Peter Kempf, Partner and President of Peter Kempf International, shares how he got his start in real estate and what exciting path his career has taken since. Peter serves on the Luxury Real Estate Board of Regents, and has been directly involved with the sale and marketing of more million dollar plus properties in more states and countries than anyone else in the U.S.
How did you get your start in real estate? In 1980 I was living in Chicago, where I was born and raised, and visited a friend of mine in Santa Fe who was in real estate. I always loved Santa Fe and decided to make the move from Chicago and join him in real estate.
What path has your career taken? My path has had many twists and turns but has always been headed in the same direction - to represent luxury properties on an international level. Although I enjoyed selling real estate in Santa Fe, I knew that I wanted to be able to do real estate in many countries and to make that my niche. In the early 80's I was with a company that became the first Sotheby's affiliate in Santa Fe, which gave me an opportunity to get to know Sotheby's management in New York. Sotheby's had no office in Chicago nor any affiliates in the Midwest and they asked me if I would come work directly for them as the Midwest Regional V.P and open a regional office in Chicago. I jumped at the opportunity as I knew this would lead me to my goal of working internationally in the luxury market. Years later Christie’s got into the real estate business and I joined them as Director of International Real Estate representing their client's properties around the world and assisted in recruiting affiliates. 7 years later I decided I wanted to go on my own and started my company, Peter Kempf International. I became involved with an iconic project in Florence, Italy, Palazzo Tornabuoni, a 15th century palace that was the former home of the Medici family and that was being renovated into 38 residences, some of which were being sold in traditional ownership and some of which were used to create a fractional ownership Private Residence Club. As it was a huge undertaking, I moved to Florence to be close at hand. This also gave me the opportunity to expand my business throughout Europe and the UK. As our reputation grew as being truly international, we picked up business in many other parts of the world; Argentina, Costa Rica, Bermuda, Bahamas, Portugal, Spain, UK, Kenya, South Africa, Ecuador, etc. I moved back to the US a couple of years ago to be closer to my family and to grow the company in both its traditional work and to grow some other exciting opportunities created by my partner, Eric Pierce.
Why is your company successful? I think we are successful because we never wavered from our niche of representing only the finest properties in international markets. We've stayed the course of not trying to be all things to all people. Because our properties are all over the world, each one has a different feeder market, which means we had to learn how to appeal to and work with buyers from the UK, USA, China, Germany, France, Portugal, Australia, Russia, etc. I think we've worked with buyers from over 30 countries and we had to learn the ways to reach those buyers. This gave us an expertise that few others have. This has great appeal to developers of luxury resort real estate, whose offerings appeal to a buying audience that transcends the local market.
What are your favorite parts of your job? In the late 60's I went into the Peace Corps and fell in love with learning about and working with other cultures. And, my work now is all about other cultures. I love it!
What do you enjoy doing outside of work? I travel so much that I enjoy the peace and quiet of being in one spot. If I do pleasure travel to a place like Paris, rather than go to museums, I like to just sit at a nice outdoor cafe and people watch. I like to write every morning. I enjoy the outdoors, whether it be hiking, skiing, sailing or at a sporting event. I have sacred event places - like Wrigley Field, the home of my beloved Cubs. Hey, it’s been over 100 years since they won a World Series but I'm an optimist.
For more information on Peter Kempf International, please visit www.kempfintl.com.