Corcoran HM Properties

Val Mitchener promotes women in leadership in her company HM Properties which has been listed as the top 10 women-owned businesses in Charlotte. (left to right) Crissy Rowell, Val Mitchener, Emma Falconer, and Meghan Stein Webster.

Born in Philadelphia, Val Mitchener grew up in East Windsor, New Jersey, a small town outside of Princeton, where her family relocated to allow her father to commute to work in NYC. After she graduated from high school, the family relocated to Charlotte, and she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from UNC-Chapel Hill, thinking she might like to teach one day.  

After graduation, Val took a job in Charlotte as a writer. She soon owned a company called TextWorks that provided documentation and training materials for the banking industry. Though Val says she was earning a good living and liked the work, she didn’t love it. During this time, she enjoyed flipping houses on the side, and soon realized that her passion was real estate. She sold TextWorks, earned her real estate license, joined a local real estate agency, and began working her way up the ranks, becoming a top producer. 

In 2006, Val realized her dream and opened her own real estate company. Despite challenges posed by the national housing recession, HM Properties weathered the storm. Still independently owned, since June 2021, HM Properties has been an affiliate of Corcoran Group, a leading residential real estate brand founded by real estate entrepreneur Barbara Corcoran, known for her role in ABC’s Shark Tank. 

For nearly 50 years, Corcoran Group has been home to more than 170 offices and 6,000+ independent salespersons in key urban, suburban, and resort markets nationwide. HM Properties is the first Corcoran affiliate in North Carolina.  

Today, Corcoran HM Properties is one of the leading independent real estate firms in the Charlotte region, and the official realtor of the Charlotte Hornets, with 16 full-time staff and 143 agents. It’s grown from its humble beginnings in leased space at the Piedmont Town Center. 

Val recalls her first introduction to TowneBank. “We were all working at the Piedmont Town Center – they were upstairs and I was downstairs. Phil Jurney, former Charlotte president who sadly passed away in 2021, and Charlie Bartz, senior vice president and commercial banker, became friends of mine.” 

Val says she switched her banking services over to TowneBank because of their personalized service, community-bank feel, and the relationships she developed. As her business grew, she was even more grateful to be a member of Towne. 

“TowneBank had key personnel in place to offer advice to help me run the business more effectively and to guide me with procedures,” explains Val, who now serves on the TowneBank Charlotte Board. “It’s hard to be a small business owner, and as we’ve grown and introduced offices in different locations, Towne has helped me navigate the expansion.” 

In 2014, Val purchased a two-story building across from Phillips Place in SouthPark, and after extensive renovations, moved the headquarters from Piedmont Town Center to SouthPark. In 2018, the company opened a second office in the Waverly development off Providence Road near I-485. In 2019, a third office opened in the Lake Norman area, followed by a fourth office in 2022 in Charleston, SC. 

More growth is on the way with agents from Corcoran HM Properties already working to service Asheville, the High Country, which includes the areas of Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and Linville, NC, as well as the Hilton Head/Bluffton, SC area. 

Val says that enabling growth is one of the key benefits of partnering with Corcoran Group. “It’s really allowed us more national, global exposure because now we can do business anywhere in the country as opposed to just the Charlotte area.” Other benefits include access to world-class marketing and public relations and their excellent training programs.  

Training programs are something Val is increasingly concerned about as she reaches this stage of her career, not just for herself but for some of the many younger women she mentors. “I still love renovating and selling houses, but I have shifted over the last couple of years to being more interested in helping other people become successful. One of the appealing things to me when we hire a young agent is to watch them grow and achieve. It’s a very rewarding feeling.” 

As a small business owner, Val says she is big on female leadership, with her team largely made up of women. The Charlotte Business Journal lists Corcoran HM Properties among the top 10 women-owned businesses in Charlotte. “I tell the young women I mentor that you really need to have a passion for whatever it is you are doing. You can like what you’re doing, but if you have a passion for it, you will be more successful in the long run no matter what. I really believe that.” 

For more information, visit HMProperties.com.