2026 RealTrends Verified: Family ties drive success for The Horak Group

Long before she became a real estate agent helping lead one of the nation’s top-performing small teams, Molly Horak was spending her days in an infant carrier beneath her mother’s desk.

The story has become part of The Horak Group’s family lore — and part of the reason the team’s connection to REMAX stretches back nearly four decades.

“I was in that pumpkin seat under the desk at another brokerage when [my mother] was doing board duty, desk duty,” Molly told HousingWire. The owner came in and asked why a baby was here, said it wasn’t professional. She was in her early 20s, so what are you going to do? So, she went across the street to REMAX, and I ended up growing up in that office.

“They passed me and my sister around, and it was a very family atmosphere. My kids now have all worn little knit REMAX baby hoodies from the 1980s my mom had for us when we were little.

Today, that family-centered approach remains a defining characteristic of The Horak Group, which operates under REMAX Boone Realty in Columbia, Missouri.

The three-agent team — Molly Horak, her mother Susan Horak and Jan Wertzberger — earned a No. 16 national ranking among small teams for transaction sides on RealTrends Verified’s 2026 rankings — closing 247 in 2025.

For Molly, the explanation for the team’s sustained success is straightforward.

“We do have longevity,” she said. “I think my mother started in 1984, 1985, somewhere around there,” she said. “We’ve all just been doing this for a very long time, and have routines set and know what we need to do. It takes a lot of late nights and weekends, but we just keep going and it’s what we’ve always done.”

Susan Horak founded the business and remains its leader, with Molly helping on day-to-day operations and Wertzberger having been with the group for 30 years.

Technology and people

Although the team consists of only three agents, it has continued to evolve with changing technology.

Molly remembers a time when marketing a listing required far more time than it does today.

“I remember starting off in the company in the graphics and marketing office,” she said. “It was so funny, because back then it took like six of us to do 10% of what we do now with two people. You had to build the website from nothing, and it felt like every single time you had a new listing it was this long process of getting everything put on there.

“The websites would crash if you had more than nine photos, because the internet just wasn’t what it is now, and the technology has just gotten so much better — so much faster.”

Despite advances in technology, the team’s investment philosophy has remained consistent.

“I don’t feel like we spend a ridiculous amount buying every new shiny thing,” Molly said. “But we do invest in people. We have a dedicated, full-time graphics and marketing [person]. It’s not always been the same person — but for probably 25 years, 30 years, we’ve just always had one because you need someone to run the website.”

That includes maintaining dedicated marketing support.

“We’ve always had a pretty decent listing volume [so] it’s never made sense to have someone where we had to wait on their schedule when we needed new photos, especially during the recession years,” Molly said. “When things were sitting on the market for a very long time, you have to send people out to retake photos when the season changes and there’s snow on the ground.”

Working with family

As The Horak Group hits 40 years in business, Molly believes the key to making a family business work is surprisingly simple.

“You’ve got to like each other,” she said. “I genuinely love working together. Frequently, we’ll be at the office till 8:30 at night or longer, just to get more done after the staff has left. Everybody goes home and then, all of a sudden, you get peak productivity. We work really well together then, or at any time.”

Still, she acknowledged that family partnerships aren’t for everyone.

“Not every parent-child relationship is right for that,” Molly said. “And you can’t try to force it when it’s not. We’ve just always had this family environment, and we really appreciated that about REMAX. My kids came to the office their first couple of years. When [my mother] got into real estate, back then, I think there was a higher concentration of men in real estate.

“It just wasn’t as normal to have a business be welcoming [to a woman who needed to bring kids to the office]. Now things are different, but REMAX was just so welcoming when it wasn’t what everyone did.”

For the Horaks, a family-friendly office that welcomed a baby in a pumpkin seat helped launch a real estate legacy that now ranks among the nation’s best.