meet the Fairgrounds team
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Eric
Broker/Owner Eric Steuernagle has called Great Barrington home for over 20 years. He currently serves as President of the Berkshire County Board of Realtors (2018-2021), is chair of the contract and forms committee, and serves as an ombudsman, and serves on the professional standards committee. As someone who deeply cares about his community, Eric runs the realtor group for the Breaking Bread Kitchen which provides weekly meals to South County residents, for which he earned the Berkshire County Good Neighbor award in 2019 for outstanding community service. Eric has gained expertise in numerous aspects of the building and housing industry—including home builder, seller and buyer representative, investor representative, and banking. He has considerable experience in both residential and commercial markets. An avid fisherman and outdoor enthusiast. Eric mostly enjoys spending time with his three daughters and wife, Julie.
David
David settled in the Berkshires with his family in 1982 and is a graduate of Monument Mountain Regional High School. After attending college out of the area, the attraction of the Berkshires called him home. With a career spanning over 20 years in human services, David is finding that working with buyers and sellers is a natural extension of the experience he already possesses. He lives with his wife Stephanie and twelve year old son Khalil in Housatonic.
Sandra
Sandra started her real estate career in the beautiful Delaware Riverfront Town of Delanco, New Jersey. She would knock on doors to meet people, get invited inside and before she knew it , she got a new listing, a referral or potential buyer! Plus many times she met a new friend. Returning to the Berkshires, Sandra joined David Preston Real Estate, and worked together until she opened Sandra Preston Real Estate. In 2020 Sandra joined Fairground Real Estate in Gt. Barrington, and began a new chapter. She is part of multiple town related organizations: Sheffield Land Trust, Sheffield Historical Society, Ashley Falls Historical Commission, Berkshire County Board of REALTORS, as well as Connecticut & New York Real Estate Boards. I also volunteer for the BREAKING BREAD group offering food to local people.I am an avid gardener, a very proud owner of Rosie, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi that has been trained professionally by THE GOOD DOG FOUNDATION!
My goal in real estate is to make Buyers & Sellers feel they are in the hands of a well educated, knowledgeable, agent that listens to you and will take good care of you in your real estate transactions whether buying or selling.
Sonya
Sonya Mackintosh Seward grew up in an entrepreneurial family of hotel, restaurant, and bookshop owners in London, UK. At an early age she learned firsthand how dedication and tenacity were key to business success. After completing a degree in fine arts at The Rhode Island School of Design and an architectural fundamentals program in France, Sonya blended her artistic spirit, analytical thinking, and business savvy in 1997 to found smARTWORKS, Inc., her contemporary knit design studio in Great Barrington. Cultivating a considerable client list through her ability to understand market trends and her customers needs, Sonya’s gift at sales were honed.
Her transition to the real estate business has been a natural one. After spending 25 years managing properties in Western Massachusetts and Upstate New York, she finally built her dream home and horse barn with her husband, Steve, in Sheffield. That experience sparked a passion to help others find the property of their dreams and the smart investment for their futures in her beloved Berkshires.
Charlie
Charlie Mendes has been a real estate sales agent since March of 2013. He is a graduate of Bridgewater State College (B.S., 1982) and Penn State University (M.S., 1993). For over 30 years Charlie worked in Human Services with several organizations, including 28 years as a clinician in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield. The skills he acquired through many years of working with people translated well to his new career in real estate sales. Charlie’s early success as a buyer’s agent resulted in his obtaining a nationally recognized accreditation in 2015 as a buyer’s representative (ABR). He is a member of the Berkshire Board of Realtors, the Massachusetts Associations of Realtors, the National Association of Realtors and the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council. Charlie has enjoyed his venture into a new career and continues to work diligently on behalf of buyers and sellers in all aspects of real estate services.
Richard
After being discharged from the US Navy Richard, a graduate of the Massachusetts State Police Academy, Served as a North Adams police officer for 3 years before graduating from North Adams School of Liberal Arts. Richard and his wife Michelle, the took a position as Residential Directors of Dartmouth College’s “A Better Chance” program for underprivileged high school students in Claremont, New Hampshire. After immersing himself in the community of Claremont, as police officer and Elementary school teacher, he also managed to receive his Masters degree from Keene State College. With his schooling behind him, Richard moved to the Berkshires, where he taught at Souther Berkshire Regional School District and retired as head of the math department.
A real estate broker since 1973, he has expert knowledge of real estate in Great Barrington and surrounding areas. As a resident of Castle Hill, Richard has renovated two houses and built two more in his subdivision project named Fern Hill, located on ” The Hill ” in Great Barrington .