A Passport for Connecticut Real Estate

Susan Vanech on differentiating Luxury Real Estate in Connecticut

Photos courtesy of BARNES International

After nearly eight years at Compass where she went from a temporary office in Greenwich to the most iconic building in Westport, from 2000 agents nationwide to now 340,000, all while building a lifestyle based co-marketing platform Susan Vanech is stepping into a new role as Director of BARNES International Realty for Connecticut. We sat down with her in Fairfield County to talk about global reach, why she thinks the industry has been measuring the wrong thing, and what a brokerage looks like when it behaves more like a luxury resort than a sales floor.

Susan Vanech

Venü: You’ve just made a significant move. Let’s start with why.

Susan Vanech: I’ve been asking the same question everyone in this business is asking right now. With all the brokerage consolidation, if every firm has access to the same platforms, the same tools, the same tech stack, how does an agent actually differentiate themselves to best serve client needs? What’s left that’s uniquely yours?

I kept arriving at the same answer. What’s left is the relationship, the story, and the reach. Tools can be bought. Even leads can be bought. But a network of people who genuinely know how the affluent want to live across the world can never be bought. It’s a trust that’s earned over time through shared experiences. BARNES verticals achieve exactly that.

Venü: Tell us about the “Fosbury Flop” story you’ve been sharing.

SV: Dick Fosbury barely made his high school track and field team. High jumpers all over the world were trained to approach the bar the same way — a technique athletes had been taught for generations. Yet Fosbury went at it the complete opposite way. Headfirst. Backwards. His coaches spent years trying to talk him out of it.

Still, in 1968 in Mexico City, he won gold and set an Olympic record. Within a decade, virtually every elite jumper on earth was doing it his way. He did it differently until different became the standard.

I’m not comparing myself to an Olympian. The point of the story isn’t the medal; it’s the courage to do something differently. Fosbury found his own way over the bar. I spent nearly eight years at a company built on exactly that instinct, and it’s what gave me the courage to take this giant leap.

Venü: So, what is BARNES, for readers who don’t know the name?

SV: Today, BARNES’ international network spans more than 150 offices in 22 countries and over 75 premier destinations, creating meaningful connections between luxury markets across Europe, North America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and beyond. It is this truly global reach and lifestyle-driven approach that distinguishes BARNES from conventional real estate firms.

Venü: You’ve mentioned the verticals. What are those?

SV: This is the part that made me lean in closer. BARNES doesn’t just cover geography, it has expertise organized around how people thoughtfully and selectively live and share their lives.

BARNES has built an international luxury lifestyle ecosystem centered on the French philosophy of Art de Vivre, connecting extraordinary homes with the passions, pursuits, and lifestyles of the world’s most discerning clientele. Through specialized divisions including BARNES Yachting, Fine Wines, Fine Violins, Art Advisory, Racing & Classic Automobiles, Private Aviation, Equestrian & Hunting Estates, Vineyards, Polo Properties, Hospitality, Concierge Services, and Family Office resources, BARNES offers clients an unparalleled level of service that extends well beyond the purchase or sale of real estate.

BARNES Yachting | ©Guillaume Plisson

In Miami, the network runs its yachting practice with charters across every ocean, yacht acquisition and sales, super-yacht construction and management, and VIP concierge. Miami is arguably the natural capital of American yacht ownership with a year-round boating culture, world-class marina infrastructure, a direct line to the Caribbean, and the boat shows that draw the whole industry. When a Connecticut client is looking at a waterfront property, the boat is very often part of the same conversation. Now it can be part of the same firm.

In Portland, Oregon, the network is focused on wine. Vineyard investment, estate acquisition, fine wines. Willamette Valley producers have been putting sparkling wines at the very top of the international lists, and that has made Oregon vineyard land a genuine asset class, not a hobby purchase. BARNES has a division built specifically to guide that with capital, vineyard management, discreet handling of projects.

