The Northside Realty Team

Northside Realty was founded in 2004, proudly making Raleigh, North Carolina its home. Starting out with only a handful of agents, the firm has grown to over 130 sales associates that represent not only Raleigh, Durham, and Cary, but all corners of the globe. Our team members have come from the United States, Ireland, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Turkey, Iran, Gaza, Lebanon, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Pakistan, India, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Korea, Canada, and Mexico. Besides continuously striving towards a higher standard of customer service and delivering more than we promise, we are proud to have such a diverse team of dedicated sales professionals. Here are four of our agents and their stories.

Elisabeth Smith 

I arrived at the Charlotte Airport in October 1978. Naturally, I felt somewhat excited and terrified at the same time. This was America. I grew up in Carinthia, Austria in a small alpine village of around 400 people, so my first language was German. I had a business background and grew up in a very active business environment having helped my parents to operate the village grocery store and village guest house. I raised two beautiful daughters in North Carolina and have been living in the Triangle since 1979. I love this area and have watched the Triangle area grow tremendously. After my daughters started going to school, I stepped into the corporate world of America.

I worked as a purchasing agent in two different companies here in the Triangle. In October, 1998, I became a real estate broker and joined Coldwell Banker Champion, a very young company in Cary, NC. My husband, George, and I started working together as a team in March 2004 and joined Northside Realty in 2009. We are so pleased with this company. Our broker-in-charge, Nick, is always there for us when we need his advice and guidance. What a great guy! I call Nick the “saint of real estate”. We are very happy to be working as agents at Northside Realty. This company is better than any other real estate company in the Triangle.

 Mariana Gallegos 

I am originally from Venezuela, and am fluent in both English and Spanish (sí, yo hablo español). I started my career in marketing during the internet boom of the late 1990’s in Miami, then moved to Tennessee to work for HGTV.  We have two wonderful children and I enjoy volunteering at their schools in my spare time. My husband’s business brought us to Raleigh and in the past few years, I have seen Raleigh grow and transition into a flourishing city with a vibrant downtown. Raleigh’s terrific location, amazing local businesses, and fun activities have made it a tremendous place to live and raise a family. We love supporting what Raleigh has to offer and are very passionate about the path the city has taken.

Having moved about a dozen times myself, I decided to change my career to real estate so that I could provide my clients with the proper help and attention to detail that we needed in our moves. This is why I love approaching my client’s moves as if they were my own. Northside’s wonderful support allows us agents to dedicate more time to our clients to build positive relationships and make their moves as stress-free as possible. I understand the emotions, business, and personal aspect of moving as a major milestone. Because Northside gives us such great independence, I am able to educate my clients throughout every step of the moving process and spend more time assisting them with localized research and market insight to lead them to not just a personal purchase, but a wise investment for such an important stage of their lives.

Traci Tharrington  

Though I’m half Lebanese with my mom being from Beirut, I was actually born in Tennessee and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and northern Virgina. I graduated from Radford University, Virginia and began my career in retail where I traveled throughout Maryland and Washington D.C. as a district manager. In 1982 I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. One year later I opened my own business, Le Montage, a high-end retail clothing store for women. After owning the business for 23 years and even expanding it to Cary, I was approached about going into real estate and a friend recommended Northside Realty. About a year later, I was one of the first people to come to Northside. Because of my sales background, I greatly enjoy working with people and enjoy that aspect of business. I’ve found that retail is quite similar to real estate in this way.

I absolutely love Northside. We have a fabulous Broker-in-Charge, Nick, who has also been a great mentor. Northside gives us agents the freedom to grow at our own rate, and everyone is so helpful. I love that Northside also gives us the ability to assist clients in any way they need, including staging their home. I do what I call a “walk and talk” where I meet with clients for about an hour and complete a mini staging. When I’m not working, I volunteer for the Realty Foundation Service Community, which works by improving communities around Raleigh. We’re currently involved in 12 charity projects, including working with the soup kitchen downtown.

 Suzanne Burton

I’m a proud graduate of NC State University and was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Since college, I have accumulated over thirty years of sales and management experience. In 2002, I began my career in the real estate industry with a vision of being an innovative strategist. I have served on numerous professional and community organizations over the years, including the NCAR Board of Directors and RRAR Board of Directors. Being with Northside has given me the chance to raise the bar as a successful real estate broker. I love that Northside gives me the chance to empower and guide individuals in pursuit of their personal and professional goals.

Being at Northside has allowed me to meet and work with people from all walks of life. Through my years with Northside, I have discovered that diversity has to do with so much more than race or ethnicity. Diversity means acceptance for others and their differences. Northside’s agents have come from many different places, many even speaking multiple languages. We may all have different beliefs, but we work together to cement Northside as the best real estate firm in the Triangle. Through differences, we achieve great ideas and major accomplishments.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.