Angelia Ekholm says that returning to the Ebby Halliday Frisco office is like coming home. She recently came back to the firm she started with back in 2016 after spending most of last year affiliated with The Associates. Despite being based in Collin County, she says that at least half of her business comes from areas south of I-635.
“It’s just worked out that way,” she says. “I’ve grown the business organically and now it’s pretty much referral based.”
Palm Springs to Big D
Ekholm is actually a third-generation Realtor. She says that she always kind of wanted to get into the business, but that opportunity didn’t come until she and her husband moved to Palm Springs, California.
“I sold there for many years and absolutely loved it,” she says.
The culture in the California desert was a little different from North Texas. For one thing, schools were not nearly as big of a selling point since many area buyers come for second homes or vacation properties. There are also lots of ducks and golf carts on the streets, but not the car traffic Dallas drivers have come to dread.
A desire to live closer for family prompted a move to Dallas in 2007. Ekholm helped a start-up engineering firm grow their business, but she resisted the urge to get back into real estate.
“I figured I’d be a really crummy Realtor because I don’t know where I am or know anybody,” she recalls.
An Irresistible Career
Ultimately, she came to realize just how much she missed her old gig. She jumped back into real estate in 2016 and has had some great years as well as some “OK” years since. This year has started off with a bang.
When she’s not busy helping clients find homes, she and her husband devote time to helping animals. Ekholm is a dog lover at heart who has two bull terriers that were both rescued from shelters. A few years back she helped jumpstart the Archangel Animal Network. It’s a nonprofit that works with local shelters to transport dogs to other parts of the country, particularly the northwest, where there is surprisingly a shortage of dogs to adopt. While the grunt work of walking and loading dogs can get tiring, she says it is also fun.
“We try to put our money where our mouth is in terms of charities and things we believe it,” she says. “We try to live by that, and it’s really rewarding.”
