Kelly Broaddus  |  eXp Realty  |  888.446.5602  | Contact Kelly

I share the story of why I started working as a real estate agent.

 

Today I wanted to share a little bit of my story. I thought it might help you understand why I am so driven and why I can relate to everybody.

 

I was a single mom, left raising seven kids by myself with no child support. It was a desperate situation, and I was looking for a way to support myself. I was living in Southern California, but I moved to Oklahoma because it would be a lot cheaper to raise seven kids here.

 

I was living in a small, poor town in the poorest county in Oklahoma when a friend told me to get my real estate license. He suggested it so that I could sell a house occasionally and get a bit more income. I was terrified when I thought about raising my kids at the same time because it seemed impossible.

 

I eventually got my license, but the town I was working in only had one brokerage, and this brokerage was a boys club, as it usually is in these types of Midwest towns. The owner told me that he wouldn’t let me work there, wouldn’t work with me on deals, and wouldn’t let me set foot in his office. I was on my own, so I had to get all of my own business, sell all of the houses myself, and get all of the buyers myself. It was very strange, but things were different in 1998.

 

"I was terrified when I thought about raising my kids because it seemed impossible."

 

My friend suggested that I also get an origination license so that we could do sales and loans in that town. At that time, secondary mortgages were unheard of there. For these types of mortgages, you put 20% down, it was a 10-year loan, it had an adjustable rate, and that was it. It kept the area very depressed, so I brought secondary mortgages to this town.

I started doing subprime and zero-down loans, but I was a very responsible lender. The average sales price was only $30,000 to $40,000 in this town, so I had to sell a lot of real estate to support my family.

 

Keep an eye out for part two of my story. In the meantime, if you have any questions about this or other real estate topics, feel free to give me a call. I’d love to hear from you.