And in New York, the philosophy has an actual address. Maison BARNES opened in 2024 on Park Avenue, the network’s first U.S. flagship, created in partnership with Chef Daniel Boulud. Under one roof: two restaurants, a bar and lounge, private salons, and Le Cellier, an oenophile’s sanctuary lined floor to ceiling with Champagne, Bordeaux and Burgundy. The screening room was once Woody Allen’s private film studio, now reimagined in deep red for premieres and cultural evenings.

Consider what that means. A real estate company built a house. Not an office with a conference room, but a house, with a kitchen and a cellar and a room where you watch films together. Real estate isn’t the invitation. It’s the outcome.

And Connecticut sits an hour from that front door, which is not a coincidence but a design. The client at a table on 63rd Street on a Tuesday is very often the same client who wants water, land, and privacy within an easy drive. The relationship begins over dinner and finds its way to a dock in Southport, a stone house in Litchfield, a waterfront in Greenwich. It’s not a pitch, it’s the conversation.

Whether it is wings, wheels, water, wine, art, accessories or advisory, these aren’t add-ons. They are how the company understands its clients.

Venü: That sounds more like hospitality than brokerage.

SV: That’s exactly right, and that’s the whole reason I’m here.

We are not in the business of selling square footage. We are in the business of relationships, understanding how people want to live, and telling their stories. The dinner on the terrace. The mooring at the club. The chef, the pilot, the designer, the jeweler. The property is the beginning of the story, never the end.

A great hotel doesn’t hand you a key and wish you luck. It anticipates. It knows you before you arrive and it stays useful long after you’ve checked in. That’s the standard I want for a real estate relationship, and a concierge model is the only structure that delivers it. BARNES has been operating that way in Europe for thirty years.

Venü: How does this connect to what you’d already built?

SV: For the last five years, lifestyle and brand partnerships weren’t a side interest for me; they were the thesis. I built a co-marketing platform around exactly this idea: that the right partner relationships give a property a life beyond the listing sheet, and give a client a lifetime of reasons to stay in touch long after closing.

BARNES is that same idea with a passport.

I built a model under the Compass umbrella. What BARNES built is the international infrastructure. Seventy-plus markets. A yachting desk. A vineyard investment arm. Colleagues in Paris and Milan and Monaco who can put a Connecticut property in front of the right buyer over lunch. I spent years assembling a local version of something this company had already built globally. Compass gave the direction. BARNES provides the passport.

Venü: What does this mean for a Connecticut seller?

SV: It means the audience for your home is no longer capped by who happens to be looking in Fairfield County this month.

Connecticut has always been a market with international relevance that has mostly been marketed domestically. Buyers come here from London, from Paris, from the Gulf; people who want proximity to New York, water, privacy, and land, and who are choosing more than one coastline, country and continent. Reaching that buyer requires being inside a network they already trust, in a language they already speak.

Jen Danzi

Venü: Who’s building this with you?

SV: Jen Danzi will take the role of co-director for Greenwich, Connecticut. A Greenwich native and Wall Street Journal-recognized real estate professional ranked among the top 1.5% of agents nationwide, Danzi has built her reputation by combining luxury real estate expertise with a distinctive marketing background that includes global marketing at the New York Stock Exchange, large-scale event production, community development, commercial real estate, and strategic brand partnerships. Her innovative approach has consistently elevated luxury properties through thoughtfully curated campaigns, signature events, and immersive experiences designed to capture the attention of affluent buyers both locally and internationally.

For Danzi, the partnership represents the natural culmination of a career built around innovation, relationships, and exceptional marketing.

Venü: Last question. Any regrets about the move?

SV: None, and no sad farewells either. COMPASS gave me nearly eight years of being trusted to do it differently and this departure was handled with the same generosity. I will carry Robert Reffkin’s eight entrepreneurial principals with me always. And Team SVP stays right where it is, in very capable hands.

Fosbury didn’t leave the sport. He just found his own way over the bar. ☐