RE/MAX American Dream Relocates Its Wauconda Office

Pattie Palzet-Taylor, RE/MAX American Dream, Wauconda

New Location Offers Increased Visibility in Metro Chicago Real Estate Market

RE/MAX American Dream of Wauconda has relocated to new office space at 1120 N. Rand Road as it celebrates the 10th anniversary of its founding. The Rand Road location will greatly increase the visibility of the office, an important consideration in the highly competitive metropolitan Chicago real estate market.

Twelve sales associates and a three-person support staff moved into the newly completed facility on Oct. 20. The relocation was triggered by the sale of the building that housed the previous office, located at 173 Thomas Court, to a neighboring nursing home that wanted additional space.

“When we bought and remodeled the Thomas Court location in 2005, we planned to stay there for at least 10 years. However, the combination of the offer to purchase that location and the opportunity to move our office to such a visible spot right on Rand Road was difficult to resist,” said Pattie Palzet-Taylor, broker/owner of RE/MAX American Dream.

The new office occupies part of what was previously a design center for home builders, and in turning that space into a real estate office, Palzet-Taylor was able to make use of many of the materials left by the former tenants.

“Rather than start from scratch and send all the old materials to a landfill, we wanted to recycle as many as we could,” she said. Doing that also helped make for a quick buildout of the new office space, which was completed in just 20 days.

Some areas within have wood floors while others have tile or marble floors. Doors, a sink and cabinets that were left behind have also been incorporated into the new space. Overall the 1,600-square-foot office has the feeling of an eclectic yet warm city loft space, with a high ceiling, lots of open areas and a sense of coziness.

Palzet-Taylor said her new office has room to grow, which is an important consideration in a real estate market that should recover steadily over the next two or three years. RE/MAX is already the market-share leader in Wauconda, listing 32.8 percent of the homes sold during the first half of 2009, twice as many as its nearest competitor. RE/MAX is also the market-share leader in Lake County, where it listed 25.7 percent of the homes sold during the first six months of 2009.

“Many of the home sales we’ve seen in the Wauconda area this year have involved either foreclosures or short sales, but there’s no question that the pace of activity has picked up,” Palzet-Taylor said. “A lot of first-time buyers have come into the market, in part because of the incentive provided by the tax credit that was recently extended and in part because home prices are so much more attractive now than a few years ago.”