From the helicopter, Montague Island looks like paradise. But its shores are littered with marine debris carried by Pacific currents. Erinn Nobel spent a week of her summer hauling it off by hand, alongside Gulf of Alaska Keeper, and it says something about the people building ENRG.
“I like working with Saad.” That’s the entire explanation Mike Sokolowski, known as Soko, gives for partnering with him a second time. It’s the one line that explains most of how Soko & Saad Real Estate Group actually runs, and why they chose ENRG to build it their own way.
“Are you the new front desk lady?” That’s what her broker said to Skye Willis, an agent with the brokerage for three years. Her own broker didn’t remember who she was. This is the story of how she and her sister Raine found a brokerage that finally saw them.
I asked Patrick about the note. He looked away. “Dammit Erinn.” When he looked back, his eyes were wet. In that moment, he realized someone finally understood. Peter and I met Patrick Easter in person for the first time at the Omni in Austin this past spring — where his father Bob founded Easter and Easter Realtors, a boutique brokerage serving the Austin community with heart since 1982.
Her name is Michelle Fluker. She didn’t have to write the email. Nobody asked her to. There was no survey link, no follow-up sequence, no automated request for feedback. She just sat down and wrote it because she wanted someone to know. What happened next says everything about the kind of agent ENRG was built for.
I just hit my one-year anniversary at ENRG, and I almost missed it. I found out the morning of, looked back at what we built, and realized the most useful thing I could do is write down what the year actually taught me. Not the highlight reel. The real notes. I have been in real estate for more than 30 years — and what I’ve learned is that building a brokerage in 2026 is mostly about deciding what to ignore.
The Ottone Group has joined ENRG Realty, bringing one of Jacksonville, Florida’s most established bilingual real estate teams into our national network. Led by Daniella Ottone, the team has built a strong presence across the Jacksonville market, earning recognition for deep client advocacy, rigorous agent education, and a full-process approach to real estate.
Some decisions take years to make. Not because the person making them is indecisive, but because they’re carrying something that matters too much to get wrong. Patrick Easter has been running Easter & Easter Realtors in Central Texas since 2014, when he took over the region’s longest family-owned real estate business. What had been a career became something closer to a calling.
Most brokerages grow by adding headcount and hoping the culture survives. ENRG was built on a different bet: that the right infrastructure, built deliberately from the start, is what lets personalized service scale without becoming a promise you can’t keep. Donnie Pingaro has been living that bet since he joined. On April 22, 2026, it became his official mandate.