Dannecker & Associates: San Diego's Favorite Real Estate Team

DANNECKER & ASSOCIATES SAN DIEGO’S FAVORITE REAL ESTATE TEAM

Featuring

CHAD

Dannecker SEP TEMBER 2023

Sharing the mindset of

GROWTH In a business that is constantly changing, the mindset of growth and collaboration can give you the tools to succeed by adapting, learning, and gaining new strengths.

Chad Dannecker has a proven track record of consistently being one of the top agents in San Diego County, year after year, and has cultivated a team of both new and seasoned agents that have quickly gained their footing and together they have successfully navigated the constant changing real estate market and continue to be one of the top 20 teams in San Diego! That’s no small accomplishment with more than 25,000 agents and teams in the county.

Chad’s Earlier Years Born and raised in San Diego, Chad has always been drawn to adventure, so it would be only fitting that he would eventually find himself going down the entrepreneurial path of real estate.

“I grew up in Southern California, playing baseball, football, mountain biking, surfing and was fortunate to travel the world.

When I graduated from college, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, but I knew a career that had me out and about and interacting with people was more of what I was looking for.”

Chad’s first career path was to “go back to school” as a high school teacher in the subjects of Spanish and French. He was the assistant golf coach and also assisted in coaching the surf team.

“I started teaching because I have always liked to mentor, teach and offer leadership.

I also liked the idea of having the summers off and being able to continue to travel” While traveling abroad in Spain, Chad met his wife, Heather, who was from Northern California and also loved to travel.

Soon his outlook on a career as a teacher changed. He foresaw recreating the same kind of childhood he had growing up, having a family and children while continuing to travel. While he loved teaching, Chad soon realized that the economics of his current career and providing for a family, along with the continuing rise in the cost of living in San Diego, his current career path wasn’t going to work.

Transitioning To Real Estate Chad’s first career opportunity in real estate was in the mortgage industry,

Chad Dannecker Welcome to San Diego where he quickly found success and a growing passion for real estate. One of Chad’s family friends ran a mortgage business and offered to bring him on and show him how real estate finance worked.

business, helping people buy and sell existing homes, which he ultimately found very rewarding.

“During high school and college, I worked in a grocery store and became good friends with many of the managers and cashiers.

They were all like my second family and were wonderful co-workers. Many of them took advantage of the low-interest rates at the time, and I was able to help refinance them all to save them money on their housing expenses! I am grateful for these first connections that gave me my footing in the real estate industry.”

Once again, Chad’s entrepreneurial spirit kicked in, and before you knew it, Welcome To San Diego Real Estate was born and quickly grew to the number one independent brokerage in Downtown San Diego for multiple years in a row. Having gained his broker’s license, Chad was once again in a position to grow a successful company, his leadership and mentoring qualities attracted team members who enjoyed a competitive environment with comradery, support, and innovative ideas in an industry where business practices really hadn’t changed much in the 20 years prior.

As with any real estate market, opportunities and challenges came and went. Chad’s entrepreneurial spirit would not just let him do mortgages and refi’s. He earned his real estate license, started his own mortgage company, and soon was selling new construction in downtown high-rise properties. Then the San Diego real estate market crashed with the great recession of 2007-2009. Property values dropped through the floor, the new home market came to a screeching halt, and Chad transitioned into the residential resale

Building for the Future

Welcome To San Diego Real Estate became a successful brokerage and caught the eye of and was acquired by Compass, where Chad and his team now operate under the Dannecker & Associates name while retaining the Welcome To San Diego brand as their tagline and operating the www.welcometosandiego.com real estate resource website.

“We earned a good reputation in San Diego, and it took 10 years to get to the point where the phone would just keep ringing, so we had a lot of value in our brand and decided to keep that going.”

Chad and his team definitely have a good thing going! Since 2007, the team has a staggering recorded $1.85 billion in volume. In addition, Welcome to San Diego Real Estate was named the one of the fastest-growing, privately held companies for 3 years running in 2016, 2017, and 2018 by the San Diego Business Journal before being acquired by Compass. Since then, Chad and Dannecker & Associates consistently rank, year after year, as one of the top 20 teams and agents in all of San Diego County. Today Chad is joined by his wife, Heather, who serves as CFO and has a team of seasoned agents, along with an Operations Officer, Closing Officer, and Support manager, who collectively create an elite team that represents buyers and sellers throughout San Diego County.

