Mahomet’s Deana Gauze has been named the 2020 REALTOR® of the Year by the Champaign County Association of REALTORS®.
Gauze, a licensed real estate broker with Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group of Champaign, was joined by fellow Mahomet resident and longtime friend RE/MAX Realty Associates broker Casey Ryan, who received the Affiliate C.H.O.I.C.E. Award, in receiving the honor in September.
Nominated by colleagues in the real estate industry, Gauze joined 17 other people at the Champaign County Country Club for a very small outdoor dinner party.
“And at that time, I still didn’t know I had won until they started reading my bio and I started to realize it to me,” the realtor from Team Gauze said. “It made me get choked up.”
Gauze had been nominated for the Affiliate C.H.O.I.C.E. Award previously, winning in 2009.
In a competitive, oftentimes cutthroat business, Gauze has tried to focus on building relationships based on respect with other realtors. Gauze said that those relationships often benefit the buyer and the seller.
“Even at this little party of 17, I was talking about one of my listings to another one of the agents,” Gauze said. “She and I went through some people and figured out there was someone to show it to.
“It’s important to have good relationships with people and to be thought of well.”
Gauze spent a couple of years as chair of the Special Projects Committee on the Champaign County Board of Realtors.
Oftentimes coordinating lunches for 100 people, Gauze found time to send texts in order to get people, especially new people, the opportunity to be known.
No matter who Gauze comes in contact with, she wants them to have an experience that leads to them wanting to work with her again.
“I have a lot of repeat business,” Gauze said. “There’s people I’ve helped four and five times in my 19 years.
“I want them to call me back. I don’t just want a one-time client. I want them to feel that I worked hard for them, and got them the best deal I could on the house they were buying or as much money as possible out of the house they were selling.
“I want the agents to want to work with me again and I’ve had several send me little notes, thanking me for a smooth transaction. That’s all very very important to me.
“I want them to feel like I did a good job, I was ethical and honest, and never have them questioned my integrity.”
Within the CCAR board, Gauze has also been on the Grievance and Professional Standard Committees and Member Services Member Involvement Group committees.
But her commitment to community goes beyond her profession.
Gauze has volunteered at the Eastern Illinois Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity, Lifeline Connect and WBGL. She is an active member and leader at her church, the Sangamon Valley Christian Center.
“I think everybody should volunteer, on some level,” she said. “It is so warming to do that and it’s not a feeling you’d ever have if you’ve never done it.
“I don’t think that you can really explain to someone how wonderful it feels to go and work the line at Helping Hands and give people the food and working at WBGL during their fundraisers and taking the pledges, and then having people tell you their story and praying with them.”
Those meaningful experiences are also found in the day-to-day work that Gauze does.
“It’s very rewarding to help someone find their home or to sell a home,” she said. “Whatever the reason, it’s just very rewarding to help them do that process. It’s heartwarming.”
