Natalie Westbrook says that she can’t sit still for long. Whenever boredom creeps in, she has to create something. These days she is staying busy with her most ambitious creation, The Westbrook Real Estate Group, which started last September.
“It’s scary jumping out into the water, but if you don’t jump, you’ll never learn to swim,” Westbrook said.
So far, things seem to be progressing swimmingly. Westbrook currently has listings in University Park and Oak Lawn as well as a high-profile, $7 million home on 4606 Chapel Hill Road overlooking White Rock Lake. In fact, you can tour this incredible house on Wednesday, March 28, with both Westbrook and our own Candy Evans — RSVP here. And Westbrook’s also working on other projects near Frisco that she hopes to announce soon.
“Things are going strong. I know I’m not Sotheby’s and I’m not going to be that,” Westbrook said. “What I can tell you is that my model is focused on customer service. Your house is not just a number — every single one of my clients matters to me.”
A native of Paris (the Texas one), Westbrook first arrived on the local real estate scene in 2011, when she convinced Ebby Halliday Realtors to take a chance on an ambitious newcomer. She considers the experience and training she received there integral to her professional trajectory.
“I had a bunch of mother hens who were wonderful to me and really pointed me in the right direction,” she said.
Three years later, Westbrook moved on to Allie Beth Allman & Associates before briefly getting out of real estate. After a foray into outside sales, she returned to Briggs-Freeman Sotheby’s where she became adept at using social media as a sales tool. The strategy was born out of necessity. Westbrook didn’t have the budget to spend on expensive advertising, so she leveraged a more affordable option to her advantage. The strategy worked so well she was soon recruited by Harwood International to help fill the Bleu Ciel, a 33-story luxury condominium development.
Once her work there was done, Westbrook became the director of customer relations at Crescent Real Estate. She was tasked with bringing more people to the Crescent mixed-use development, which despite its location, was not attracting enough people from nearby Uptown. Among her many accomplishments there was the creation of the Crescent Court Farmers Market, which brought in scores of people who had never been to the area before.
When Westbrook eventually met all of her goals at Crescent, her managing director asked what she wanted to do next. He offered to help her get a job at a commercial firm but she had other ideas.
“I’m definitely kind of a wildcatter,” Westbrook said. “I love taking risks, creating new things, developing new brands, and creating new ventures,” she said.
She credits her father, Bobby Floyd, for encouraging her to go into real estate. Floyd, who died in 2011, was a developer in Paris who helped build housing developments, single-family homes, and gas stations among other projects.
“He was literally a serial entrepreneur who came from nothing and built an amazing life for us,” Westbrook said. “Part of my journey is to build something that he would be really proud of.”
His example provided the blueprint for her work ethic. In the beginning she did not have much to fall back on and juggled multiple jobs, including waiting tables. As she progressed in real estate, she learned from her various experiences and the people she worked with along the way. Many of them were there to offer support and well wishes when she hosted her opening celebration.
“I look up to Allie Beth Allman. She created this amazing brand that is now one of the most successful brokerages in Dallas,” she said. “It’s people like her that I really aspire to one day model my life after.”
As for the future, Westbrook hopes to eventually hire additional agents and grow the company. For now, her first order of business is continuing to focus on curating a strong group of properties so that she can provide the best customer service possible. And while there are plenty of risks involved with her new venture, the alternative is even scarier to her.
“I admire people that go out there and take a chance,” she said. “Do you win every time? Absolutely not, but I would rather try than look back on my life and wonder what would have happened.”
