COVER STORY
NUTS & BOLTS
STRATEGIES: REITs Think Realty Coaches
TAMEKA The Closer BRYANT
rican-American MLS President in Kansas City, and I teach all over the country. My passion is teaching real estate investors, particularly agents and Realtors®, about the importance of finding a niche in which they can flourish. Too many agents go into one general pocket of business and never realize that there are so many other areas in real estate that would connect themwith a better lifestyle for themselves and their families.” For Bryant and the majority of her stu- dents, that niche is the “investor niche.” After fully immersing herself in the foreclosure side of the business through a contract with Freddie Mac, she realized just how vast the unexplored landscape in investor-agent relationships truly is. “I don’t think many people understand that they can sit and work with one investor who is going to buy 100 properties and that, as a result, will have 100 properties that they can list instead of going out and finding 100 people who want them to list their homes,” she explained, adding that there is a personal dimension to this as well: “100 different personalities [vs. one]? I’m going to take one every time!” TAMEKA BRYANT ON “THE INVESTOR SIDE OF THE HOMEOWNERSHIP EQUATION” “As a coach for Think Realty, I really just want to bring to the table and show other real estate profession- als the true importance of their work with and for real estate investors to the wider community. Working with investors means that you are helping communities. Done right, you are bringing in homeownership options. Not everyone can get approved at a bank, so private money, owner financ- ing, rentals – all of those things are desperately needed and most cities will never be able to fully cover their
own housing needs. Investors and the agents on their teams play a huge role in homeownership. “The first step is helping an agent understand how important their role is to a real estate investor. The second is giving agents the tools that they need in order to provide that service successfully and effectively. Most companies do not teach agents how to work with investors at all, and as a result a lot of agents go years without working with – or even having the ability to work with – a real estate investor because they do not under- stand what the investor needs. “What investors need from their real estate agent is help seeing the different ways that they can make or save money. That is what makes you valuable. Never forget that an investor can pretty much get themselves into a house on their own. What makes you truly valuable is shining a light on those paths to solid ROI.” •
TITLE AND AFFILIATIONS: Think Realty Coach, President of Think Realty Real Estate Services, BDA. EXPERIENCE: More than 25 years in real estate investing. 2011 Realtor® of the Year, MLS President, Kansas City, Missouri, nationally accredited instructor for the National Association of Realtors®, Freddie Mac Master Listing Agent, real estate portfolio manager for federal and local banks, licensed agent and broker in multiple states, more than 2,000 real estate transactions conduct- ed personally. BACKGROUND CHECK: Tameka Bryant has been banking on real estate for years. In fact, she started out her investing story by admitting that she had always planned to start a real estate brokerage as her “second career.” She and her husband said from the beginning that they would buy a single house a year and rent it out so that they would have a solid retirement and a lasting legacy for their son. “We took the money from our wed- ding and we put it on a down payment in NewMexico,” Bryant said, noting that she and her family lived in New York at the time and that she and her husband both were working in high-ranking manage- ment positions at their respective firms. Bryant intended to wait a few decades to get into real estate full-time, but the universe had other ideas. She and her husband both lost their jobs on the same day, their son’s birthday, and during one of her mother’s final visits to see the family before falling victim to cancer. “That was the day I realized I didn’t know what to do,” Bryant said honestly. It did not take her long to realize that real estate was the answer in more ways than one. “That happened in March 2004 and in May 2004 I started my own brokerage.” Bryant, her family, and their now-nine-property portfolio moved into real estate full-time and haven’t slowed down since. “Fast forward to today: I have been Realtor® of the Year; I’ve been the first Af-
The first episode of each course from each coach is viewable at the free, introductory level of
Think Realty membership at www.thinkrealty.com/coaches.
COACHING PROGRAM Tameka Bryant’s coaching program may be found at https://thinkrealty.com/coaches/tameka-bryant/.
26 | think realty magazine july :: august 2017
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