me really passionate about real estate, and I always knew that was somewhere I wanted to go in life. I had made money buying and selling homes of my own, and I knew real estate was a business where I could apply all of my skills and realize my full potential.” Always a business innovator, Nicolas soon developed a real estate model that outpaced his competition and generated more business than he could manage alone. With a growing database of referrals and a national presence in the REO market, Nicolas has expanded his team
to include some of the finest real estate talent in Orange County. Among them are industry professionals whose depth of knowledge and experience in REOs help to make his team an invaluable resource for banking institutions seeking assistance with liquidation of their distressed real estate assets. George Younes George Younes graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Ottawa and then began his real estate career managing and leasing commercial property. After the downturn of the early ‘90s, he began working for major financial institutions, managing and liquidating their commercial real estate assets. George is also a licensed real estate broker.
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A Higher Standard of Service In 2005, George moved from his position as a vice president and commercial asset manager at Washington Mutual to a vice president at Lehman Brothers, where he managed a portfolio of non-performing loans and real estate assets. When the market for securitizations fell apart and Lehman continued to accumulate loans and real estate it couldn’t dispose of, the company filed for bankruptcy. George was asked to step into a larger role, that of senior vice president and chief servicing officer for Lehman’s successor, Aurora Bank FSB. There, he was responsible for a portfolio of $1 billion in performing assets; over $400 million in non-performing commercial loans; and over $70 million in REO assets. George explains, “The bank continued to operate these assets, and I managed over 1,300 properties in just about every asset class in commercial real estate, including retail shopping centers, hotels, and office and apartment buildings.” George’s technical knowledge is matched by his gift for working with people. He managed a large team at Lehman,
charged with finding creative solutions in a time of crisis. Even through Lehman’s dissolution, George inspired his employees’ morale and peak production. “Keeping employees can be difficult at a time like that,” he says. “I was able to not only keep them, but to continue to thrive and do well as a team. One of the things I’m most proud of is the teamwork that goes into something like that. I am still connected to a lot of those people, and they continue to be valuable expert resources to me today.” George’s team achieved an “Above Average” Special Servicer Rating from Standard & Poor’s in 2012, a testament to his exceptional leadership. George has recently assisted two private equity firms with managing their due diligence relating to large acquisitions. Today he is an independent asset management specialist who offers his unparalleled expertise to the NRS team, where his depth of industry knowledge and relationships with C-level executives at major banks across the nation make him the go-to for commercial lending, real estate management, leasing and liquidation.
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Joseph Leonardi After studying business marketing at California State University Fullerton, Joseph Leonardi went directly into a career in real estate. He is both a licensed Realtor® and a real estate broker with broad experience in traditional sales, as well as the comprehensive management of REO properties. He has closed more than 1,100 transactions during his career. Joe first acquired his knowledge of distressed property liquidation during the ‘90s, and when the cycle occurred again a decade later, he was well-positioned to assist asset managers with the expeditious and efficient liquidation of bank-owned real estate. He became so successful, that he opened his own real estate company, OMNI RE Solutions, where he closed 189 REO transactions in 2009 alone. “What asset managers are looking for is someone to make their job easier – someone that truly understands the complexities of the REO business,” Joe says. “My experience helps to foresee issues and snags before they occur. As a team, we streamline the process from receiving the assignment, to the close of escrow.”
sessment, maintenance and contractor repair bids; to broker price opinions, marketing and closing procedures. Together, these powerhouse professionals are adept at managing REO transactions across the country, leveraging their combined affiliations, experience and expert knowledge to identify skilled Realtors® in each local market and then oversee every transaction to ensure it is carried out with the utmost care and competence. Their analysis of individual markets is based upon continual research, and they stand solidly behind their recommendations. “I am looking to grow our team by incorporating people with complex real estate understanding,” Nicolas says. “We are working with mature investors and luxury buyers who are interested in acquiring the best possible real estate assets with future liquidity in mind. Whether we are working with individual buyers and sellers or professionals in the banking sector, we make it our business to deliver on what we promise.”
Joe has refined the process of liquidating REOs, from occupancy management and cash for keys; to damage asExecutiveAgent Magazine
Nicolas Nicolaou Real Estate Services Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices 22601 Old Canal Road Yorba Linda, CA 92887 Tel: 714-458-4508 Email: northocrealtor@gmail.com Web: www.nicnicolaou.com CalBRE # 01879968
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