Joan Kaplan Joins The English Team
Joan Kaplan Joins The English Team
We have great news at the English Team: Joan Kaplan has joined the team as a listing partner and buyer specialist. Joan was formerly with the Chuck and Marshall Team at Keller Williams and is a long time Resident and Realtor in the Oak Grove neighborhood of DeKalb County. We look forward to working together, bringing great service to customers in neighborhoods convenient to Emory University and the CDC. Welcome aboard! Sally English and Michelle Vastakis
Joan Kaplan English Team Home Buyer Specialist Listing Partner
Qualifications:
- Salesperson – Licensed by the State of Georgia as a Sales Associate in 2005. Requires successful completion of the salesperson’s course and examination.
- Home Renovator: – Purchased, renovated and sold numerous homes in Oak Grove and Leafmore neighborhoods over the years.
- DeKalb Board of Realtors Member
- National Association Of Realtors Member
Resourceful, adventurous and creative, Joan loves to travel, renovate homes and talk (a lot). She was raised in St. Louis MO and attended Bradley University in Peoria IL.
After college Ford Motor Company hired Joan as a ‘Field Manager’ in Louisville, Kentucky where she honed her skills as a negotiator and learned to analyze financial statements to help the dealers become more profitable. Responsible for $ 60,000,000 in sales each year, Joan learned the analytical side of the business at the young age of 23. Traveling to a zone of dealers each week was wearisome and Joan logged more than 30,000 highway miles each year for almost 5 years when Ford transferred her to Atlanta.
“After arriving in Atlanta I quickly felt at home and knew that at Ford, my next promotion would land me in Detroit, quite an oxymoron “Wahoo, a promotion to Detroit?!” At that time during the early 1980’s, there were very few women in upper management, and those who made it there were single, without kids-not my vision of the life I wanted. So I indulged my entrepreneurial spirit by co-founding a tennis catalog where I learned the fine art of guerrilla marketing (creating publicity and awareness of a company by using unique, inexpensive promotions). We successfully grew the business to almost $ 1,000,000 in sales and I sold my share of the business to my partner five years after starting it.”
Deciding to take some time off before starting my next venture, Joan worked at Delta Airlines so she and husband Brian could pursue their love of travel and adventure which included Brian’s monumental 3,769 mile bicycle ride across America for charity. Joan manned the 29-foot RV that served as a support vehicle. A six month ‘sabbatical’ stretched to almost 10 years as we became addicted to benefit of free flights at Delta
“In 1995, after selling a mail order catalog business I co-founded, I worked at Delta Airlines where my husband and I traveled extensively. On one memorable flight, my seatmate described his success as the owner of dozens of residential rental homes, inspiring us to purchase our first investment property. For six years, I dabbled in real estate by buying, selling, rehabbing and renting homes. When friends, acquaintances and friends-of-friends started asking for my opinions and ideas, I knew it was time to become licensed so others could benefit from my knowledge and insights.”
Following her passion for real estate, Joan was licensed in 2005 and quickly moved her license to The Chuck and Marshall Group where it remained until May 2009. In 2009 Joan moved to Keller Williams Metro Atlanta. Joan joined The English Team in May 2010.
“Whether I’m in the locker room at the health club, scouring an estate sale, in an aisle at the grocery store or at my daughter’s ballet class, I’m hearing, connecting and contacting potential buyers, sellers and renters. I’m always talking and looking, hunting and scoping out that ideal buyer or that next great home.”
Joan is married to Brian who is employed by the Centers for Disease Control geographic information system mapping for the Environmental Health Tracking Branch). They have a daughter, Sarah who is a student at Oak Grove Elementary School. Joan and Brian live in the Leafmore community of DeKalb County and can often be found dining with friends at the Oak Grove Meat Market and restaurant. Say hello the next time you see her. That is all it takes to get a conversation started.