Operating in Winchester and the rest of the central Kentucky region since 2010, Freedom Realty and Property Management offers potential home buyers an independent and flexible alternative to national real estate firms.

According to co-owner Greg Wood, a Winchester native, going into real estate was his dream following a career with Lexmark in Lexington.

The company moved to its current location at 624 W. Lexington Ave. in 2013, and has been expanding ever since.

“We have myself and 10 agents, so there’s 11 of us,” Wood said. “We’re a local company, but my background is with technology, so we really like technology.”

Among other things, the company offers text tours of homes and the option for electronic signing through Dotloop, a service that allows real estate deals to be completed remotely from anywhere.

Wood said the firm makes time to work with those who prefer to do things more traditionally as well. And that is an example of what he considers his company’s greatest strength: flexibility.

 “Our strength is that the buck stops here,” Wood said. “If we need to make a decision, we make it very quickly, and in real estate, things happen very quickly. We don’t have to go ask corporate a question and wait a week to hear what they say.”

Josh Wood, Greg Wood’s son and realtor for the company, said the staff at Freedom Realty are more willing to help each other than their corporate counterparts.

“If I can’t make it to a showing and I call one of the other 10 agents, they’re going to go,” he said. “We help each other because we know that with the power of 11 agents, we’re not going to let any one client not see a house because of us.”

The company’s community orientation shows itself in other ways, too. It recently purchased a moving van that is loaned to clients free-of-charge to help them move into their new homes.

Freedom Realty took part in the Winchester-Clark County Chamber of Commerce’s 2017 Community Partners program, which establishes a rating system (one to three stars) to recognize local organizations, businesses and industries that go above and beyond in their investment, promotion and contributions to the community.

Businesses and organizations may apply annually for the program, and must meet several requirements. They must be a member of the chamber of commerce in good standing, display a clean, organized and well-maintained facility, offer health and wellness programs to employees, establish recycling programs to reduce their environmental footprint, have employees who volunteer at local community nonprofit organizations and/or mentoring programs, they must participate in community events, meet a certain percentage of employees who live in Clark County, participate in local training and professional development opportunities and actively seek employees who have the National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) as well as veterans.

Freedom Realty received three stars from the program, the highest score possible.