2016 Women in Real Estate: Aleksandra Scepanovic

Aleksandra Scepanovic, Ideal Properties Group

Name: Aleksandra Scepanovic

Title: Managing Director

Company Name: Ideal Properties Group

Email: [email protected] 

Years in real estate: 11

Year Founded: 2007 

URL: https://ipg.nyc/

Twitter: @idealproperties

Telephone: 718.840.2757

How did you get your start in real estate?

I started my professional career as a journalist covering the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Staying on after the war, I was exposed to buildings and interior spaces so violently torn from existence that they were distant memories of their former selves. The experience left me not only longing for peace, but also with a belief in architecture and the built world as a symbol of perseverance and the human need to rebuild and move on.

I came to NYC and pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from FIT. The program awakened my inner eye for detail, and invigorated my passion for architecture and interiors. After graduation, I transitioned to a boutique real estate firm in Manhattan where my professional passion set a blaze to my vision of a real estate enterprise. In 2007, I founded Ideal Properties Group with my partner Erik Serras. This followed our identification of a need to build a technologically innovative infrastructure for sales and rentals in key Brooklyn neighborhoods.

What real estate associations or organizations are you a member of?

REBNY

What recent project or transaction are you most proud of?

In February 2016, my colleague Wendy Jones and I also launched Women of Ideal, a new group within Ideal Properties Group with a mission to “support and educate women in the business of real estate by way of mentorship.”

What recent honor, achievement or recognition has meant the most to you and why?

I am very proud to have launched Women of Ideal this year, and to see that the initiative was met with such enthusiasm among our brokers. Ideal Properties Group was named the fifth largest real estate firm in Brooklyn by The Real Deal in August 2014. We are the only firm that is based in Brooklyn to have made it to the top five as we have monumentally increased our rankings in the past few years.

I was selected by the New York Business as one of the organization’s Women of Influence honorees in December 2014.

I was selected in 2014 to speak at the Inc. GROWCO Conference, which took place in April 2015, alongside with Jessica Alba and the founder of Airbnb (among others).

What have been some of the benefits of being a mentor or having a mentor?

I have never had the privilege of having a mentor, and possibly precisely due to that fact, I am very passionate about mentoring other women in the field of real estate. Real estate is typically viewed as a difficult industry to be a part of, especially for us “fairer” sex. Given my own background, I know that women not only have to be extra tough and resilient to thrive in a professional field – I also know that we can excel far further than our male counterparts. In this vain, I have made it my mission to personally help develop the careers of other women in the industry, including Ideal’s own director of sales and new development teams. I love seeing our team members excel. Ideal has mentors in place to assist others, and see them realize the passion for their chosen career paths – be that in real estate or another industry.

Who or what has been the strongest influence on your career and why?

My late father, who passed away when I was very young. To date, I have a profound respect for decisions he has made, and for the ways he approached challenges. Whenever I find myself at a crossroads, rather than leaping, I tend to deploy my father’s approach – I first try to imagine the big picture. Then, I evaluate, re-evaluate, re-re-evaluate, and test-fit all options… at all times trying to “look at things from above” in order to envision the end result and then work frontwards from there.

What time management strategies do you find to be the most effective for you?

My rudimentary time management strategy is based on a very crude version of “I’ll sleep when I die” approach. On a more serious note, the highlights of my multi-tasking are the ever so rare moments when I manage to seamlessly weave together the needs of my four-year-old (daughter) with the needs of my nine-year-old (company).

What is the best advice you have received and who was it from?

My late grandfather, an economist by vocation, and a serial polyglot by conviction: “You’ll never understand another person if you can’t speak their language. Learn the language.”

When you launched your business what were some challenges that you experienced?

The real estate market everywhere around us was collapsing in the wake – and then the aftermath – of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. We saw the softening market as our opportunity to launch and grow an alternative to the corporate real estate brokerages’ approach to Brooklyn. Money was tight, the confidence in the market evaporating – and all we had was our enthusiasm and absolute belief in Brooklyn.

How did you overcome them?

Through sheer persistence. My team and I were determined that Ideal Properties Group would succeed because of our faith in the Brooklyn market.

What was a significant milestone or achievement for your company?

Building a team of over 250 was a remarkably challenging goal that made it possible for all of our back-end staff to put on our thinking caps and exercise our creative muscle(s). We all pitched in, crafting a platform, coming up with ideas, slogans and collateral.

What advice would you give to a woman who is planning to launch her own business?

Be as passionate and as persistent as possible, and have no fear. Business has its challenges, but if you believe in it, and if you work with others who may be just as determined, success will not elude.

How do you empower other women in your workplace?

As mentioned, we launched Women of Ideal earlier this year. The idea to create this organization came to me after speaking with a broker who had become accustomed to being disrespected by male superiors at her current firm. I was both outraged and astounded that this type of sexism still exists, especially knowing how pivotal a role female brokers play in the residential real estate business. I realized how much we support and care for each other at Ideal. We have consciously worked to create a collaborative environment, and in talking to others, it started transpiring that we may have been taking our circumstances for granted. As a business, we were and are proud to be female-dominated and so the idea of formalizing a group was born and grew into Women of Ideal.