“We have an amazing team of diverse individuals that work together in collaboration to offer a better experience to their clients.

We have team huddles throughout the week,” he smiles. “I really like our team huddles. I love getting everyone into a positive mindset, getting accountability measurable, sharing the wins, and collaborating on what we are seeing and learning to discuss how to better serve our clients.”

Winning Together For Chad, there is no replacement for the bond he and his team share.

“It’s an interesting career path if you go it alone, and people do it, but it can be lonely,” he emphasizes. “For me, I really enjoy having a team. We all divide and conquer, and everyone is good at what they do.”

Our agents are wonderful caring people that are tenacious and consistently work hard to promote listings and dig hard and wide to create buyer opportunities. Our back office

Chad and Heather Dannecker.

team is extremely detail-oriented, organized and are the perfect yen to a great salesperson yang.

Everyone on the team brings their particular strengths to the table with the goal of educating and helping each of their fellow team members, resulting in a well-rounded team that is capable of handling all types of real estate transactions. Our team has found that collaboration with one another leads to success. If an agent on our team is on a well-deserved vacation, they aren’t out of business.

Our team will grab the baton and run with it so their client feels like their needs are consistently and reliably met. In a market with an anemic inventory, this is just so important to move fast and be nimble.

“We have agents that have been realtors for 2 years or 27 years, they may have a specialty in or know the ins and outs of a particular area of town, they may have had a past career path that brings more depth to the table. It makes me happy to see my team reach out to each other for support and insight, which ultimately leads to our clients being confident in our agent’s ability to help with their real estate needs.”

With a constant mindset of growth, Chad has worked towards making a mark on San Diego.

He is currently working to develop and build over 100 residential properties in North Park as well as build a self-storage facility. “I’ve met so many amazing clients along the way and they’ve always wanted to invest with me so this was the next step in the evolution of real estate. From flipping homes to value-add commercial projects, it just seemed that ground up development was the natural progression.”

What Matters Most While Chad has achieved a high level of professional success, Chad stays grounded in life’s priorities.

“You have one life to live, so success for me is having a fulfilling life. When I am gone,

no one is going to care about how many properties I’ve sold or what buildings I’ve built,” Chad says. “What means the most to me is having family and friends and sharing memorable experiences with them.” Chad and Heather have been married for 18 years and are the proud parents of three boys: Evan, Miles, and Nixon.

“Heather is amazing, she is the glue that holds us all together,” Chad smiles. While Chad is constantly running hard in business, Heather is doing all the blocking and tackling with the kids’ scheduling and activities so that Chad is able to show up and enjoy quality time with the kids.

Chad and his family enjoy traveling as much as they can, as well as surfing, boating, paddle boarding, and bike rides. They also like giving back to causes like Boys to Men - a group that works with boys who don’t have a father figure in their lives, as well as supporting college scholarships for high school ASP students who will be the future of America.

Our oldest son Evan (14) currently loves water polo and is enjoying playing on the high school JV team and is involved in TVIA - Teen Volunteers In Action, which has been an incredible program. Miles (12) is all about playing golf, soccer and is our “foodie.” How many 12 yr olds do you know that are fired up about cooking an A5 Wagu on an iron skillet (Chad laughs)? And Nixon (4) just started UTK in Point Loma and is in his first year of Tball.

Chad says, “It’s quite possibly the best and funniest thing he’s ever participated in. The kids all dogpile the ball, and then it spits out, and maybe one of these little guys throws it to first base…maybe.”

Chad is grateful every day to be surrounded by amazing people in all aspects of his life.

“It’s so easy to show up and do good work when you are motivated by the others around you. I appreciate the accountability, perspective, and friendship from all of the incredible people on our team.”

Chad, Heather, Evan, Miles and Nixon.

SDAR Platinum Award Winner 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 SDBJ Fastest Growing Company 2015,16,17,18 (Until acquired by Compass in 2019) Real Producers - Top 20 out of all agents in San Diego County Wall St Journal - Top 20 agent in all of San Diego County welcometosandiego.com | 619-356-3099

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