Buyer's
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Below is an article that The Canton Journal published about the growth of Buyer's Network, Inc. Canton
Journal Son has Mom & Pop Business Booming On a hunch, Bob Simone, Jr. has taken his parents' engineering and real estate business, The Rustlewood Company, Inc., and turned it into a cornerstone. Now known as Buyer's Network- Rustlewood Co, a real estate buyers agency, the mom-and-pop business started in their Rustlewood Drive home, and is on the threshold of going national. "My dad started this small company out of the house at night," Simone said. Then, it was a nameless, one-man engineering company. Eventually their address became the name. "People would say, 'Go see the company on Rustlewood,'" he said. "We didn't pick it, it kind of picked us." After graduating Roger Williams College in Rhode Island in 1992 with a degree in architecture, he started building on his father, Bob Sr.'s, thriving business. Simone Jr., was designing everything from small additions to dream homes. But some of the customers were coming in with property they bought believing it would be great for their dream home. Simone said he had to tell them otherwise. "After it happened a couple of times, I realized their would be a niche," he said. "We initially started offering our services to our architecture clients." Though the architecture was the main business, the office soon was overrun with referrals from previous clients to have Simone act as a buyer's agent. Essentially, he acted as the real estate agent for the property purchaser, a shift from the typical type of real estate agent who always represents the seller. "All of a sudden we became a buyer's agent," he said. And by 1994, he had completely taken over the family business and founded the Buyer's Network Trade Association. With 17 offices all around Massachusetts, Simone's idea seems to be working. He may have found success quickly, but it hasn't come without obstacles. He took over the company after his father's diabetes worsened to the point he needed a kidney transplant. Simone's mother, Rita, who was still working as an agent, left the business to care for her husband. Her care definitely took on an unusual form. It is common, and often easier to find a matching kidney among blood relatives, but Rita was a match and donated one of her kidneys. "It was a real test for the family," Simone Jr. said, whose sister Diana also works in the office as an agent. They were trying to keep the business alive and trying to keep members of the family alive," he added. Like most close families, the Simones made it through. Ever since, Simone has focused on the business. He sought a little help from his friends, bringing on fellow Roger Williams architecture graduates. "When I came into it, the company needed new energy," Simone said. "It was funny that it was a bunch of young grads that did it." A three-ring binder in his office is filled with customer forms praising Buyer's Network, Simone and about a dozen other agents. Simone is credited for designing the first standardized buyer agency forms and the largest exclusive buyer's brokerage association in New England. His customer accolades were validated recently as he was named by Banker & Tradesman as one of the top 125 leaders making a difference. The architect says he still does some work to stay fresh, but did not design his own dream home. Providing dreams come in different forms, he bought the home next to his parents, which used to belong to his grandparents. "I now live in the same neighborhood I grew up in", he said. |
