Teams Renick opens its doors on Longboat

A familiar face to Longboat Key real estate just became a new Longboat office space.

Team Renick, which consists of managing broker Michael Renick and licensed agents Eric Teoh and Shannon Hankin, expanded its office into the Mediterranean Plaza from Lakewood Ranch in June.

“We have clients all over Manatee and Sarasota counties, but the majority of our business is island-based,” Renick said. “This was the next step for us. Now, our buyers don’t have to go all the way to Lakewood Ranch.”

Renick worked for 31 years at General Motors, rising to senior-level positions in finance, manufacturing and engineering. He established Team Renick in January 2011. A Longboat Key resident, he is a member of the Kiwanis Club and Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce and a past board of directors president of Seaplace Association Inc.

Born in Malaysia, Teoh served as general manager of Ghengis Khan Mongolian in Michigan before moving to Florida to become a Realtor. Like Renick, he is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key and the Chamber of Commerce.

Team Renick’s newest agent, Shannon Hankin, is a Sarasota native. She attended the University of Georgia School of Law before returning to Sarasota to practice law for 10 years and eventually obtaining her real estate license

Team Renick continues to expand and recently hired an office manager, Ray Ellison, who served at a brokerage in Colorado for more than nine years. This week, the company will begin working with Internet-based virtual assistants.

“We want to be half buyers and half sellers, but we’ve gotten skewed a little more on the buyer side,” Renick said. “We’ve hired a company where that’s all they do. These are folks who work all over the world who are trained. I’m excited about that.”

Renick estimates that 70% of the office’s clients are found online, which he said makes the company stand out.

“In the last two years, we got really good at attracting customers on the Internet,” Renick said. “We reach out and establish a relationship before they come to the Key.”

Renick has had clients living in New York, San Francisco, Dallas and in other countries. 

Team Renick maintains its Lakewood Ranch office, and its expansion to Longboat has helped it surpass its goals. The company hoped to meet a sales goal of $25 million by the end of the year, and it’s already exceeded $17 million.

Renick prides his company on doing extensive research on homes. Recently, he sold a Windward Bay property for $429,000, which is the highest price paid at the condo for a unit since June 2008.

“We add technology to plain, old-fashioned hard work,” Renick said. “We have a very aggressive global marketing campaign, and we also do our homework. I take calls from early in the morning to late at night. If it’s 10 p.m., and a client calls, I’ll answer. We’re finding there’s a pretty good niche for us.”