By Rick Mauch
Candy’s Dirt Contributor
Cedric Williams watched his wife Sajata began a successful real estate career — and then he followed. Now, they are a successful real estate family, with Sajata in her 15th year and Cedric in his ninth.
Sajata is an associate broker/chief marketing strategist and Cedric is the operations director and property manager for their company, Magnolia Residential Group at Keller Williams Realty. The name comes from Cedric’s hometown of Magnolia, Miss. Sajata is from Marshall, Texas.
Sajata focuses on Tarrant County, with most of her property focus being land and properties West of Interstate 35W in Fort Worth. As both a property manager and Realtor, Cedric has managed properties throughout Dallas-Fort Worth, which also allows him to plug into surrounding communities easily.
The couple discussed their approach with Daltxrealestate.com.
What drew you to real estate?
Sajata: At 16, my dad told me that he could see me having incredible success as a real estate broker and that I should work toward getting my license as soon as I turned 18. He forecasted that it would be the perfect career for me. Like many young adults, I had better ideas. I dove head first into corporate marketing, PR and executive communications, ultimately working in special and executive projects for a local bank.
I had a revelation. I’d been handed a set of commercial plans, been made the chair of a building committee overnight, overseen the construction, security, space planning, interior design, timelines, and grand opening of a commercial bank with zero experience in construction, and when the project was completed, I was rewarded with a thank you and personalized bottle of wine. It was that character-building opportunity that led me to realize that the real estate career my dad spoke to me about years before would afford me the opportunity to utilize my knowledge, skills, and abilities in the same way, but with unlimited rewards.
Cedric: As an operations manager at the time, I had no idea that after three rounds of layoffs at my company, I would be offered a severance package and laid off from my corporate job. I called Sajata to tell her the cord had been cut and her response was, “That’s perfect!” I immediately put things in place to get my real estate license, took my test exactly 30 days later and the rest is history.
Sajata and I are both from small towns. We both grew up in places where handshake deals were made every day. Your word was your bond and people still hold the doors open for each other. We both genuinely care for people, love the idea of being a small part of the biggest decision you’ll ever make for your family, and know that the work that we do is both work and ministry.
My marketing expertise and Cedric’s focus on southern hospitality is what we’ve heard so often that we made it our tagline. Cedric doesn’t just love helping people, he is a born servant. Even before real estate, he’s that guy that pulls over to help people change their flat tire, insists on helping friends and family with all kinds of requests, and I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen him jump out in the rain to help an elderly person to their car when a downpour started, and they didn’t have an umbrella.
Sajata Williams
Do you have a family history in real estate?
Sajata: My dad was a realtor in the 80s and had to overcome the social and racial limitations of being an African-American agent in our small East Texas town. Back then, your broker had to sign off for you to be able to take your broker’s test and there was just no motivation for his broker to do so. He pivoted and became successful as a corporate executive for a company on the East Coast, long before working remotely was a thing. He then took those challenges, seeing Sajata’s natural sales potential, and raised her to respect and serve all people, for God’s glory, no matter who they were or what challenges she faced.
What are your thoughts on the challenge of do-it-yourself apps for potential home buyers?
Cedric: Your grandfather didn’t lie to you, you get what you pay for. We all saw the fallout that Opendoor had earlier this year, and to those of us in the industry, we weren’t surprised. Unfortunately for homebuyers and sellers, it can sometimes be months or even years before you find out that something was missed, you could have sold for more or there was some amazing program that you could have taken advantage of to make your life and moving process easier.
If you could change one thing in the industry, what would it be?
Sajata: Great question! I think we’d want to impact and increase consumer confidence and education in regard to brokers/Realtors and how the industry works. Consumers often assume that Realtors are employees of their brokerage (firm) and don’t realize that each individual agent brings his or her own culture, service experience, and level of excellence to the transaction. We were fascinated to hear from one of our 80-year-old clients about how homes were bought and sold before the internet. They talked about how each brokerage office had a physical book of listings that Realtors would flip through to find a home for their clients. Then they would need to make special arrangements with the listing agent to reserve, pick up and return the key in order to be able to show and secure the property. Today, with listings popping up each moment in the palm of our hands, and lock boxes firmly affixed to the door, literally any realtor can “find and show” you a house.
If you know of an agent for us to profile, email Rick Mauch.
