REAL ESTATE

Western Group Ads: The Western Group, a three-office real estate sales company born in the demise earlier this year of the Great Western Real Estate chain, has started shooting television commercials--a sign that at least one batch of realtors thinks their business has a future.

Mary Krueger, one of the two former Great Western Real Estate executives who pooled their funds to start Anaheim-based Western Group, said the first commercial would air in Orange County on the Real Estate Channel. It and other commercials are expected to air on various other local cable television channels starting in October.

Focus of the commercials is the identity of Western Group. “We want to show people who we are and how diverse we are,” Krueger said. Commercials feature real Western Group agents, who come from various ethnic backgrounds, dealing with a variety of customers. “It is not an all-white market out there,” said Krueger, adding that the agents in her firm’s three offices speak a combined total of 16 languages.

Krueger and partner Clark Cornman, bought former Great Western offices in Upland, Corona and Anaheim when the offices were put on the block in December.