Vanessa Vereschak says real estate has been a part of her life for as long as she can remember.
This includes while she was growing up in New Jersey, where her mother owns an independent brokerage, All Jersey Realty, and her father owns a construction company. Vereschak worked in her mother’s office while she was in high school, which afforded her an opportunity to learn about the business and decide whether or not it interested her.
It did, so Vereschak’s memories of real estate also include her becoming licensed in her home state at the age of 18 in 2007.
And they include living and working in Chattanooga as an agent with Keller Williams Greater Chattanooga Realty today. Vereschak joined the brokerage in January to take advantage of its training, which she says benefits even seasoned Realtors like herself, and to be in the loop as it advises agents on new trends in the housing market.
“I also sensed during the interview that I’d be part of a larger team, even though I’d be working on my own,” she says. “I liked the idea of being with a company that supported its agents that way.”
As a Realtor, Vereschak focuses on listing and selling residential properties throughout the Chattanooga area. She and her husband, Jason Vereschak, have lived in the city since 2017, when they left the beaches of New Jersey and settled in the Scenic City, where he’d received a job offer.
Since the move, Vereschak has made a profession out of keeping busy. In addition to serving residential clients, for example, she also assists investors with purchases and renovations.
Vereschak funnels this work through the company she and her husband founded, FALA Design. (FALA is an acronym of furniture, architecture, landscaping and art.) In a nutshell, Jason does the design work and she handles the real estate side of the equation, which includes estimating the profit an investor can earn from a renovated property.
The couple launched FALA in New Jersey and brought it with them when they moved to Tennessee. Vereschak says the work seemed like a natural extension of what she’d seen and done all her life.
“I’d sell a house, and then the buyers would find out about our design work and ask for help. It felt like there was a niche for us.”
While investors appreciate FALA’s eye for design, Vereschak said the venture helped to keep residential clients within her sphere as she found multiple ways to serve their housings needs.
“Instead of helping a buyer find and purchase a house and then losing my connection with them until they wanted me to sell the place, I continued to be involved with them as my husband and I helped their new house become a home.”
In addition to focusing on real estate, Vereschak is a full-time architect with a local firm, Tinker Ma. Educated at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, she says she gravitated naturally to the profession after growing up in proximity to related fields.
Vereschak is partial to designing interiors, as the work involves emotions and considering how someone will feel while moving through a space.
“You’re not just throwing up an edifice, you’re focusing on the human element. I don’t like when I walk into a building and the interior space doesn’t complement the exterior. Yes, the outside of a building can look cool, but you experience a building by moving through it.”
Chattanoogans can experience Vereschak’s work on interiors at Easy Bistro & Bar and Frazier Five & Dime, restaurants located in the city’s North Shore community.
“I love when people ask me to recommend a good place to eat,” she laughs. “I’ll say, ‘Here are the restaurants I’ve designed. Let me know what you think.’”
Vereschak says she believes her skills as an architect provide her with yet another tool for helping her real estate clients – including her residential buyers and her investors – see the potential in a home.
If there’s one skill Vereschak will admit to needing to improve, it’s slowing down. Fortunately, she has an in-home consultant who’s motivating her to take time and focus on her life outside of work – her and Jason’s 3-year-old son, Noah.
“He’s awesome,” she smiles. “I still work a lot but he helps me to stop and smell the roses. I don’t know what tomorrow will brings and I don’t want to waste any of the time I have with him.”