Rebecca Glaesman

Driven by the Desire To Help People

By Amanda Matkowski

Photos by Jacob Harr with harr Creative LLC

Rebecca Glaesman is passionate about helping people. As a real estate agent, she loves assisting clients with buying their first home, a vacation home or an investment property. When she established her own brokerage in November of 2013, however, Rebecca became especially dedicated to helping agents grow and succeed in their businesses.

“There were some things I saw in other brokerages that I didn’t think were fair, such as inconsistent broker fees, admin fees and other hidden costs that seemed to vary by brokerage,” Rebecca recalled. “The goal of Realify Properties was to form a brokerage that was built on the principles and values that have driven my success.”

Described by others as a “candid person with integral honesty,” Rebecca instilled these attributes into her brokerage. As a result, Realify Properties is on a mission to provide “sugar-free real estate facts.” “The meaning behind this tagline is to always ensure that we never sugarcoat facts or issues and that we always tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” Rebecca explained.

Besides showing transparency, Rebecca also didn’t like how some brokerages treated real estate agents, and she sought ways to help agents succeed. “I did not like the practice of some brokerages co-listing agents so other people would get credit for other agents’ sales. At Realify Properties, everyone’s sales are under their own names because I want each agent to have an identity,” she said.

Helping other agents succeed is so meaningful to Rebecca that most of them were brand-new agents before joining her brokerage. “I am a firm believer that, if my agents are able to grow with Realify Properties, we will become a brokerage of giants,” she said. Realify Properties trains agents from the ground up, and in less than a year, each agent has cracked the top 300 in sales within the Grand Rapids Association of REALTORS® (GRAR). “Most of my agents earn, in excess, six figures in a year, and I continue to strive to make them successful. Any agent who aspires to reach this level of success can depend on Realify Properties to help them achieve their financial goals,” Rebecca added.

Although Rebecca has always had the desire to help people, she originally did not seek out real estate as a career. In 2003, she was working in sales before tragedy struck: Her sister was a victim of a homicide. “After that, my path changed toward wanting to help and protect people from those who take advantage of and want to hurt others,” she recalled.

To create a fresh start for her life away from Michigan, Rebecca moved to Colorado and became a corrections officer at a supermax prison facility in Denver. “While it seems a bit polarizing from my current role, it instilled in me how to work with a team, how to deal with stressful situations and how to remain calm and collected,” she said. Rebecca worked in the prisons while pregnant with her son until her due date, and after he was born, she moved back to Grand Rapids.

Once in Michigan again, Rebecca enrolled in college at Grand Valley State University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in health communications with a minor in marketing. After she graduated, she transitioned from being a stay-at-home mom to working part-time as a real estate agent in October of 2012. “I sold 34 homes in my first year, and it became a newly discovered passion,” she recalled. “In this profession, I was able to help people as well as advise them in their home sale or purchase — which may be the biggest investment of their lives. I can help educate clients and make sure they are making the right decisions that are best for them.”

Success doesn’t come overnight. If you set your goals, remain laser-focused and continue to preserve, success will come.

Now leading her own brokerage with five agents and one transaction coordinator, Rebecca has thrived in real estate. In the past eight years, she has generated a career volume of over $98 million — over $18.5 million of which she obtained in 2021. She was even invited to be a keynote speaker at the Zillow Premier Agent event in Las Vegas where she shared her knowledge about customer acquisition and retention.

Despite Rebecca’s success as a broker, she is determined to future-proof Realify Properties by embracing technology. “COVID-19 has forever changed the traditional real estate model as we know it,” she explained. “We understand that buyers and sellers are using technology to search for their real estate needs long before contacting an agent. We wish to become a real estate chameleon that can adapt and change, regardless of the environment it is in.”

When Rebecca is not supporting her agents and clients, she is spending time with her family. She loves traveling, boating and participating in outdoor activities with her husband, Stephen, and her two children — Ben, 16, and Ellie, 12.

Rebecca encourages agents who are not fulfilled in their current position to not give up and to seek a brokerage in their area that displays the values that align with their own. Establishing Realify Properties was Rebecca’s answer to helping people with honesty and integrity, and she will not let anything deter her from allowing her agents to flourish. “Success doesn’t come overnight,” she said. “If you set your goals, remain laser-focused and continue to preserve, success will come.”

TOP PRODUCER Rebecca Glaesman from Realify Properties