From the Top: David Field, Home Field Realtors of Naperville
By David Sharos For The Sun January 24, 2013 6:12PM
David Field, 45, owner of Home Field Realtors of Naperville, launched his business here in 2008 after a move back from Seattle where he co-owned another real estate business with two other partners. He is a native of Elmhurst and a graduate of Southern Illinois University with a degree in advertising and marketing. | Submitted
Updated: February 28, 2013 6:32AM
Most sports fans recognize the competitive edge gained from “home field advantage.” Naperville resident David Field has parlayed that idea into a mom-and-pop realty business named Home Field Realtors of Naperville.
Field, 45, launched his business in 2008 after moving back from Seattle where he co-owned another real estate business with two other partners. A native of Elmhurst and a graduate of Southern Illinois University with a degree in advertising and marketing, Field began his career in a family paper-converting business.
“We had a family business where we bought paper from mills and converted it into rolls and sheets and then sold it to printing and packaging facilities,” Field said. “We had 45 employees and about $30 million in annual sales. We sold the business in 2001 as we could already see that digital media was having an impact and that paper was a declining business.”
Field said he was looking for work that did not involve “a whole lot of inventory” and was drawn to the service industry. He and his wife, Heather, had rehabbed and flipped a few houses on their own, and so he decided to turn to real estate.
“The service aspect of work appealed to me, and I liked building relationship and servicing people,” Field said. “This provided me with a different product and a different customer.”
One of those customers was Naperville couple Kevin and Judy Rieser, who live in Naperville and plan to move down the street to their new home by the middle of next month. Judy Rieser, 50, said she found Field to be “extremely organized and professional.”
“I’ve had a home and property to sell before, and I was very disappointed in the process,” Judy recalled. “David was very knowledgeable and always had all his ducks lined up. He offered suggestions and was right on top of things in terms of what was available and the cost. He updated us constantly and not with corny stuff, but things we needed to know.”
The recession began to take hold in 2008 — not a good year to start a real estate business. By selling the paper business, Field said he was able to get by for a while without depending solely on his real estate transactions to make a living.
“We actually bought a home here in Naperville on a short sale and just refinanced it,” he said. “The appraisal today is for much more than we paid for it, so I feel like we used a little bit of savvy in the process. But all of my wife’s family and mine are in the Chicago area, and we wanted to come back.”
Field said when naming his company, he wanted to find a clever way to incorporate it in the business but that, more importantly, he hopes it conveys the type of service and advantages clients get with having the “home field advantage.”
“We want to match the service and advantages that the ‘home field’ provides and give clients that here in the local market,” Field said. “Naperville continues to not follow the national trend in terms of sales. We have some major employers here, and we get a lot of people who are being relocated. Our home inventory here is half of what it was a year ago and demand is high.”
David and his wife have three children, ages 5, 6, and 12, and are looking forward to the same perks thousands of other Naperville residents enjoy.
“Like everyone, we look forward to our kids getting a topnotch education, and we feel that the national attention Naperville has received for being a great place to raise a family is valid,” he said. “My wife and I continue to make connections with people and look forward to living in the community.”
