Hello - I am Karen Becicka, Owner/Broker of KARE Properties.  As a real estate agent for 3 years with a well-known real estate company, I always had dreams of owning my own business.  During that time, I was also employed as a Manufacturing Engineer for a local electronics company which was soon closing their doors. This event was going to affect my life as well as 300 other local employees.

I started discussing new opportunities that this transition would provide with my friends and associates. Sharing my dream of buying homes in need of repair, fixing them up and reselling them led to new ideas.  As I described this vision, my friends started to brainstorm about remodeling the homes using the “green” concept.  “Green” as in recycling and protecting our environment. This theme was very appealing to me, hence the first part of my company name “KARE”  It is derived from the base word of my name, Karen, and associating the first four letters with Kleen Air, Reduced Energy.

As I began the process of registering my company name, I wanted to make sure that name would represent all aspects of the business I intended to create.  My initial intentions were to start out with a few rental properties and fixer-upper homes and later expand into a full-time real estate agency. I would hire other agents/associate brokers to work with me in assisting clients with buying and selling their properties.  I added “Properties” to the business name to reflect the additional services.  I was then ready to register my business as KARE Properties, LLC.

I was not able to realize my vision as intended immediately because I remained committed to supporting my electronics customers during the transition of closing the business.  This required me to be away from home for some time.  I continued to work toward my goal by earning my broker’s license and establishing business accounts.  One day, I got a call from my previous real estate partner, Darby Gustafson, who wanted to know if I was considering hiring an associate broker.   We had always discussed going into business together so this was an offer I couldn’t refuse.  KARE Properties was now going to be an active full-service real estate company.

In my absence, Darby arranged for office space and got the business off the ground.  Within our first month of business he had 6 listings, 1 sale and 1 pending offer.  As word got around, another real estate agent called to see if I was interested in hiring other agents.  Tracy Sandberg joined our team and is looking forward to growing her business.

We have a strong team of agents looking forward to meeting  with you and helping  you understand the real estate market and walk you through the sale and purchase of your next property.