Meryl Freedman
Growing up in the New York area gave Meryl Freedman an appreciation of differences. Moves around the country for education and career gave her an understanding of the residential real estate sales process. At her current role as leader of a large West Hartford agency, she gets a taste of both.
“The thing I really love about West Hartford is the diversity,” said Freedman, office leader and vice president of sales for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties. “This office, with people of all nationalities, it’s kind of a microcosm of the world. I found that exciting and challenging.”
Freedman grew up on Long Island and attended Ohio State University before moving to California, where she attended graduate school and took a job as a teacher and elementary school principal. Career moves brought her young family to the Atlanta area and eventually Connecticut in 1980, where real estate was a natural career transition for a recent mother.
Freedman obtained her realty license when her oldest child was 2, working in West Hartford for Buckley Realtors. She attained her first leadership role 11 years later running Prudential Connecticut Realty’s Windsor office, which led to opportunities running a larger office in Simsbury and leading Prudential’s entry into the Granby market with the opening of a satellite office. She was promoted to regional vice president of the Northeast region in 2005. Four years later, she assumed leadership of the company’s West Hartford office, which later became Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties.
The time was right for Freedman, who was eager for a new challenge. She got a chance to work with top-producing agents and build the office to its current level of 75 agents.
The culture in the West Hartford office “is one of teamwork, support and positive energy: an environment in which I am constantly motivated and challenged,” she said.
Given the ever-more-demanding nature of the realty profession, Freedman said she recognizes the need to be supportive of her agents. Clients are more knowledgeable and have higher expectations than ever.
“To be an effective leader, you have to be supportive and responsive for your agents,” she said. “You have to listen to their challenges and help facilitate solutions. I truly look forward to coming to work every day!”
It’s an attitude her colleagues appreciate. Office Leader and Director of Sales Beth DiLoreto said in her nomination that “Meryl not only coaches the people on her team, but is always willing to brainstorm with and coach her peers. She is an example of what every Realtor, and any woman of finance, insurance or real estate, for that matter, should strive to be like.”
