Parness new president of Perry & Co.

Heather Parness is the new president of Perry & Co.

Vote at the bottom of this blog on whether you think Perry & Co. was smart in hiring Erin Toll.

Perry & Co. has a new president.

Heather Parness has been promoted to the president of the 60-agent company with three offices.

Parness, who joined Perry & Co. Real Estate Professionals last September as the company’s managing broker been working in a leadership role for the past nine months with a focus on assisting agents in their work with clients, recruiting agents for the company’s long term growth and serving as a key player on the management team in setting a course for the company’s future.

R. Don Larrance, co-founder of the company in 1971, and its president since 2000, will remain in a leadership and management role as the company’s chief executive officer. Since Parness joined Perry & Co. several new agents and staff members have also come on board at its three offices located in Cherry Creek North, Cherry Creek East and Greenwood Village. Perhaps most prominently, Erin Toll, the former director of the Colorado Division of Real Estate, recently joined Perry & Co. as an agent in its Cherry Creek North office.

“These past nine months have been a great boost of energy, enthusiasm and growth at our company with Heather as our managing broker,” Larrance said. “Her depth of knowledge about real estate, her passion for the business and her appreciation of our company culture make her the perfect choice for Perry & Co. She’s such a part of our family now, this is the right move at the right time for all of us.”

Parness said she believes that Perry & Co. is the oldest residential real estate company that has been continuously under one ownership in Denver. “I’m pretty sure it is,” Parness said. “It’s a 38-year-old company and Don has been involved in the ownership since the beginning and has been the head of the company for the past 35 years, I believe. For me, that was a real big draw. I think a lot of brokers like working at a boutique, locally owned company with a lot of continuity. I think a lot of consumers like that, too. Our stats show that 84 percent of our business is repeat business.”

Because she has been with the company for the past nine months, she said she and Don have had extensive discussions about the short-term and long-term game plans. Her goal is to increase the size of the company by a third.

“Eighty brokers in our three offices would be the sweet spot,” Parness said. “We think that is a really good-size for a boutique, niche firm.” She said they typically hire veteran brokers from other companies, with one or two brokers new to the industry.

In that latter category, of course, would be Toll, who joined soon after her $55,000 settlement of her legal actions against the state. She had been placed on a paid leave of absence in March, and later filed whistle-blowing actions regarding her former boss at the Department of Regulatory Agencies.

“I was very much involved in hiring Erin,” Parness said. “I have not directly heard one negative comment about her hiring. Some people may have made negative comments, but not directly to me. All of the feedback I have received has been very positive.”

On the other hand, she is not Pollyanish about hiring Toll. “I know Erin was controversial at times at her job as director of the real estate division and I know the circumstances that led to her departure were somewhat controversial,” said the 38-year-old Parness, a Greeley native who has spent her entire adult-life involved in residential real estate. “I’ve known Erin for maybe 2 1/2years of her three years or so as the head of the division. I really like and respect the changes she brought to the industry. She took steps that were badly needed and she did a good job.”

Staff applauds Parness

Agents and staff broke into spontaneous applause at the company’s weekly sales meeting when the announcement was made. Parness noted that her career began right out of high school an unlicensed sales person in Greeley, and over the years she has been an agent, manager and head of Information Technology for companies. “There is no job in real estate I haven’t done,” she said.

“I am thrilled, humbled and completely ready to step into this position,” said Parness, who served as President/COO of a competitor, Fuller Sotheby’s International Real Estate Denver for almost five years, before joining Perry & Co. “To follow in Don’s footsteps is a daunting enterprise. He is beloved and is the heart and soul of Perry & Co. Don will continue to be a great mentor, and contribute to the future strategy.”

Perry & Co. brokers are representatives of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, a consortium of 600 of the top privately-held real estate companies in 30 countries leading all national brands in total units sold.

Independent broker Gary Bauer has known Parness “off and on” since she was a branch manager of the Perry & Butler Cherry Creek office in the late 1990s. Perry & Butler- no relation to Perry & Co . – was sold to NRT, parent of Coldwell Banker, in 2001.

“Heather is a very dynamic individual,” Bauer said. “She would make a great president of a company the size of Perry & Co. Heather is very customer-service oriented, she is progressive, she is very strategic and tactical. And frankly, she knows how to get a long with a wide variety of people and gets things accomplished. I congratulate her.”

Asked if he thought it were a risk for Perry & Co. to hire Toll, Bauer said it is premature to tell how she will work out.

“I’m sure several companies would have given Erin a complimentary interview, but would not hire her,” Bauer said. “Not every agents is right for every company. I look at Erin and she will face the same challenges as any newly licensed individual. I think with the appropriate mentoring, she could do well. She is a self-starter. It could be a great decision on or could be a bad decision. It is too early to tell.”

Parness, however, noted that Toll has hit the ground running.

“Erin has been with us for just under two weeks,” Parness said. “She is very hard-working, focused and has a business plan. She took a call off the floor and converted it into an under-contract. I couldn’t be happier.”