Barbara Novotny was named the new managing director at Standard Real Estate, the Dallas-based brokerage founded by Zach De Bernardi last year.
Novotny has worn a variety of hats in Dallas real estate. She began as an agent at Ebby Halliday for three years before moving to Nathan Grace, where she served as the firm’s director of business growth. She considers herself a fixer who enjoys helping agents. The best compliment she every received was when a former colleague called her “Siri.”
“I’m really passionate about this because I’ve been on the other side,” Novotny said. “I believe in services like how can I help you grow? How can I take your strengths and help with your weaknesses to take the pressure off of you?”
During her time at Nathan Grace, Novotny had the opportunity to help start several new offices and put the right people in place. She said the company felt like family to her, which made her decision to leave all the more agonizing.
“It took me a month to actually go in and resign,” she recalled.
Since then, Novotny has been helping a select group of agents with their business plans. She was approached by several larger brokerages but didn’t feel like any of them were the right place for her. She even considered getting out of real estate for a minute, but realized that’s not what she wanted to do. Then she was approached by De Bernardi and Standard chief operations officer Logan Nichols.
“I think these guys get it,” she said. “This is just the neatest place around. They truly believe in relationships and everyone is valued and appreciated.”
According to De Bernardi, he and Nichols valued Novotny’s vast wealth of experience and felt she would be a good fit for his relatively new venture. Novotny said she’s been impressed with the firm’s rapid growth and believes they will be able to avoid many of the pitfalls that other new companies experience.
“I’m going to end my career with these guys,” she said. “I’m honored to be a part of this and I have no intention of ever going anywhere else.”
