The QB & the Coach Tackle Real Estate

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RISMEDIA-NRRE VOL 16-4 April 2000

The QB & the Coach Tackle Real Estate

By Don Harrison, NRRE Correspondent

The father is known as “Coach.” The son is a former high school quarterback of some repute. So when they decided to produce a joint marketing piece last year, they capitalized on the sport in which they had a strong local identity. They placed a football on the cover of their four-color brochure.

“How do you convey who you are to people who don’t know you that well?” asks Mike Tetreau, the son. “You?ve got to differentiate yourself in the marketplace.”

And so they have. Fernand “Coach” Tetreau and Mike are a dynamic father-and-son team at William Raveis Real Estate in suburban Fairfield, Conn. Fern, a remarkably youthful 78, serves as the firm?s vice president of sales. He still works a full day, sometimes even six or seven days a week, despite the quadruple bypass he underwent last summer.

Mike, 48, the oldest of the Tetreaus? three sons, teamed up with his father at Raveis five years ago after an extensive career in sales and consulting that took him to Switzerland, California and Virginia. He was also a sales vice president with Raveis prior to accepting a position in the company?s corporate office.

“Dad is one of those people everyone knows and, more importantly, everybody likes,” Mike says. “Some of our clients are children of folks Dad has known, or in many cases were students of my dad. Together, we try to help our friends and neighbors achieve their real estate objectives. We know it’s important to take care of people, make sure we do what?s right for them.”

Combining genuine friendliness with marketing expertise, the Tetreaus have helped place Raveis at the forefront of Connecticut’s real estate companies. Their brochure with the football on the cover opens numerous doors and eyes, one is apt to see their ads on statewide television, and they also have their own Web site: www.tetreau.com. “It?s coming into play more and more,” Fern says. Their personal transactions have hovered in the 35-36 sides in each of the past two years.

Both realize the value of “giving back” to the community. Fern is active within his church, the Gaelic-American Club and the American Legion, and is a board member of the Retired Teachers Association. Mike is a past member of Fairfield?s Town Planning and Zoning Commission and Representative Town Meeting, a member of the Kiwanis Club, and chair of the local Red Cross chapter. This spring, the Red Cross chapter sponsored a benefit golf tournament in Fern?s name.

For Fern, real estate represents a second career ? a successful second career. Prior to becoming a Realtor? in 1979, he was a physical education teacher, coach and administrator at schools in Maine and Connecticut for 30 years.

In a town with a proud football tradition, Fern had the distinction of coaching the sport at both public high schools. Shortly after he and his family settled in Fairfield in the early 1950s, he coached at Roger Ludlowe for three seasons, transforming a mediocre team into a winner. (One of his players, Dave Graham, went on to play six seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles.) Then Fern moved across town to a new high school, Andrew Warde, where in just its second year he led the team to an undefeated season and the state championship.

Some people assume that Mike played for his father, but that wasn?t the case. Except for a high school all-star game, they were opponents. In fact, when Mike was a member of the Ludlowe squad, his team defeated Warde in all three of their meetings, twice when he was Ludlowe?s star quarterback. “When I was a senior, both schools entered the game undefeated, and we won, 40-8,” Mike recalls.

Each of us wanted our own team to win the big game, but we were pulling for each other, too,” Fern says.

They were together just once, at Connecticut’s annual East-West High School All-Star Game. Fern was head coach of the West squad and Mike was his quarterback.

Today, they are delighted to be “teammates” at William Raveis, practicing what they preach in the catchphrase that appears in their brochure: “Helping Friends and Neighbors Every Day.”


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