Michael Shekhed

Michael Shekhed was born in Ukraine in 1956. Prior to immigrating to the US in 1989, Michael served as an Olympic Wrestling Coach for the Ukraine, training many of the top wrestlers in the country. During that period, Michael learned many skills that continue to serve him well, including the benefits of teamwork, perseverance and excellent communication skills. In addition, Michael became an expert in examining and preparing effective offensive and defensive strategies, which now translate into preparing professional, effective marketing campaigns for his real estate clients.

Upon immigrating to the US, Michael held several different occupational positions, ultimately settling into real estate sales in 1999 with Preferred Realty.

Michael quickly became on of the top producing sales people within the firm, and was recognized by the Chicago Board of Realtors for his efforts. During his 4 years at Preferred, Michael was involved in commercial real estate transactions totaling over $20,000,000 in sales volume. He also sold many single family and condominium properties. He became a key member of Preferred’s Developer Sales Division, representing several projects over a 2 year period and selling in excess of 100 condominiums.

Michael joined Universal Realty in 2005. He has been recognized as being in the top 5% of agents by the Chicago Board of Realtors, and won the Top Producer Award at Universal in 2006. Michael sold over $25,000,000 worth of commercial and residential properties since joining Universal.

Michael and Kiyo Shirataki formed the M-K Team in 2006 to provide even better service to their clients. While Michael excels in sales and negotiating, Kiyo excels in marketing, research, database technology and attention to detail. Through their combined talents and efforts, they are currently marketing approximately $25,000,000 worth of commercial properties.

Michael immigrated to the US, as did many foreign born people now US citizens, to provide for a better life for himself and his family. He is a perfect example of how his life experiences and hard work pay off in the US, and he continues to work hard for his clients.

Kiyo Shirataki

Kiyo Shirataki was born in Japan and came to the United States as a student in 1969. After school, he held a few different positions at advertising and marketing firms for over 20 years. His responsibilities were sales and production coordinator, production manager and department manager. Some of most important skills he mastered during that period were communication, teamwork and computer. Then, he opened his own advertising firm which was specializing in print and web marketing for small and medium corporations.

Kiyo joined the Preferred Realty as commercial sale associate; he was specializing in medium size retails, shopping centers, office buildings, vacant land and multi-family apartments.

In 2003, Kiyo joined the Universal Realty Group, Inc. as commercial real estate specialist. In 2006, Kiyo teamed up with Michael Shekhed and formed the M-K Team to provide even better service to their clients. Kiyo excels in marketing, research, database technology and attention to detail, Michael excels in sales and negotiating. Through their combined talents and efforts, they are currently marketing approximately $25,000,000 worth of commercial properties.

Also, Kiyo is very active in his communities. He was the vice president and a board of directors at Skokie Chamber of Commerce (www.skokiechamber.org), also he is a member of B.C.R. (www.bcr-illinois.com). He was the chairman of Japan Festival 2007 (www.japanfest-chicago.org). Presently, he is the president of Mid America Japanese Club (www.japaneseclub.org) and a committee member of the Skokie Festival of Culture.