"I don't want to be the biggest," says Ted Kamberos, founder and president of Kamberos Associates. "I want to be the best."

After only a few short years, Kamberos' real estate brokerage firm is well on its way. It has carved out a niche in West DePaul, selling that area's rapidly appreciating homes at prices many long time residents can't believe. One client nearly doubled her money selling her small condo only six months after buying it.

Th firm's formula for success seems to rely more on old-fashioned hard work than on the high-tech marketing services available to its larger competitors. By most accounts, Kamberos' sales associates go out of their way to be both helpful and courteous. Much of the firm's business, is repeat business -- perhaps the greatest compliment a real estate company can receive.

As the owner admits, Kamberos Associates isn't the biggest. It employs only ten full-time salespeople. Their combined sales volume, though impressive, lags behind the bigger organizations. They all work in one small office at 2458 N. Racine - there is no Gold Coast branch, no Irving Park office about to be opened. And, while they are a full service company, they won't soon be announcing the opening of Kamberos' new commercial or investment division. This is a company that concentrates on doing what many others seem to have forgotten - using its knowledge of a neighborhood and its residents to sell homes.

Erin Brady bought a condo in the spring of 1989, sold it, and bought a new condo, using Kamberos Associates to represent her in all three transactions. In an industry like real estate brokerage, where it is not unusual for 20 percent of a firm's customers to be dissatisfied with the service they received, such loyalty is rare. Brady reports that Kamberos always returned her calls promptly, answered her questions knowledgeably and, on her first deal, even "held her hand," guiding her through the buying process.

"I wouldn't do business with anyone else," says another client. "Ted cares more about the client than the deal. Many brokers will tell you that, but Ted really means it." This client had been searching on and off for a home for about two and a half years before he contacted Kamberos. After hearing the client's rather specific housing requirements, Kamberos managed to find him the perfect home within days. "There are maybe ten house in Chicago that would have fit into the size, and price range I wanted," explains the client, "and when Ted showed me this house, I walked in the front door and said "This is it!"

Other clients nearly unanimously report that Kamberos Associates is nothing if not thorough. Even Fran McFadden, whose home was listed with Kamberos for almost ten months, says she never doubted the competence of the listing agent. "She worked very hard," says McFadden, "Maybe that's typical, but I don't remember ever seeing a real estate agent get so involved."

The success of Kamberos' tiny company might be surprising to those who watch the industry. For many years the trend has been for large brokerage firms to swallow the smaller ones. The industry has seen the emergence of giant companies with the resources to offer promotional campaigns that firms such as Kamberos Associates can never hope to match. ERA, for example, offers to buy a client's home if their agents can't sell it. RE/MAX sends up a manned hot air balloon and awards a trip to Hawaii to whoever manages to take the best photo of it. Baird & Warner buys a half hour of television time to help promote its listings, as do a few other major realty groups. A glance through TV Guide will show you that these weekend shows are becoming more and more numerous. Many industry observers, given facts such as these, have prophesied a future where the entire residential real estate industry is dominated by a handful of companies.

Ted Kamberos is well aware of the strength of larger firms. He began his career with Century 21, working there for ten years before striking out on his own. Even after he left, he still opted to keep the large corporate affiliation. His office on Racine was named "Century 21 Kamberos" and his staff wore the company's signature gold jackets. Kamberos recalls these early days without any indication of nostalgia. "We had a staff of six at most," he says. "And the office was run sort of like a bullpen; people actually shared desks."

Kamberos knew the situation was only temporary. The staff grew, as did the amount of office space, and soon Century 21 Kamberos gained the reputation of being a professional, high quality firm. "I hired quality people," Kamberos says, "I knew the success would follow."

As the name Kamberos became increasingly well known, the associates made a major decision. They opted to drop the Century 21 moniker, "the stigma of the gold jacket" and foray into the market on their own. The move was significant, because dropping the franchise affiliation meant losing its resources as well. Nonetheless, "we were primed for expansion," says Kamberos. The cleaners next door went out of business, and the office expanded again.

The expansion was not a run of the mill affair. Kamberos knew he didn't have the money or resource to compete on the level of large firms. He decided instead to create an office environment that reflected his old-fashioned business philosophy. The company put considerable time and effort into redesigning its work space. Down to details as small as the beveled trim around the windows, Kamberos Associates office is a nice change from the sterile environments offered by some firms. Large storefront-like windows face the street, inviting you to enter. The inside is painted in a clean, stark white. Combined with the unusually high ceilings, the color creates an atmosphere many times removed from the cramped, smoke filled rooms one usually associates with deal-making. The conference room is decorated with colorful artworks (instead of the industry standard ward maps). And Kamberos even has black and white pictures of his parents hanging in his office.

The office is striking enough to have attracted attention from the North Side Real Estate Board, which recently gave Kamberos Associates a coveted "Good Neighbor" award for best office renovation. The homey, neighborhood feel of the place prompted one client to remark that Kamberos was the "mom and pop store of real estate services."

This description suits Kamberos just fine. He's got a soft spot for mom and pop businesses. His father came to America a penniless immigrant and built up a successful mom and pop grocery store on the South Side. Kamberos began working there when he was six, and remembers the place fondly. The experience taught him what it meant to be in the service industry and what it meant to be part of a small community. He applies the same principles to his own company. He says that his office is so neighborhood oriented that many people come in just to sit and talk.

Also instilled in Kamberos during his youth was the idea that hard work is the only way to get ahead. That concept has been the firm's guiding light for quite a while and has, according to Kamberos, helped it win clients from larger competitors.

Kamberos' real estate career hasn't always been so easy. His first deal almost made him consider another vocation. He was trying to sell a two-flat in Rogers Park for an old-country German. The buyer was a Japanese and the lawyers were Jewish. At the closing, as negotiations heated up, all the parties began screaming at each other in different languages - intending to reenact, it seemed, a small version of World War II. Kamberos remembers thinking, "my God, what have I gotten myself into?" Nevertheless, Kamberos closed the deal. And with a work ethic gained from his parents and a philosophy of small business culled from his life experiences, he has been closing deals ever since. Even with the onslaught of bigger and richer companies, Kamberos Associates promises to remain in the neighborhood for a long time to come.