“This represents a major milestone in our expansion into the Asia-Pacific region, giving us access to a huge audience of buyers throughout the area,” said Al Mendoza, Managing Director of Intero Asia-Pacific, InteroInternational Franchise Services, LLC.’s independent partner in the Asia-Pacific Region. “Intero was one of the first real estate companies to embrace online distribution of listings in the United States and we intend to once again lead the pack in seizing the online opportunity in Asia.”

“Interest in American property in the Asia-Pacific region has increased dramatically in the past year as Asian buyers take advantage of the weak U.S. Dollar and declining housing prices. Furthermore, affluent Chinese see international property investment as a ‘wealth diversification’ play and effective channel to expatriate their large cash reserves.” said George Varvitsiotis, CEO of Asia Interactive Corp, “We are excited at the opportunity to partner with a large and growing U.S. based company who understands and recognizes the opportunity in Asia. Intero will set the trend as more U.S. based Real Estate agencies will realize the advantages of having exposure to affluent China and Asia based property investors.

Intero will soon distribute all of its property listings to PropGO.com as well, which has no pricing threshold on  listings displayed.

“This deal is important to us on two fronts: It cements our position as a new brand in the Asia Pacific region andit provides our American sellers with access to an active and growing pool of buyers throughout Southeast Asia and mainland China,” said Intero President and CEO Gino Blefari. “Real estate is now a global enterprise and our reach cannot be limited by borders.”

Intero Asia-Pacific offers entrepreneurs in the region the opportunity to affiliate with one of the world’s most innovative real estate brands. The Intero® focus on technology, training and superior systems led it to become the fastest organically grown real estate brokerage in U.S. history.

Today, Gino Blefari, Intero’s President and CEO will be a featured panelist at RISMedia & the Top 5 in Real Estate Network®’s 2009 Leadership Conference, September 9-10 in New York City.

Held at the historic Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, this year’s Leadership Conference will once again bring together real estate’s top executives, visionaries and practitioners for the industry’s premier educational and networking event.

Gino will be on two educational panels this afternoon. His first panel takes a national perspective on banks and lending. Gino will be discussing topics such as – What they’re doing now? State of the credit industry today? How the practitioners can get back in the game? And role of national re brand these days?

His second panel focuses on regional brokers and he’s discussing daily business. Each broker will be giving insight on ‘what really works’ in business. Gino will be speaking about Intero’s recruiting strategy as well as Intero’s new social media marketing strategy.

RISMedia, the leader in real estate information systems, has been providing the industry with news, trends and business development strategies for nearly 30 years through its flagship publication, Real Estate magazine, its leading website,RISMedia.com, and its renowned networking and educational events.

RISMedia’s Top 5 in Real Estate Network® is a membership network of leading real estate professionals providing leading real estate information to consumers. To qualify for membership in the Top 5 in Real Estate Network, agents must meet specific criteria in five key categories: experience; results; education; information technology; and commitment to community.

Intero International is led by President Javier Parraga, a former top executive with Realogy Corporation.  During his tenure with HFS (which became Cendant and is now Realogy) Parraga successfully negotiated and signed over 100 master franchise agreements covering over 150 countries and territories.  As a result, more than 6,500 offices outside the U.S. are now affiliated with Realogy’s brands.  Intero Asia Pacific is led by Albert V. Mendoza also a former international sales executive with Realogy.

“Parraga and Mendoza’s reputation precedes them globally,” said Intero Chairman Bob Moles. “They are known internationally as accomplished strategists and sales professionals. Their vision and international expertise on franchise development within the real estate sector has driven notable growth and network expansion throughout the world.”

“Intero was born in Silicon Valley, which is a crossroads of innovation for the entire Pacific Rim,” said Intero President and CEO Gino Blefari. “This is a natural move for us and one we are uniquely equipped to execute successfully.”

The INTERO® organization is led by a team of real estate innovators Gino Blefari, President and CEO, Bob Moles, Chairman, Tom Tognoli, Chief Operating Officer, and John Thompson, Vice President and Managing Officer. Under their direction Intero has grown at an unprecedented pace, going from one office to more than 40 company owned and franchise offices and more than 1,800 agents in less than seven years.  “Intero has become known for its unique culture and innovations that have influenced the industry as a whole,” elaborates Thompson.

“Intero is an Italian word for ‘whole’ and ‘complete,’ and reflects our vision for a new kind of real estate brokerage,” said Tognoli. “We offer everything, from cutting edge technology to proven training and recruiting programs. We will work with each market to appropriately adopt our best practices for the Asia Pacific marketplace.”

Master Franchisees who affiliate with Intero International will have exclusive territory rights. They will manage the growth of their organization, distribution of new offices, development of preferred alliances and strategies for recruiting top agents and managers.

