So, I’m a new broker. No secret there. But this week I welcomed my 2nd agent to the fold. And I must say I am pretty excited. Which is why I became my own broker – to build a new real estate business in post Katrina land.
Starting out this year it was never my goal to have ‘two agents by mid July.’ Just like the origin of a business deal, I try to manage my growth organically with respect to you never know where it may come from.
So let’s talk organic. Two years ago I answered a ‘free post’ on craigslist. Some one, turns out my neighbor around the corner that I didn’t know, was clearing her rear yard of gravel. I needed gravel for a project I was working on. Upon responding to the ad - and in the hot summer heat - I slowly shoveled truckload after truckload of gravel. Shannon was the owner. We traded ’storm stories,’ I thanked her, and we parted ways. Shannon has since acquired her agent license and at the beginning of the summer became Villere Realty’s premiere agent. If I hadn’t needed gravel . . .
And now Emily. Emily and I have known each other for quite some time. I first met Emily when I was 18 and serving coffee at PJ’s on Maple St. Some times I feel as if all roads lead to craigslist – and the PJ’s on Maple St – at least in the years I worked there. Over time Emily and I have kept tabs on each other, mostly through my having waited on her at the various cafes that were my employer. Like Shannon, Emily just acquired her license too, and well, here we are.
The takeaway then is my little brokerage has two new agents; should I expect other nubile interests? Possibly. Should I expect a well seasoned, top producer from a larger firm to come on board? I don’t know. There’s nothing on the radar, but when has that ever been a definitive bead of where a business goes?
Again, it’s no secret I’m new. But new doesn’t necessarily translate to naive. I – and I think Shannon and Emily would agree too – prefer new conveying a sense of the entrepreneurial. What I lack in experience I make up for in adaptability and interest. Insomnia helps too ~
