Today we’d like to introduce you to Cheryl Julcher.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Cheryl. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My partner, Eric Somberg, and I had been in the construction and real estate industry for over 20 years when we first met back in 2012 while working for a home builder. Eric was in sales and I was doing land acquisitions.
We witnessed first hand, client frustrations, risk in the design+build process and lack of quality in construction across the board. In 2014 we founded Yellow Brick Properties and went searching for a better way to navigate the process, improve the clients’ experience, reduce risk, and improve quality.
In short, a better way to home. Over a three-year time span, we went into a deep immersion of the building sciences, researched health and well-being in the built environment, and learned where future energy codes were headed.
With this approach to sustainability in the front of our minds, our own recipe for constructing buildings was borne— Zoetic®. In 2017, Zoetic® was grown up enough to be its own company, Zoetic® Building Consultants, LLC and we took on a third partner, Brian Rayski.
Yellow Brick Properties is a real estate company focused on marketing and selling high-performance homes while Zoetic® Building Consultants, LLC helps builders, architects, and homeowners build or improve upon existing structures, residential or commercial to be healthy, safe, comfortable, smart, sustainable, and energy-efficient.™
Has it been a smooth road?
So far as I know, we’re the only ones doing what we do— at least in the Chicago area and perhaps in the country. As market disruptors and innovators, you don’t have anyone to look to for examples. You are creating something entirely new, which is also the fun part. Creating something entirely out of your vision really is a better way to home.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Yellow Brick Properties, LLC story. Tell us more about the business.
Yellow Brick Properties, LLC is a real estate company focused on marketing and selling high- performance homes. What sets us apart from the traditional crowded real estate storefront scene is that our agents share our company passion for healthy, comfortable, sustainable housing— all holding the National Association of Realtors GREEN designation.
In fact, Yellow Brick Properties won the National Association of Realtors top award in sustainability last year, the Evergreen Award. We take our time getting to know new clients, understanding their situation, setting goals and deciding what features they could really benefit from in a new home or their current one (e.g., comfortable, healthy indoor air quality, lowering exposure to toxins and EMF’s).
While we walk our clients through the process of building, buying or updating their own home, we’re actually educating them on what to look out for and the effects traditional home construction methods and materials have on our health (e.g., mold, air quality, radon, etc.).
Incorporating some of the industry’s leading tools and technology into our process, including a BPI-Certified Healthy Home Evaluator— we’re ensuring both our homes and our clients are healthy, happy and comfortable.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
New energy regulations and building codes are changing and being put into effect every three years, which is driving the market for energy-efficient homes. As people in the public sector come to realize the benefits of building a high-performance home range far beyond saving on energy bills, demand will grow significantly in the next 5-10 years.
We are actually already seeing a demand increase from last year. People are realizing that high-performance homes are better quality, have less upkeep, and are less costly to operate over time.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ybproperties.com
- Phone: 847-960-3400
- Email: info@ybproperties.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/yellowbrickproperties
- Other: www.linkedin.com/company/yellow-brick-properties-llc
Image Credit:
Eric Somberg
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