West Central WI Realty ONE Group SIMPLIFIED levels up in location, increases agents

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

April 28, 2025

HUDSON – A brokerage serving the residential real estate needs of Wisconsin’s west central region, as well as Minnesota’s Twin Cities, has leveled up – literally.

Last July, Mary Yacoub-Raad – franchise-owner of Realty ONE Group SIMPLIFIED – said the business began in the basement of the building that would later become its franchise location  in Hudson.

Yacoub-Raad said she and the landlord of that building (located at 2501 Hanley Road) had already been discussing building out a second-floor office space for her to lease when Realty ONE Group SIMPLIFIED moved into the lower level.

“I called the landlord and said… ‘We have to move, do you have any space that we could (use as a) home base?’” she said. “He was like, ‘Well, we have the basement you could rent.’”

For months, Yacoub-Raad said she and her team called that basement home base – moving in all the equipment they could until they could utilize the above-ground office space.

“We had a bathroom down there – everything we needed,” she said. “We brought in everything (to have) a little kitchenette and got everything set up in one day and went back to work. When the build-out was finished, we moved up to our new space.”

Yacoub-Raad said the second-floor build-out started one month after Realty ONE Group SIMPLIFIED was launched and was completed last October – a process that was capped off with a grand-opening celebration.

“We’re on the second floor, suite 200,” she said. “We started the build-out in August, and we moved and had our grand opening in October.”

Short time period, ‘massive growth’

Yacoub-Raad said she and a group of other agents at her previous brokerage decided it was time for a culture change.

“We wanted something that was more agent-focused – something of our own where we can grow, because we weren’t seeing a growth path in the other brokerage,” she said. “I thought about just joining another brokerage, and then I found out about Realty ONE Group.”

Yacoub-Raad said Realty ONE Group is an international brokerage group with “more than 450 brokerages in 26 countries.”

Less than two months after she and her two business partners purchased the franchise   for a Hudson location, Yacoub-Raad said our location was up and running.

“We literally opened it in 37 days, which is unheard of,” she said. “It’s (operated by) me and two other people that (make up) the majority owners.”

Yacoub-Raad said Realty ONE Group supplies its franchise owners with all the tools needed to help ensure success.

“They have everything you need,” she said. “Their software, their CRMs, even their look is so up-to-date and modern – and it’s not a brokerage where everything’s virtual. We have brick-and-mortar (locations) and in-house brokers for Wisconsin and Minnesota.”

In the nine months since starting Realty ONE Group SIMPLIFIED, Yacoub-Raad said the business has grown from her and Part-owner/Broker April Simmons, to a group of 30 agents.

“There are 30 of us now – which is massive growth in a short period of time – and they’re all producing agents,” she said. “Some of them have been agents for 20-plus years. These are agents who also have a lot of influence in the community as well. They’ve been around a long time.”

Though Yacoub-Raad said Realty ONE Group SIMPLIFIED’s agents work both from home and out of the office – on Tuesdays, every week, they have an office meeting.

With “such experienced agents,” she said those office meetings often turn into collaborative master classes.

“We’re all in a position of learning from each other at an equal level where we can just get even better,” she said.

Philanthropic focus

Having been a long-time resident of the West Central Wisconsin region, Yacoub-Raad said the ability to freely participate in community philanthropy was important.

“(Philanthropy) has always been a cornerstone of how I was raised and a cornerstone of how I was living life,” she said. “We all are part of the community, we all live in the community. So, why not give back to the community that’s been giving to us?”

At her office’s grand-opening celebration last fall, Yacoub-Raad said  ROGS held a raffle giveaway for its clients in conjunction with a fundraiser to benefit the City of Hudson Police K-9 Unit.

“During our grand opening, we raised $11,000,” she said.

Yacoub-Raad said Realty ONE Group SIMPLIFIED also focuses on bolstering the local economy.

“This is a brokerage where the agents keep their money in their pockets and still get all the full services that you could ever want, including an office to work at, an in-house broker, and we have a lender in-house,” she said. “So, it’s no different than any other brokerage… we just are able to keep the money in the pockets of our agents versus the agents having to pay a split. ”

As the franchise owner of Realty ONE Group SIMPLIFIED and as a private community member, Yacoub-Raad said she likes that they get to choose where their philanthropic dollars go.

Yacoub-Raad said she feels her business is helping the areas of her community where our families live – “thinking hyper local with our donations.”

“I worked in Child Protective Services for years, and it’s something that is necessary and undervalued – social workers get paid nothing,” she said. “Teachers work hard, (and though) I’m not a teacher, I’m going to support them any way they need. Same with athletics. I played sports my whole (life), and it helped me with self-esteem, growth, commitment and strength.”

Yacoub-Raad said following her career in Child Protective Services, she also served a stint in the Peace Corps before moving to Hudson, getting married and transitioning into business ownership, first, as a painter.

“I started a painting business three years prior to being a REALTOR®,” she said. “I trained under someone, I started my own business and it was really successful – it was awesome. I met a lot of REALTORS®

 through that, because I did a lot of painting for them.”

Because “some health issues” affected her ability to maintain her balance, Yacoub-Raad said she had to transition out of the painting industry.

“I wasn’t allowed on the ladder anymore, according to doctors – I mean, I was (climbing) like 40 feet up,” she said. “So, I had a lot of friends in real estate, and they said, ‘Come be a REALTOR®.’”

At first, Yacoub-Raad said she was hesitant to make a career change that involved “any more tests” – but after some convincing from her friends, she said she gave “it a shot.”

“I was actually told, in the first six months I was there, that I was going to fail,” she said. “One particular person (said), ‘You might as well quit now. You’re not going to make it.’”

Despite the criticism she faced, Yacoub-Raad said making the decision to take the leap has since led her to a thriving reality career.