Hi, my name is Ashley! My story is for anyone but especially those fresh to real estate and wondering where they will fit. My path has taken a lot of turns, but looking back, I realize it was the result of an unfortunately common choice between passion and stability.
Growing up through college, I pursued fashion design. I loved many arts as a kid but my sketchbook was always full of wedding dresses, so I eventually attended business school at San Diego State and took my degree to FIT NYC for fashion design. It’s not surprising that there are many naysayers of creative types, but nothing ever got to me until I began work in the industry. I was quick to see that financial stability in fashion was difficult, and I was sadly quick to let it all go.
I decided to get my real estate license because it was my grandfather’s career. It sounded exciting to bring back the family business, but I soon switched to property management for a stable paying 9-5 and because I just couldn’t see myself in sales. Having spent a decade in property management, I can say that although the corporate setting looked stable… the ground was still shaky when working towards nothing.
An investor told me that work should have the goal of learning, and that my passion should be for my life and helping others. This changed everything! I decided that with real estate I could learn to invest for my future and help others invest in theirs. My challenges would be overcoming the first year of slow or no sales and being a “salesperson” at all. The goal was set in my mind, so I just had to work those obstacles out.
After meeting Patrick’s team, I realized nobody was a “salesperson”. There were a dozen different personalities very clearly brought together for having the same culture and drive. Everyone was there to learn and collaborate on each other’s clients’ goals. I was mentally prepared for a year of financial drought but had hoped a team structure might cut some time. Nashville Home Guru’s marketing offers such a service for leads that they use it to find us. Live qualified calls were coming in right after I joined, and I had my first closing within 60 days newly licensed. There was no struggle figuring out what to do under contract. My mentor could always seem to meet, I always had someone to call, and I skipped past the inexperienced lack of confidence by borrowing my team’s expertise from weekly meetings.
The team Patrick has built shares the same common ground I wanted. He finds genuine people who want to learn, and who together want to build stable foundations through real estate for themselves and others. Financially I’m confident that while I find people to help, my team is always working to find more. It took following through on real estate to realize agents are in the business of service not sales, and I now have a clear path in life working with a team who thinks the same.
