Realtor Melissa Watt has returned to her hometown. She is now affiliated with Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate, where she will serve as a luxury real estate specialist. Before coming back to Texas earlier this month, she’d spent the last five years working in Scottsdale, Arizona, where she specialized in selling high-end resort real estate.
“I’m just kind of getting back started, reacquainting myself with past clients and trying to market myself and get my name out there again,” Watt says.
During her time in Arizona, she earned her broker’s license and affiliated with Russ Lyon Sotheby’s in North Scottsdale. While there she had the opportunity to work with high-profile agents Allan MacDonald and Lisa Lucky of The Luckys team. They helped her understand the market and build up her client base.
The Scottsdale market caters to many people looking for resort-style properties and second homes. Watt found her niche selling homes to people coming from all over the country as well as Canada. Through hosting countless open houses, she was able to build a strong client base.
While the cost of living in Scottsdale is a little higher than in Dallas, Watt says the real estate market dynamic is similar, but on a much smaller scale. Buyers there have begun to face many of the same challenges that Dallas agents can relate to. Home prices skyrocketed and inventory levels declined. Before long people were agreeing to deals without appraisals. Buyers submitting offers well above list price were still falling short.
“It was frustrating for them and it was frustrating for me because I spent so much time working for them,” she recalls.
She admits that she will miss the desert climate, the beautiful scenery, and being within driving distance from Sedona. She is an avid painter and a member of the Sedona Arts Center, and she enjoys traveling to the inspiring city whenever she can.
A combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and her daughter graduating college at the University of Arizona in Tucson prompted a lot of re-evaluation. Both ultimately decided it was time to come home.
“We’re very happy that we moved back,” she says.
Watt originally got into real estate when her daughter was in sixth grade. As a single mom, she enjoyed the flexibility that it gave her. She joined Ebby Halliday Realtors and worked with Ginger Gill as her manager.
“She was a great manager who taught me so much,” Watt recalls.
Watt still enjoys her work because she enjoys helping people and having the flexibility of being her own boss. In her estimation, the key to real estate success is perseverance and building relationships. And while the job is not always easy, she’s experienced many times just how rewarding it can be.
“If you really want to make it you have to take the downs with ups and ups with the downs and you’ve got to keep going,” she said. “This is what I do. It’s my job and I love doing it.”
