Arlene Zuckerman is mixing her real estate experience and work with the disabled community in a new Chattanooga venture.
She’s teaming with Chattanooga businessman Vic Desai in the opening of Real Living Design Realty, which has a special needs division in addition to offering the usual services.
The Lee Highway firm will have a special needs manager, Jill Hindman, and it will train agents to work with people with any kind of disability, Zuckerman said.
“There’s a lot of different things that can be done,” she said, citing the availability of funds that can help the disabled move into a house of their own.
Zuckerman, who has worked in real estate in the Chattanooga area since 1996, said she and Desai were involved in projects related to renovating buildings to help the homeless.
“We got to know each other,” she said. “Both of us had a desire to do something for special needs people and the homeless.”
Zuckerman said she also had experience in New York working with the Special Olympics and disabled children. She said real estate educators teach that if a person has a niche, try to work it into the business.
“I obviously had that niche,” Zuckerman said.
She said the firm is on the lookout for one-story houses that can easily be converted to accessible space. Also, the firm can help buyers interested in universal home design. That enables people to live in a home for at least 50 years and can include features such as no-step entry, wide doorways and halls and easily reachable switches and handles.
Zuckerman said the Chattanooga office is the first in the city for Real Living, a full-service real estate franchise company with a comprehensive suite of resources.
The pair are recruiting agents and “very interested in helping sales associates hit the ground running,” said Desai.
“But the key difference is, unlike other firms, … we’re committed to providing the support they need to accomplish this,” he said. Desai mentioned such support as hands-on continuing education, elimination or reduction in fees and a free dedicated website for each agent.
Zuckerman said she thinks the Chattanooga area real estate market will turn around soon.
“We didn’t have a big bubble to burst,” she said, adding that they want to establish the firm before the market fully comes back.
They have plans to expand their company by adding as many as three new offices within the next two years.