The Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors voted Drew Coleman, principal broker at Hasson Company Realtors and local director on the PMAR 2015 Board of directors, as 2015 Master Circle Broker of the Year.

PMAR, a nonprofit trade association, is dedicated to enhancing its Realtor members’ business abilities to a high standard. Its 21 PMAR board directors are elected annually from its membership out of more than 6,500 members. The Masters Circle, of which Coleman is vice president, offers distinguished Realtor members exclusive opportunities.

Coleman was “honored and humbled” by the votes, attributing the success mainly to his team Veronica Park, associate principal broker; Jillian Merritt, buyers agent and broker; and his dad Douglas Coleman, also a broker.

“They’re wonderful. If anything, the reason for the success is we’ve got a really good team who’s able to help our clients,” said Coleman. “My dad is the utility infielder: whatever has to be done, he’s ready at a moment’s notice to help with a client, or attending a signing, or photographing a house.”

“Jillian does the majority of the showing of property, the opening of doors, she knows the neighborhoods very well by virtue of being in these properties so often she understands value and is good at listening to clients and figuring out what they want,” said Coleman of his colleagues. “Veronica has been known as the best transaction coordinator in Portland. She’s good at making sure the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed.”

Hasson Company Realtors was founded in 1991 by University of Oregon alum Mike Hasson and serves Oregon and Washington with agents qualified in communities across Portland metro area, Southwest Washington and Central Oregon.

“A goal of an agent should be to get the person into the house that they want,” said Coleman. “We’re really trying to drill down and figure out what clients want, not what they’re stating: understanding how they want to use the space, finding the why instead of the what.”

In Coleman’s 14 years in real estate since he graduated from George Fox University in 2001, neighborhood hot spots is one of the major changes he’s seen, along with an approximate 40 percent increase in length of paperwork due to details protecting clients from fees.

“It’s been interesting to watch that transform and see what makes up a hot wave for these neighborhoods,” said Coleman. “In North Portland, Cully neighborhood has definitely gone through a hot streak, Mississippi before that. Different parts of even suburban Sherwood — little old town Sherwood has gotten quite popular.”

Built into Sherwood as well as some east side neighborhoods, Coleman sees walkability as a model for future infrastructure.

“Look at some of the successes of European cities where they have pedestrian-only zones: that’s becoming more and more popular as a bike-centric, walking-centric place,” he continued. “A lot of the success of the East side neighborhoods has been because they have that town-center feel.”

Coleman serves clients all over the Portland metro and suburb neighborhoods, showing and selling properties ranging from $100,000 to $3 million in value.

“I’m a fan of the wonderful architectural styles we have here in Portland,” said Coleman. “There’s nothing better than walking down a street seeing beautiful trees overarching a street, We’ve got such great architecture it almost creates an activity of itself just strolling through Ladd’s Addition or somewhere like that. “

With Portland rated the number one state for inbound moves last year, neighborhoods worry about gentrification.

“It really has to start on an organic level where people are willing to pay more for green features and when you have the nexus of affordable and sustaining needs, that’s when things take off like a Tesla car,” said Coleman. “It’s beautiful and has a prestige level, but it also is highly functional and energy-efficient. If we had something like that come into the housing market, which I don’t think is far off, we’ll make great strides in sustainable living.”