Corporate Real Estate Services, or the Relocation Department, is a key department at any major brokerage firm: these are the people who deal with corporations moving to Texas and the DFW area, so they are on the forefront of the latest in population migrations. Corporate Relocation Team agents often may know when firms are relocating to Texas before anyone does, and that is one reason why we wanted to make Harold Decena our new best friend.
Decena will now lead one of the nation’s largest in-house Relocation Departments at the Ebby Halliday Companies.
A relocation transaction differs from a regular real estate sale because there is a referring source in the mix; there may or may not be IRS guidelines that also may be a factor.
“Harold is a widely admired veteran of the relocation services industry,” said Chris Kelly, president and chief executive officer of the Ebby Halliday Companies.
California and Florida: DFW’s Biggest Feeders
Usually, the spring market is the busiest time of the year for relocation transactions, as families aim to make moves during summer vacation before getting kids lined up for school in the fall. But: COVID-19.
“The COVID-19 effect has been a slow down or pause of the typical relocation traffic this time of year,” says Decena. “Many corporations have travel bans in place and depending on the state and/or city, transferees are coming from that may cause a delay in selling a home.”
Decena succeeds Karen Greene, who announced her intention to retire at the end of June. Greene has been a relocation director in North Texas for 35 years.
Decena, a licensed real estate agent who also holds the Certified Relocation Professional designation from the Worldwide Employee Relocation Council, says his leadership style is performance and data driven — it’s all about the results.
“Some of our relocation management clients share performance metrics with us; it’s great to share successes with our team,” says Decena. “We’re also able to identify the challenges and opportunities we need to address. Ongoing training with department staff and relocation team agents allows us to address these areas to improve the customer experience.”
Decena says he wants every member of his department to have the tools necessary to succeed. He sees himself as a partner in achieving their success.
“I’m excited to be associated with a company that has deeply established roots,” Decena says. “I consider it an honor to help further the visibility Karen and our team have built in the relocation referral landscape.
Decena will lead a department of eight relocation professionals who are known nationwide for their ability to facilitate the real estate referral process — both incoming and outgoing. He worked at Texas Instruments prior to real estate. He was also a real estate agent for approximately five years at Wm. Rigg Realtors, where Ebby’s Betty Misko was his manager.
“I had an opportunity to join Wm. Rigg’s Relocation Department under the leadership of Karen Greene, my mentor.
So where are major relocations coming from?
“We see a large portion of relocations coming from California,” says Decena. No surprise there but get this: Decena says another major feeder state is Florida, along with Illinois, and other parts of Texas.
“They are associated with various relocation management companies we service that represent corporate clients and are not specifically part of any current group move,” he said.
