Three years after she began flying the crisp white Engel & Völkers flag, veteran Baton Rouge real estate broker Jerry Del Rio is disaffiliating from the international brand and transitioning her company back to local control under the name Del Rio Real Estate, Inc.
Del Rio founded the company in 2001 as Jerry Del Rio Real Estate. In September 2016, at a time when Baton Rouge firms were increasingly attaching themselves to international brands, Del Rio told Daily Report she decided to affiliate with the Germany-based Engel & Völkers not only for succession planning purposes, but also because she believed the world was becoming a more global place to do business and a recognizable name would broaden her base and appeal.
Today, however, she says she wants to restore the firm’s local focus in order to better serve the Baton Rouge area clients it represents and more effectively promote business.
“They were nice people, but everything was global—it was difficult to market myself on our website just to our local area,” Del Rio says of the international affiliation. “They also have yachting, aviation and other facets; real estate is a part of their organization, whereas it’s 100 percent of mine.”
Del Rio Real Estate, Inc. consists of 10 local agents who have “a lifetime of experience knowing the area and being a part of its communities,” says Del Rio, who earned her real estate license in 1989 and specializes in buying and selling residential properties.
Since detaching herself from the brand, Del Rio has added two new agents and has rebranded the company’s website. The real estate company will remain at its Bluebonnet Boulevard location.
