REI INK

From There to Here

From Dentist to Real Estate Executive

Five Brothers’ Nickie Kalas is Dedicated to Growth & Service by Carole VanSickle Ellis Nickie Badalamenti-Kalas grew up in the business of real estate. As the youngest child of Joseph “Joe Bada” Badalamenti, founder and present-day chairman emeritus of field service solutions provider Five Brothers Asset Management Solutions, the industry was always operating in the background of her childhood home. “My dad started [Five Brothers] with my mom, who worked

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A True Team Player

Home Depot’s Frank Blake Will Never Stop Building by Carole VanSickle Ellis Frank Blake will be the first to tell you he’s extremely grateful for his team. In fact, that is the mantra you will hear over and over in conversation if you speak with him for any length of time. “You are only as good as your team,” the Bronze Star recipient and current Home Depot general manager for

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Surround Yourself with Great People

Everything in Life is Sales By: Danny Byrnes, Chief Revenue Officer, Nationwide Title Clearing When I was in high school, I started working at a technology company that developed and delivered an accounting software platform. Years later, that company was acquired by Microsoft. It was an easy job to get as my father owned the company. Growing up in the analog 70’s I became fascinated with the technology that was

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Always Looking for Ways to Reinvent

I remember it like it was yesterday. My business partner and I were in the process of closing a construction loan to continue developing a 19-acre retail center in Arizona. It was 2008 and the financial and real estate collapse of the Great Recession was upon us. Capital dried up immediately, deals fell through and panic ensued. What followed were years of struggle for most in real estate as the

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Committed to the Vision

“Once you’re in, it’s hard to break out.” “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” Those two phrases have stuck with me throughout my career. Granted, one is more of a cliché and the other is a lyric from the famous Grateful Dead song “Truckin’.” But they are both relevant as I reflect on my default mortgage and distressed real estate journey, which began when I was about 7 years

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Knowing the “Rules” Leads to Winning the Game

I was born outside of Chicago, but I spent most of my youth living between Argentina, Brazil and California. It was my time in Argentina, living with my grandparents, I remember the most. My grandfather was a bricklayer. He spent his life building homes and buildings all over Argentina. He was an amazing man. When he retired, he didn’t stop. There was always a project at the house, and he

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