My Real Estate Story
After previous forays involving a mechanical engineering degree, jobs at Accenture and Epic Systems (tech companies), and even a Master’s Degree in Divinity, I obtained my real estate license in 2017. I was renting an apartment off the Southport Corridor at the time, and I walked down Southport popping into brokerage offices to introduce myself and ask about how to get started in the industry. I joined forces with Keller Williams Chicago O’Hare (and later the Lakeview brokerage once that was formed) and was coached on my first deals there.
My first work with home buyers and tenants took place mostly across Chicago’s north side in locations like Lakeview, Logan Square, and Uptown/Edgewater, but I also helped with clients purchasing homes in Hyde Park and Bridgeport.
Though progressing in capability and competence that first year, my challenge was that of most agents: finding the clients. At the end of 2018 I had the opportunity to join Redfin, and that solved the client problem with their platform taking in an abundance of online leads. I was thankful for that opportunity and grateful to be able to plug in and help clients at a faster pace than before.
I learned a lot very quickly and my perspective and experience was immensely sharpened throughout my 5 years there. I was personally the lead agent representing clients with direct, hands-on help for over 250 purchase and sale transactions. I would estimate that I attended at least 90% of those home inspections and still others that didn’t close. I’ve worked with an incredible diversity of personalities, decision making styles, and cultures with my clients over the years. I have seen thousands of properties throughout Chicagoland across just about all types and price ranges. I have probably performed close to 1,000 sets of comp analyses in preparation for clients’ purchase offers and sales. I have also developed relationships with strongly experienced, ethical, and cost efficient attorneys, mortgage lenders, and home inspectors and become known by other agents as professional and straightforward to work with. My performance had me ranked among the top 5 Chicago real estate agents at Redfin for many of the 6 month performance cycles during this 5 year tenure, and in 2021 I actually had the 5th highest “close rate” (percentage of clients I met that bought or sold a home within 6 months) nationally among Redfin agents to my own surprise.
There is still much I admire about Redfin and I am grateful for my years there, for helpful teammates and management, and of course for the clients I worked with. After 5 years I started to feel constrained on top of market conditions making my role more challenging. I wanted to position myself better to provide more focused and customized service to my clients and ultimately continue to grow into the type of real estate agent I wanted to become long term.
As intimidating as it is seemed to take a more entrepreneurial approach as a real estate broker in competitive market conditions that require so many other agents to double down on their efforts this way as well, it was exciting at the same time.
I am excited to leverage my years of experience and low-overhead organizational setup to provide a compelling combination of service and savings for my clients.
The first brokerage I interviewed responded to my question of whether I would routinely be able to offer commission incentives to buy-side clients with a clear “that would be frowned upon.” That wasn’t a shock - many in the industry are cautious about branding themselves this way out of concern it could express a lack of confidence in their own service and value. As a Redfin agent I was even mocked by another agent once who accused me of not caring about saving a deal because I wasn’t paid “like a real broker” (even more disrespectful was the assumption that if I was paid more then it would cause me to pressure my clients into sticking with that purchase). I suspect many agents also have concern offering commission incentives could open a can of worms with tedious back and forth negotiations with clients over compensation. That’s ok on some level - as agents part of our job is to know our business, know what is required, set clear expectations, and be willing to do what is required for what we are charging. Then of course both sides can opt to move forward or not.
When I asked the same question when interviewing with Keller Williams ONEChicago, I was delighted to be told “It’s your business, and we want you to be free to run it your way as long as it is transparent and ethical.”
THAT was what I wanted to hear, and this was one of the reasons I joined. This company is also a strong reputable brand, it has technological tools to facilitate my service to clients, and there are plenty of affiliated agents who I can continue to learn from. As already mentioned, it also allows me to compete with other agents on pricing and offer flexible and tailored solutions to my clients. Good quality service providers often become so in-demand that they no longer need to market themselves. I want to become the agent referred so frequently by past clients because the bang-for-buck level of service is uncommonly high so that the customer’s costs are not ultimately spent on my own marketing to find business. This is the way I want to do real estate long term.
In short, I seek to position myself to operate more efficiently and provide better service and expertise than my competition as an agent. Homes are priced based on supply and demand, and it is reasonable for an agent’s services to be charged competitively too when there is so much agent supply. Much more has been said and will be said again on that topic, but no one will disagree with that much even while maintaining that an agent’s ability to navigate market conditions and transaction processes is a valuable service for their clients. As us agents like to point out, our value should be more than the commission expense, and most of the time it is. By no means am I looking devalue the profession - I believe in its value and I believe in my own value. I am simply saying I invite you have this conversation as it pertains to your specific approach.
If you’ve read this far, consider me impressed. I am also hopeful this encourages you to reach out and have a conversation about how I might help. You can find my reviews posted on the testimonials tab, a few below, and even more on my Zillow Profile.