by Susan Shalhoub It’s been a seller’s market in residential real estate for quite some time, but the industry is cyclical and shifting, and now is when buyers and sellers need the experience of a veteran real-estate team the most. “It’s all changing again,” says Gale Milgrim of Orlando’s Welcome Home Team, Keller Williams. These days, it’s not that difficult to land a house. “For buyers, there’s usually some room for negotiation, and sellers become motivated once a house is on the market three or four weeks with no takers.” But Gale says, for those putting houses on the market, prices are sti ..read more

by Susan Shalhoub FASTSIGNS of Orlando, FL - Central is firmly rooted in its commitment to exemplary customer service, as it always has been. But now, in a fantastic new space, it has much more elbow room to amplify the customer experience and make it bigger, better, and stronger. When FASTSIGNS recently moved into a larger building at 4835 East Colonial Drive, right across the street from its home of 21 years, the Orlando, FL - Central location doubled its employees and now has more space for consultations, inventory, production, and design.  In terms of customer-service excellence, “Thi ..read more

by Susan Shalhoub Since Josh Kling founded The Mash Group (formerly Mash & Lauter Marketing) in 2018, it has achieved steady, healthy growth – the same type of growth this innovative marketing agency can help create for its clients. Now with several employees and contractors, The Mash Group has moved into a new home in downtown Orlando and is actively looking to connect with the community. Josh enjoys the problem-solving aspect of marketing for clients in the many industries The Mash Group serves such as legal, healthcare, real estate, consumer goods, supply chain, fresh produce, and IT as ..read more

by Jill Cousins For more than 20 years, Beth Shalom Memorial Chapel occupied the same building on Lee Road, just west of I-4. Then, a few years ago, the county began major road-widening construction, and suddenly access to the only funeral home serving Orlando’s Jewish community became virtually impossible. It was time for a change. In response, Beth Shalom opened not one, but two new locations, both just a few blocks west of the previous building. The main office space is now in the lemon-yellow 933 building on Lee Road (Suite 101), just west of Adanson Street, and the new chapel is at 835 Le ..read more

by Amy Kimlat It’s hard to imagine, but there was once a time my daughter had so few toys that I wondered when her toy shelf wouldn’t look quite so bare.  Ha! Now she’s three-and-a-half with an almost-two-year-old sister. Four cumulative birthdays and Hanukkahs later, the situation had spiraled. But with two toddlers, a business to run, and an upcoming move, getting organized felt like an impossible task, even for a reasonably organized person like me. Enter Julie Levitt Bain – personal assistant, professional organizer, and determined life-simplifier. Through her company, At Your Service ..read more

by Susan Shalhoub Realtor Bianca Botelho speaks the language of real estate – in whichever way her clients understand best.  Bianca delivers her expertise in residential, commercial, and new-build real estate in English, Portuguese, or Spanish to meet the needs of her diverse and always-growing client base. “I was born in Brazil, so I speak Portuguese,” Bianca says. “My husband speaks Spanish, so that’s our main language at home.” Being trilingual often means other real-estate agents send clients to her, a credit to Bianca’s stellar reputation in the industry. A member of the RE/MAX Assur ..read more

Gale Milgrim, with more than three decades of experience as a licensed Realtor, has a well-earned reputation for deftly navigating the ups and downs of the real-estate market. Whether helping sell or purchase a home, she has consistently delivered for her clients, even when COVID-19 spread throughout the nation last year. The pandemic created an unexpected shift in the housing market, and Gale’s experience was put to the test. Gale explains many buyers from closed states flocked to Florida during the pandemic for its weather, low taxes, and larger properties at more affordable prices. “With de ..read more

by Kevin Fritz With a $68 trillion transfer of wealth from older generations to their heirs expected in the next 25 years – and $6.3 trillion of that expected to go to charities – the TOP Jewish Foundation is working with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and the Jewish Foundation of North America to further enhance its mission of securing the future of the Jewish community through legacy giving programs. “There is a transfer-of-wealth opportunity,” says Ellen Weiss, TOP’s executive director. “We think this is so critical for the Jewish future.” The new joint effort keeps TOP’s legacy progr ..read more

By Laura Breen Galante Realtor Bianca Botelho is a ZIP code expert. Originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Bianca has lived in the Orlando area since 1992. When the real-estate market crashed in 2007-2008, many of her colleagues left the industry, “but I decided to stay, thinking that if I could make it through this, I could make it through anything,” Bianca recalls. “I was not ready to give up on an industry I had grown to know and love. I gave it my all.”  Relying on her fluency in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, Bianca focused her sales efforts on international investors from South ..read more