Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Plank
Hi Chris, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was working at a video store and one of my coworkers stepdad wanted to start a real estate company. I was intrigued by real estate, so I met his dad, and liked what I was hearing. I passed the real estate licensing test in 1989 and joined PRP Real Estate & Investments as Partner/CEO. We had a new concept on how to couple an annuity with selling real estate which would offer sellers a way to recoup the commission they paid us. Unfortunately, the Department of Insurance passed a law right after we got started which made are concept illegal, so we had to stop that program and just focus on selling real estate the old fashion way. After a few months our Broker bailed in the middle of the night and left us all hanging. Since I had my license, I joined a local brokerage in town as a salesperson. After 1 year at this new brokerage the owner decided to sell to a very well known westside brokerage – Jon Douglas. The economy was bad and Jon Douglas decided to close our location after only 9 months, so I packed up my belongings and moved to another brokerage in the South Bay. I didn’t really like this brokerage, didn’t have a huge presence, but they gave me a great commission so I joined. I stayed for 2 years before finding a brokerage that really felt like home – Shorewood Realtors. I worked at Shorewood for 25 years. Shorewood dominated the South Bay and in 2004 I became co-manager of their highest producing office. In 2014 Shorewood was sold to an out of area broker and I was hired as Broker of Record/GM for 275 agents. In 2016, the new owner of Shorewood filed bankruptcy in California, so Shorewood merged with Vista Sotheby’s. After about 6 months the Broker of Record passed away suddenly so I was hired as Broker. Covid came and I wasn’t excited about working for a large corporation, too may rules, so 4 other agents and myself started our own boutique brokerage – Pacifica Properties Group. This way we call the shots and no one can sell us unless we want to be sold. We have now been in business for a little over 3 years and have surpassed 1B in total sales with only 23 agents. We recently opened Waterfront Escrow which allows us to add more services to our brokerage.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has been mostly smooth with a number of speed bumps along the way. You can control what you do but you can’t control what buyers and sellers do. Covid came along and changed how the real estate business was done. People didn’t show up at the offices so offices started shutting doors and agents worked from home. We changed with it and grew stronger. Now we are dealing with the aftermath of a lawsuit that is affecting how real estate business across the country will be handled. We look forward to putting this all behind us, but again, I think this will make us stronger in the long run.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Pacifica Properties Group?
We are a local boutique real estate brokerage located in Manhattan Beach, California. We may be small (23 agents), but what we lack in numbers we make up with experience and local knowledge. We specialize in residential sales, leases, and real estate investment properties. We started PPG during Covid, which was not easy, and proudly just surpassed the 1 Billion in sales mark.
We are extremely proud of our agents and their work ethic. We are a group of hard working agents who also like to have a good time.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Great question! Our agents who believed in us and what we were trying to accomplish are our biggest cheerleaders. Clients were also very positive when we opened our doors. They understood that it is the agent who they do business with and followed us as soon as we opened. The partners at PPG have all know each other for over 20 years and have a combined 110 years of real estate experience/service. We all worked for one of the most successful independent brokerages in the South Bay – Shorewood Realtors.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Pacifica-Properties.com
- Instagram: chrisplankhomes.com
