“It’s not easy to anticipate what tomorrow will be about. But it´s great fun to try."
For more than 40 years, Claashen Immobilien has been
a known entity in Norden’s business sector. Today, the fortunes of the family company founded in 1981 are in the hands of Anja Claashen-Schneider and her husband Günter.
As a teenager, Anja Claashen-Schneider had set her sights on a totally different career: all she wanted to be was a senior police officer. “I never really looked into it seriously though”; she says. Instead, she began by training as a legal clerk. Her boss in those days saw her potential and advised her to study law. But the young woman was not totally convinced and eventually opted for the career path that had been a fairly obvious option right from the start. After all, what she understood about her parents’ work had already piqued her interest, as it continues to do so now. “The job is highly varied and brings you into contact with new people every day.” Her passion for her job is tangible.
After training as an estate agent, she went on to obtain additional qualifications as a certified real estate specialist and also as an assessor with the DIA (German Real-Estate Academy). Her CV also includes employment with an estate agent in Hamburg, but city life held little appeal for the woman from Ostfriesland. Back in Norden, she joined her parents’ company full time. Since 2006, she and her husband Günter have been running the firm, with the result that she has put down even stronger roots in the region. “Some people might find it tiresome when everybody knows you and people keep coming up to you in the street”, she says. “But I grew up with it, it was just the same for my parents. I really appreciate this close network: in the end, it’s what Ostfriesland is all about.”
Is she a typical local? Anja Claashen-Schneider thinks about it for a minute. “As a child, I was an active road bowling player for a good ten years”, she says. She thinks she’s certainly down to earth and direct, but she shows no signs of being reserved, which is what people of Ostfriesland are renowned for. And she’d rather drink tea with a spoonful of honey than the traditional way with rock sugar and cream.
Focussing on what matters
Today, the 16 employees working for Claashen Immobilien cover a radius of around 30 kilometres around the town of Norden – from Krummhörn in the west to the municipality of Brookmerland in the south up to Dornumersiel on the coast. Sometimes the portfolio even includes properties on the islands of Norderney and Baltrum. The catchment area on the mainland has been kept deliberately small, because “it is better to pool our know-how here directly on sight, rather than scattering it in all directions”.
Anja Claashen-Schneider’s management style also includes treating people as equals. Not just when dealing with clients but above all with her staff. At the end of 2022, they introduced a major change in the company when they decided to use first names, rather than being on formal surname terms. “In the past, management and staff never used first names for each other. And yet we’d sit together during the tea breaks and talk about all the world and his wife. It just felt wrong to insist on using surnames.”
The boss is now just known as Anja. The low staff turnover of recent years in particular shows that human relationships work well at Claashen Immobilien. Nearly everyone who trains here wants to stay in the long term, she says with pride. And even former trainees who opted to move away from rural Ostfriesland after qualifying have now come back again.
Eyes set towards the future
Meanwhile, Anja Claashen-Schneider, now in her mid-50s, has stepped back almost completely from the operative side of the business. She meanwhile focuses on site development and project management: “Developing construction concepts for greenfield sites is a fascinating challenge.” At the moment she is planning a new estate with 92 plots in the west of Norden. She also has great plans for the company’s own headquarters in the heart of Norden town centre. The building is to undergo total refurbishment. The premises on the first floor that were used by a doctor’s practice are being converted into additional office space for the company. While everyone was talking about Covid-19 and the subsequent economic crisis, Claashen Immobilien remained on an upward trajectory. “Business continues to go well in all aspects of real estate services. At the same time, we are seeing increasing demand in particular for facility management”, says the expert. That’s just one good argument to expand the premises. Up to now, she has always managed to find the staff she needed with the right qualifications. Good marketing has helped here, with the company’s visibility being one of the key factors in its success. These days, such marketing goes beyond using showcases and advertising posters, and includes above all an effective online presence. The company’s Instagram and Facebook accounts therefore include not just offers of selected properties but also offer a look behind the scenes. “After all, people want to know the individuals behind the company name.”
Transparent and accessible
Keeping the company accessible was the main reason in 2009 to move directly to the lively shopping precinct, into premises with big windows that give a clear view of the open-plan office. “We wanted everyone to see our transparent approach, which is so important when dealing with the client”, says Anja Claashen-Schneider. “Anyway, shiny paint and a high-gloss finish won’t impress the down-to-earth locals or those who have moved to Ostfriesland by choice.” Besides triggering unnecessary inhibitions in potential clients, that simply wouldn’t go with the company’s image. Some employees still speak Low German, which certain clients really appreciate and respond likewise. That’s ideal for the client base. After all, “we offer the same service to the elderly lady with a cottage and to the business man with a luxury villa”.
No matter who the client may be or what their particular concern is, they are always served with the latest state-of-the-art standards and equipment. For some time now, the company’s business practices have included hybrid owners’ meetings with the very latest video equipment and 360° views of the offered properties. A videographer has been specially employed for this purpose, and also produces short films of the buildings to give potentially interested clients a thorough impression in advance. Staff working in the field use their iPad to upload data directly to the company’s cloud. Anja Claashen-Schneider summarises these and many other innovations: “It’s not easy to anticipate what tomorrow will be about so that we can get one step ahead of the competition. But it’s great fun to try.”
As for tomorrow, Anja Claashen-Schneider is currently back in Hamburg on regular visits where her son Hendrik is taking a degree in real estate management so that he too can join the family company sooner or later. His younger brother hopes to run his own construction firm one day. “A good plan”, she says, but thinks he should learn his trade from scratch to start with. Like she did. It’s the down-to-earth way they do things here.
A network by women for women
Until she hands over to the next generation a few years from now, Anja Claashen-Schneider still has plenty of plans to keep her busy. Her commitment goes way beyond her own company. For many years now she has been a member of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Ostfriesland and Papenburg, where she is an examiner for budding real estate agents and is also on the vocational training committee. She was subsequently voted into the general assembly, onto the board and eventually made vice president for the Norden region.
Anja Claashen-Schneider appreciates the network that she has established here over recent decades, and would like to take things a step further. Together with two other businesswomen from the region, she has set up the initiative called CCI Business
Women for Ostfriesland and Papenburg. After all: “There are similar initiatives in 79 CCIs throughout Germany, so why not here in Ostfriesland as well?” The inaugural event in January 2023 was attended by 40 women proprietors, CEOs and senior executives from the regional business sector. That was already a great echo and most encouraging, says the initiator. “Building this network and filling it with life is my pet project. And it’s so important, because we women really ought to do more networking together.” The same applies to brand-new start-ups and established firms with a long tradition: “Intensive sharing helps us all move forward, in terms of personal development but also when it comes to the region and its economy.”
Claashen Immobilien
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