Real estate veteran Forrest Odend’hal has been named manager of Long & Foster Real Estate’s Alexandria/Old Town Historic District office in Alexandria, Va. Odend’hal brings to his new position a passion for helping sales associates to achieve success in their business and personal lives and for continually enhancing the real estate profession. He previously managed the Gainesville and Manassas, Va., offices of Long & Foster Real Estate, the No. 1independent residential real estate company in the country.

“While I’m sad to leave my fantastic Long & Foster family in Gainesville and Manassas, I’m thrilled for the new opportunity and am eager to help the many sales associates who call Long & Foster’s Alexandria/Old Town Historic District office their home,” said Odend’hal. “I look forward to helping our agents build their careers in real estate and their buyers and sellers to achieve their homeownership dreams.”

Odend’hal joined Long & Foster as a sales associate in November 2004 after the company purchased his then-firm, Cowne, Odend’hal and Plaster, Inc., a boutique residential real estate and property management firm. After several successful years supporting buyers and sellers in Northern Virginia, Odend’hal decided to transition into real estate management. He had been Inspired by his college football coach Larry Blackstone who has had such a tremendous impact on the lives of his players, and Odend’hal recognized the opportunity real estate management presented him to help his fellow agents improve not only their lives, but also the profession as a whole.

Long & Foster appointed him as manager of the Gainesville, Va., office in November 2010, and less than two years later, he also assumed a leadership role at the company’s Manassas, Va., location. Since then, he’s helped to grow the company’s presence in both Gainesville and Manassas, attracting dozens of new real estate professionals to Long & Foster and the industry. Odend’hal focuses on teaching his agents essential business development skills, as well as the importance of ethics in real estate sales.

“Supporting today’s real estate sales professionals takes a highly knowledgeable, experienced leader,” said Boomer Foster, senior vice president and regional manager of Long & Foster’s Northern Virginia and West Virginia region. “Forrest has made a tremendous impact on the lives of our agents and on our firm in Manassas and Gainesville, and we are confident that adding him to the leadership team in Alexandria will result in the same synergy and positive growth. This is how our company has continued to help local buyers and sellers meet their homeownership goals for the past 45 years and how we’ll continue to do so for the next 45 years.”

In addition to his real estate experience, Odend’hal served as a police officer from 1985 to 1999. He entered the real estate business in 1990, working as a dual career agent until 1999 when he and his partners opened Cowne, Odend’hal and Plaster, Inc.

Odend’hal is a longtime Manassas resident and has lived in Virginia for nearly all his life. He is active in the Prince William County Association of Realtors, serving as president in 2011 and immediate past-president in 2012. He also serves on the Virginia Association of Realtors (VAR) Board of Directors and previously chaired VAR’s Realtors Political Action Committee.

For more information, visit www.LongandFoster.com.