Says Mendoza, the Managing Director of Intero Asia Pacific, “With more than 1,500 U.S. companies and an English-speaking population, Singapore is a natural founding member territory for Intero.  I look forward to helping entrepreneurs and top agents seize the opportunity to build a brand that will compete with the region’s dominant real estate service providers.”

Mendoza will visit Singapore August 4-12, 2009.

As of January of this year, Intero is now the dominant real estate company in Santa Clara County according to market share statistics from RE Infolink, the region’s Multiple Listing Service. We have achieved the leading market share position just six years since opening our corporate office next to the Apple Computer campus in Cupertino, eclipsing Coldwell Banker Northern California to become the market leader for the first time.

According to the RE Infolink data, Intero now has a 17% share of county single family home and condominium sales. Coldwell Banker Northern California accounts for 12% of the market. Alain Pinel Realtors stands at 8%.

Our ascent has followed a steady upward trajectory since its founding in 2002. We were recognized by REALTOR® Magazine as the fastest growing real estate firm in the nation in 2005,  surpassing Alain Pinel for second place in Santa Clara County in 2007.

“This is more than just one brand versus another – it reflects a fundamental shift in the way real estate services are delivered,” said Gino Blefari, Intero’s CEO. “It shows that our investments in technology, our commitment to innovation and vision for a new kind of real estate company have resonated with agents and consumers looking for a different – and better — experience.”

Intero has recently:

• Launched an award-winning website platform that empowers users to draw their own real estate search areas on a map, check local market conditions, and calculate their home’s value and equity
• Developed an iPhone-optimized real estate search application
• Implemented online chat for connecting home buyers, sellers and agents
• Created the “Andare” (“To go” in Italian) office model, which transforms the real estate office into an inviting, hi-tech workspace for on-the-go consumers and agents
• Released a “One-to-one” online marketing program that creates customized websites for consumers through which they can track their home’s value and monitor recent neighborhood sales

“While other companies have been forced to pull back in this market — cutting services and slashing marketing budgets – we continue to innovate and embrace change,” Continued Blefari. “I expect we will emerge from 2009 with an even greater share of the market as more consumers and agents gravitate to our company’s unique offerings.”

Andare is an Italian word that means “to go or to work.” The concept for the Intero Andare office came about in 2007 when Intero’s executive team decided to create a smaller, technology–rich and more eco–friendly real estate office that better met the needs of today’s mobile REALTOR®.

“The nature of our business has changed. Agents aren’t spending as much time at their desks as they were 10 years ago,” said Gino Blefari, president and CEO of Intero, “Most REALTORS® have a wireless–enabled laptop and PDA, and they’re on the go. They don’t need cubicles. They need an attractive space with a few secluded areas where they can go to meet with clients and work—where they have access to technology and can get their work done as efficiently as possible.”

Intero opened its flagship Intero Andare office in a popular, high-end retail/residential development in Silicon Valley known as Santana Row in early 2007. Since then, they have successfully opened additional Intero Andare offices, including company and franchise–owned offices, in Carmel, downtown San Jose, Menlo Park, Santa Cruz and Truckee, California. They now have more than 135 agents working in these offices.

The Intero Andare design footprint is suitable for spaces that range in size from 1,000 to 3,000 sq. ft. That’s compared to the size of Intero’s traditional offices: approximately 7,000 sq. ft. for medium spaces and 11,000 sq. ft. for large. Because the Intero Andare office is a smaller design footprint, it’s more cost efficient to construct overall—approximately 70 percent less expensive to build–out than Intero’s larger offices.

Joel Valencia, an Intero Franchisee and owner of an Intero Andare office, had this to say about the concept, “We launched our Intero franchise in the middle of the housing slump and so needed to keep our startup costs as low as possible. This design allowed us to do that, and we were able to reach profitability very quickly—in less than eight months.”

The Intero Andare office is also the company’s greenest design. Its small footprint means fewer construction materials and waste, resulting in less impact on the environment. It also means less energy consumed in maintaining the office on an ongoing basis. Intero has been a leader in encouraging more environmentally–friendly business practices through its alliance with EcoBroker® International for years. In fact, Blefari was awarded the EcoBroker Community Service Award in 2006, given by EcoBroker International and the Association of Energy and Environmental Real Estate Professionals.

What distinguishes the Intero Andare office from others is its use of cutting–edge technology, including tablet PCs, keyless entry, Voice Over IP (VoIP), flat screen plasma TVs, and a high speed Wi–Fi network. The office also uses Web–based transaction management software that gives agents the ability to manage entire client files online and eliminate the need for paper and storage. Clients can sign directly to a PDF and those signatures are as secure and official as a contract on paper. Intero then stores the files securely online where they remain available to access down the road from any location.

