Company of the Month: Ideal Properties Group: A leading real estate firm that has helped propel Brooklyn to a world-renowned brand

Ideal Properties Group is a leading real estate firm specializing in premier Brownstone Brooklyn neighborhoods along with Williamsburg, Gowanus, and many other sought-after locations throughout the borough. With offices in Cobble Hill, Gowanus, Park Slope and Williamsburg, as well as staff of over 150 highly trained real estate brokers and salespeople, it is rapidly expanding across the borough. The firm was founded in 2007 by Aleksandra Scepanovic, who serves as the firm's managing director and Erik Serras, who serves as the firm's principal broker. Together Scepanovic, who was born in former Yugoslavia and worked as a reporter in Sarajevo during the Balkan wars and Serras, a born and bred Brooklynite, identified a need to build a technologically innovative infrastructure for sales and rentals in key Brooklyn neighborhoods. The firm started as a two-person operation in a spare bedroom in Prospect Heights and has since grown into the four-office firm it is today. In 2008, a year after its inception, the company started what is now a consistent expansion when its first ever office location was opened in Gowanus. Fast forward to 2015 and the firm has been able to unlock the enormous potential of Brownstone Brooklyn's properties for buyers, sellers, tenants, landlords, and the borough's communities by fulfilling the need that both Scepanovic and Serras uncovered back in 2008. Ideal Properties Group is known for its stunning inventory of real property for sale, thousands of rental properties listed for rent in the area, and a proven track record of selling and leasing tens of thousands of properties since its inception. The firm's success rate of closed sales and leasing transactions makes Ideal Properties Group a trusted source for unique real property finds. The brokers and salespeople who work at the firm include only enthusiastic individuals who possess unmatched customer service skills and a deep-rooted passion for the borough, which offers an assemblage of historic neighborhoods, sprawling parks, unforgettable architecture and urban character to both its visitors and residents. Each experienced broker and salesperson has the inside track to the borough's many unique and diverse neighborhoods, from the most desirable buildings to cutting-edge restaurants, bars, culture and nightlife. Within the 150 plus member team at the firm is also in-house design and staging group as well as photography, social media, marketing and web design and IT programming professionals that ensure the firm's properties are optimally represented. Because of the firm's belief in the power of design reflective of the Brooklyn communities that surround each office, all of the varied groups of professions have played an integral role in the company's success. The conceptual approach to design of each of the firm's four offices has also been a crucial part of the company's success. Scepanovic, with a Summa Cum Laude Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology, has a passion for interior design that has shown through her design of all Ideal Properties Group's office spaces. Welcoming and refreshing environments, Ideal's offices faithfully reflect the design concept of transparency and integrity, guiding principles of Ideal's business, firmly advocated by the company's founders. Ideal Properties Group possess more accurate and relevant data on sales and rental markets compared to any other firm in the area, making the firm the borough's foremost choice for real estate. With its expansive amount of knowledge and data, the firm releases sales and townhouse market reports to the public on a quarterly basis, the most recent being The Transformative Years Market Report which reported that townhouse sales prices of properties over $3 million increased 579% in Brownstone Brooklyn and North Brooklyn from 2009 to 2014, increasing nearly two-fold year-over-year. As a proud member and sponsor of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), the Prospect Park Alliance, the Gowanus Alliance, A.G.A.S.T and the Park Slope Civil Council, Ideal Properties Group is truly committed to excellence through community involvement, exemplary ethics, hard work and professional integrity. Because of the consistently booming interest in Brooklyn real estate, Ideal is continuing to expand in both residential and commercial developments. Some of the firm's newest residential developments include 465 Carroll St., a sanctuary in the trendy Gowanus between Carroll Gardens and Park Slope, as well as the light-filled apartments at Armory Tower in Park Slope, which include private terraces, modern kitchens and high-end appliances. One of the firm's newest commercial developments includes Work at Twentieth, commercial spaces located only a handful of blocks away from Park Slope Proper. The future of Ideal Properties Group looks as positive, prosperous and rewarding as the past eight years. Scepanovic has stated that she's "continuously looking to expand the firm even deeper into the ever-popular Brooklyn that the firm's team knows and loves." Scepanovic also has her sights set on breaking into the Manhattan real estate scene as the company continues to grow.