These Three Sibling Sets Are Crushing Commercial Real Estate

As part of our National Sibling Day coverage (it was this weekend, you better have called your sister), we caught up with three Dallas sib groups. We discovered a lot of friendly competition, massive respect and some funny family stories.  

Matthew and Andrew Schendle

Cushman & Wakefield leasing director Matthew Schendle and Hunt Construction Group director of business development Andrew Schendle followed their father, Jim, into the business. He's a real estate attorney, and Matthew went into commercial real estate right after college. But it wasn’t always obvious to Andrew that he’d follow his father’s footsteps. He was in radio sales but when satellite disrupted the market, he decided there had to be something else he could do that would rock his world. He found his way to commercial real estate and never looked back.   

The brothers have worked on several deals together, an easy thing to do since they know each other so well. Andrew says his brother is a class act and a master at building relationships. He’s one of the best leasing agents in the country, says Andrew, who tells us he's learned everything about how to act on and off the field from his brother.

The respect goes both ways. Matthew admires his brother’s sunny nature and his sense of humor, and the fact that Andrew is such a well-rounded real estate pro. 

For fun, the guys like to ski, a holdover from their childhood. When Matthew was 12 and Andrew was 8, Matthew offered to take Andrew skiing. Matthew chose the double-black diamond North Face of Crested Butte. Predictably, Andrew did a yard sale all the way down the mountain—one of the longest mountain faces in the country. Andrew lost everything: his gloves, his hat, even his lift ticket.  

Andrew is pretty sure Matthew was trying to kill him. 

Chris, George and Eric Deuillet

Commercial real estate is also the family business for CBRE VP Chris Deuillet, Berkadia senior director George Deuillet and Structure Commercial president Eric Deuillet. Their father started in 1972 brokering the raw land around what is now DFW Airport. Growing up around real estate rubbed off on all three of the Deuillet boys. George and Eric went directly into the industry while Chris used his MBA at IBM for a few years before finding his way. (While toiling away on boring spreadsheets, Chris noticed his brothers were making all the money and having all the fun. He joined them in the business and never looked back.)

Chris says it is an unmitigated positive to have a sibling in the same industry. One advantage is having someone you trust to share ideas and info with.  The brothers can rely on each other to give color or backstory to a deal. 

Nowadays, the Thanksgiving conversations are boisterous fun, he says. With two generations of real estate pros around the table, it’s definitely spirited. For instance, Chris says he’ll mention he sold a piece of property and his dad will reply that he sold that same property 30 years earlier.

All three guys got their work ethic from their dad, Chris tells us.  And they got a few chuckles from him too. Chris tells us when his dad was working in real estate, before the internet and cellphones, he would occasionally take calls at home. Chris and his brothers would hear his father say “the loan was going to balloon.” The boys, not knowing what they were talking about but already taking after their dad, would then say their “bike is going to balloon.”

Ally Price and Carson Rice

Younger Partners’ Ally Price and her younger brother, Carson Rice, not only are in the same business, they work at the same firm. Ally tells us Carson was hired about eight months after she was but that they have been “working together” since Carson was old enough to help her build a tree fort.

Carson jokingly says he’s always been in his sister’s shadow, ever since they were kids and Ally would use Carson and their sister Brittany as props in her dances. Ally would declare they were rocks or trees while she’d dance around and soak up the attention. 

Things have changed now (somewhat). The siblings (pictured here in yesteryear) agree that their work arrangement is a dream come true. Ally says work is much more fun with Carson around; they know each other better than anyone, and their personalities mesh well—despite both having a strong competitive streak. They also crack each other up.

One bad thing about working together? Ally says it’s that Carson has to lose to her so often. But besides the smack talk, she says they work really well together. The sibs are about to close on an 8k SF deal in Lewisville that will be their first big high-five deal together. Carson says it certainly won’t be the last time they work on a deal together.

He has learned a lot from his sister, Carson says. She’s taught him about being a professional, and the art of networking and cold calling.