Remax realizes success among ‘river’ of real estate agents
Randy and Kristin Kozelka, of Remax Ridge-N-River Realty, were selected by Top Agent magazine as the cover story feature for Wisconsin’s October edition.
By Correne Martin
Since 2010, Randy and Kristin Kozelka have built their business, Remax Ridge-N-River Realty, above and beyond what they even expected, with attention paid to hard work, honesty and trustworthiness. They’ve taken great joy in helping people buy their dream homes and sell their financial burdens and, through meeting their clients’ needs, they have achieved numerous honors from the industry.
Most recently, Top Agent real estate magazine chose Ridge-N-River Realty to be the cover story for its October issue in Wisconsin.
“Three are chosen a month out of over 5,000 agents in Wisconsin. It’s a very elite group,” Randy explained. “You need to have the performance though (to be selected).”
The Kozelkas began the business in 2010, after working in various other realms of the community. Randy worked for his dad, Richard, at Kozelka’s Menswear for 16 years before owning Prairie Motor Sports for a while and then, alongside his wife, purchasing investment properties for years.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling a suit, a house or a four-wheeler. It’s all the same,” Randy stated. “I learned everything I know from my dad.”
In 2007, Randy obtained his realtor’s license. Kristin worked for the state department of corrections at that time. Not long after they opened the Remax office at 934 S. Marquette Rd., Prairie du Chien, she joined her husband as a realtor with Ridge-N-River Realty.
Since the beginning, their business has always been among the top 25 offices in the state, in terms of sales and commissions, Randy said. For the last couple of years, they’ve been averaging in the top 10. They’ve strived for these achievements among the ranks of some of the top-producing and most accomplished agents in the real estate industry, from cities such as Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay.
“Everybody can list a home, but not everybody can sell one,” noted Randy, who has closed on 40 homes already this year. “I’ll have 50 by the end of the year, and those are the kind of numbers we need in our area in order to compete with agents in Milwaukee who may only need a dozen.”
Kristin has closed on 14 homes so far in 2015, which is down from her typically higher number, but she’s been scaling back in selling in order to focus on other aspects of the business.
“We’re reconfiguring the business,” she said, “so I can spend more time with our kids and things like paperwork and marketing. I’ve also spent a lot of my time educating our agents and building them up.”
The Kozelkas employ four agents in addition to themselves and they expect that number to increase. Denny Schroeder has been with Ridge-N-River Realty since 2010, Danielle Moret-Wilkins and Sara Boxrucker for about a year each, and Tara Harris for about two months.
“We try to help our agents get on the right track. We want them to learn to do things how we do them,” Randy said.
“We’ve built a lot of our business on referrals,” Kristin pointed out. “Obviously people talk, good and bad, and people tend to follow you no matter what your business is, if they trust you. Our slogan is ‘Our heart is where your home is.’ I think that’s important too, that people trust us.”
She also commented, “The best part of being in this business is meeting new people. We really try to work with our clients to make the process easier.”
One example of that is a recent 7x14 enclosed trailer Remax just purchased for their clients who may need one while moving.
“We just have a love of helping others,” Randy said.
Because of their success through Remax, the Kozelkas feel they’ve also been blessed to assist the community in other ways outside of the business. They have donated where they can to the schools and churches and participated in community events as much as possible. “The community has always been good to us,” Randy added.
Top Agent magazine is a premier real estate magazine featuring the best real estate agents in the United States, Canada and Europe. It provides in-depth insights into agents’ careers and their blueprints for success. Editions are published in all 50 states as well as internationally.
Randy and Kristin first heard they were of interest to the magazine when one of its reporters called to do an initial interview and determine whether they’d be a good fit. Ridge-N-River Realty was chosen to be the cover story and the reporter called back a week later to do a follow-up interview for writing the article.
“We feel really privileged to be recognized,” Kristin said.
“As realtors, we’re a lot of things: counselors, mediators, babysitters—the list goes on. We’re very happy doing what we do,” Randy added. “We plan to be here for quite a while.”
For more information about the local Remax office, visit ridgenriver.com or find them on Facebook. Potential clients may also be interested in joining their text club by texting “36000” to “Remax” and then opting into the group for exclusive updates and information.
