Intero Real Estate opens Reno office

Short sales and foreclosures aren't a short-term blip before the residential real estate market returns to normal, says Leslie Henderson.

Instead, the co-owner of the newly launched Intero Real Estate Services office in Reno says foreclosures and short sales are likely to be the dominant reality of the residential brokerage business for years go come.

And that means that residential agents and brokers can't simply wait for a return of business as usual, says Michael Yoelin, another co-owner of the office, a branch of the Intero franchise at Incline Village.

"If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less," Yoelin says. "We think real estate is going to be changing for a long time."

Joining Henderson and Yoelin in ownership of the Reno Intero office is Bob Wheeler, a broker who has worked with the Intero office at Incline Village for five years, along with Vince Scott and Ryan Mitchell.

Henderson has worked in residential sales for seven years, after a career in pharmaceutical and logistics sales, and Yoelin has worked two decades in residential real estate, mortgage lending and development.

Scott is a real estate broker and developer at Incline Village and has worked in the business for 15 years. Mitchell, a former professional golfer, works as a real estate developer and broker in northern Nevada.

Wheeler has been a real estate agent and broker in northern Nevada for 26 years.

The company's office at 6990 S. McCarran Blvd. has space for up to 20 agents along with its owners and management team. By the end of this month, Henderson says the firm expects to have 10 agents on board.

The office also includes classroom space that will host Intero University. Henderson, a certified educator on short sales, will train staff and educate sellers. The company also plans other clinics, such as events for first-time buyers.

Intero Real Estate Services Inc., which franchised the new Reno office, is headquartered at Cupertino, Calif. Launched in 2002, it has more than 40 offices in Nevada, California, Colorado, Texas and Mexico.