Selling into the Strada sphere

Paul Clinton

By staking a claim in the burgeoning Newport Coast home market three

years ago, real estate firm Strada Properties has become one of the

top purveyors of luxury homes in the area.

Sitting on that success, the brokerage firm now is looking beyond

the city’s borders.

Strada recorded close to 1,000 transactions in 2002, representing

the buyer or seller of a home, which resulted in close to $1 billion

in home value changing hands, President Steve High said. So far in

2003, the company is 30% ahead of that pace.

As a byproduct of the relatively quick success, the company has

expanded this year by hiring a handful of new agents and opening a

Laguna Beach office.

And by adding a full-service advertising agency within the

company’s tightly controlled structure, Strada has begun producing

graphic fliers, glossy brochures and other material to help sell its

luxury houses.

“No other company that I’m aware of really has a true in-house

advertising agency,” High said. “Sales people should sell real estate

and advertising people should create advertising material. What we

try and do is make the real estate the star.”

Strada competes with three other real estate players for the

listings of homes that sell for $1.5 million and above in Newport

Beach -- Prudential California Realty, Coast Newport Properties and

Coldwell Banker. Real estate giant NRT, which is based in Parsippany,

N.J., owns the last two.

Bob Chapman, general manager of Prudential’s Orange County

operation, described Strada as a niche player that specializes in

Newport Beach real estate.

“They are a boutique,” Chapman said. “They’re not a regional

player.”

High disputes this characterization, noting that Strada is

expanding its presence in coastal Orange County.

In early June, Strada opened the Laguna Beach office, hiring about

20 new agents to staff it. In all, the firm employs more than 160

agents.

Strada’s story dates to December 1999, when Coldwell Banker

purchased Coast Newport. Several agents, while attending a backyard

barbecue, kicked around the idea of launching a new firm.

“Four original partners were sitting around drinking beers and

they had this inclination to start a company,” High said. “I knew it

would be a huge undertaking.”

High, and eventually seven other partners, began looking for

office space for the fledgling firm in late 2000. In November of that

year, Strada opened its doors at its Newport Center offices, which,

after six expansions, now occupy 30,000 square feet.

High’s monthly cell phone bill, at the time, reached a staggering

$1,400, but the company found immediate success. Agent John McMonigle

sold the first Strada home in Newport Coast on the first day of

business for $6.5 million.

Strada maintains almost 350 listings, High said, in what has been

a thin market for inventory. The average sales price of a Strada home

is now $1.1 million.

In addition to the real estate sales division, the company runs

Strada Escrow and mortgage arm Strada Financial. With the in-house

advertising agency, the brokerage house offers under one roof all the

services needed to buy or sell a luxury home.

Ingrid Mank, the production manager, produces a variety of

brochures and pamphlets for agents.

“It’s quite an advantage to our agents because it’s a unique thing

we offer,” Mank said. “It helps to have everything in house.”

* PAUL CLINTON covers the environment, business and politics. He

may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

paul.clinton@latimes.com.