Lisa Richardson decided it was time for a change. She and her team of two buyers’ agents and two full-time assistants recently joined Halo Group Realty.
“I felt like it was a good time for me to move to another brokerage,” she said. “I wanted to stay with a realty company that was in a niche market.”
A Second Act For An Investor
Richardson has done a little bit of everything over the course of her career. She ran a locksmith company in Rockwall that at one point was the largest in North Texas. As that business began to grow, she started investing in homes, flipping them for a healthy profit. That got her to thinking about how much of her profits were going to Realtor commissions. Some close to her suggested she get her own real estate license.
“I thought man, I don’t have time to go back to school,” she recalled. “I don’t want to sit in class. I’m working my tail off getting this business off the ground.”
But she ended up making time for it anyway, taking night classes at Texas A&M Commerce. When she finished, she only intended to market her own properties. It wasn’t long before a friend asked for help sell a home. And then another one did. By the end of her first year as a licensed agent she had sold 50 homes.
A 50-Mile Radius of Success
A few years later she sold 390 homes, the second most for any Keller Williams agent that year. Initially most of that work was focus on the eastern side of DFW in cities like Rockwall, Rowlett and Garland. Then in 2016, she moved to the Park Cities so that her kids could attend school in the Highland Park Independent School District. However, she still has longtime clients and investors that take her all over the region.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years near now, and a lot of my clients move every few years,” she said. “I probably run about a 50-mile radius now.”
In addition to selling homes, Richardson is a property manager who currently owns 28 rental properties. She also works closely with investors looking to flip properties. Her hands-on approach has earned her a client base that appreciates working with someone who can help them with everything from building specs to picking out materials and paint colors.
“I love working with all of my investors because they value my opinion,” she said. “I think they stay loyal because they have not experienced a full-service Realtor like that before.”
As for the future, Richardson recently began looking into classes so that she can become a broker associate. Stay tuned.
