David Czurak
Published: February 7, 2012

Doug Taatjes, Dave Smies and Stanley Wisinski, from left, signed the merger papers for the new NAI Wisinski of West Michigan last spring. Today, the partners say the union has been “better than expected.”

It was about a year ago when commercial real estate firms NAI West Michigan and The Wisinski Group began serious and lengthy discussions about merging. Roughly six months later, after the details were ironed out, the firms came together and opened NAI Wisinski of West Michigan early last summer.“We’re pleased. We’re happy,” said Jim Decker, a partner and president of NAI Wisinski. “And the economy has come back some.”

The worries that surround the merging of two former competitors into a new entity sometimes don’t fully surface until the union is completed and it’s too late to undo what has been done. Chief among those potential concerns is whether the respective sales teams, which competed against each other for listings and sales for many years, could actually put aside previous feelings and work together for everyone’s benefit. Decker said they were able to do that from Day One.

“The core of our business is our sales group. I worried about that and I shouldn’t have,” he said. “Our people have supported (the merger) and had a sense that the kind of company we wanted to put together was needed.”

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