The design of the Intero Andare office is minimalist and modern in style. Intero ditched cubicles for an open–floor plan that’s divided into three small communal areas, each featuring rich leather sofas and chairs, café tables and a large central work console/bar that’s equipped with a power and data conduit from the ceiling. There are also two small private offices. Polished concrete floors, vaulted ceilings and floor–to–ceiling glass walls in the conference room give the impression of something more akin to a high–end gallery than a real estate office (complete with an espresso bar, wine and beer).

“I go to the office as needed to access the network, meet with my team, and finalize deals,” said Intero agent Gerald Askew who works in the Santana Row Intero Andare office, “and so this setup is great for me because I have access to the best technology and the space fits my work habits. But what’s really a bonus is the location—an affluent retail area that my clients would come to anyway for the restaurants and shopping.”

A retail location is also the perfect venue for showcasing properties and promoting the projects of Intero’s resort and development partners. The front of an Intero Andare office is a retail–display glass window, behind which are mounted high definition flat–screen TVs. Here, Intero features resort properties and high-end homes. They can also showcase full graphic or model displays. For developers who want to take a foothold in a particular market, the Intero Andare office serves as a localized space to which they can easily direct clients and create awareness.

The design blueprint and business concept for the Intero Andare office will be exclusively available to Intero’s master franchisees and Intero franchisees.

“We’ve been preparing for this for quite some time now, working out the kinks and getting our processes in place for the franchise program,” said Gino Blefari, president and CEO of Intero. “Now, we’re ready to move forward 100 percent and find the right people who are interested in gaining exclusive territory rights and growing with the Intero brand.”

Led by real estate veterans Gino Blefari and Robert (Bob) Moles, Intero has grown at an unprecedented pace, going from one office to more than 53 offices, 2,000 agents and $4.3 billion in annual sales in less than six years. The upstart brokerage is known for its unique culture and for creating partnerships with high-tech companies that have resulted in technology innovations that have influenced the industry as a whole.

Intero helped to finance, create and launch AgentAchieve™, what is now a leading online business management and agent productivity application. They were also one of the first to develop partnerships with many of today’s leading real estate search engines to syndicate Intero’s property listings online.

Last spring, Intero developed a strategic partnership with Silicon Valley technology company Terabitz and was one of the first brokerages to launch a Terabitz-powered web site. Us­ing map-based search technology, the Intero/Terabitz web platform empowers consumers to easily access in-depth property details (including all MLS data), market data, and comprehensive neighborhood informa­tion in one central location. The technology moves beyond traditional bro­kerage sites, which only provide a narrow field of information, and gives consumers the ability to do comprehensive research on the properties they are buying or selling and share that information through social networks.

Intero is also pushing the envelope in the area of office design. In early 2007, the company’s executives em­barked on an ambitious plan to create a new kind of real estate office that better suited the working habits of today’s mobile, high tech REALTOR®. What they came up with is a radical concept, the Intero Andare Office. Featuring a smaller, more eco–friendly footprint and a retail facing exterior, it is the real estate office of the future for urban areas where square footage is at a premium and agents spend more time in the field than at a desk.

The Intero has become Intero’s greenest location. Web–based transaction management software gives agents the ability to manage entire client files online and eliminate the need for paper and storage. And, the space takes up less than 2,100 square feet, meaning fewer materials and construction waste, less impact on the surrounding environment and less energy used.

“We were one of the first real estate companies to form an alliance with EcoBroker® International and encourage our brokers to become EcoBroker -Certified®.” said Blefari “So, when we created the concept for the Intero Real Estate Center, we made sure the design supported our philosophy of doing business more efficiently and with less waste.”

Today, Intero has more than 100 EcoBroker Certified® agents and in 2006 Blefari was awarded the EcoBroker Community Service Award given by EcoBroker International and the Association of Energy and Environmental Real Estate Professionals.

Intero’s master franchise sales campaign is being led by the company’s executive team and Jose Perez of PCMS Consulting. Master Franchisees who sign with Intero will have exclusive territory rights and the advantage of being able to take control of a region, developing it according to their vision. They will manage the growth of their organization, distribution of new offices, development of strategic alliances and strat­egy for recruiting top agents and managers. They will also share franchise royalty, technology and other revenue opportunities.

“We’re very excited about the coming year,” said Bob Moles, chairman of Intero. “What other franchisors offer doesn’t compare to the opportunities that exist with Intero. We’re at a unique place with regard to our growth, and our leadership very is strong, made up of real estate people who’ve worked for years on the ground floor in sales, management and operations. Having access to that kind of experience, paired with the innovations we’re pushing is what’s going to make a franchisee successful.”