Preston Dean’s Success Story
As a part of our exclusive Real Estate Agent Success Stories series, we spotlight inspiring stories of the most successful real estate agents in the industry!
In today’s issue, we’re going to highlight the fascinating story of a highly successful real estate agent in Fort Worth TX — Mr. Preston Dean.
Preston is a Realtor affiliated with Keller Williams Fort Worth, a leading real estate brokerage firm in Fort Worth, TX.
Preston’s impressive achievements:
- closes up to 5 deals per month
- earns up to $200k of annual gross commission income
- closes $5MM – $10MM gross annual transaction volume as a single agent
- is proficient in residential real estate buying and selling and residential tenant representation
- has been in business for over 2 years
Read Preston’s success story below to learn how he got to where he is today. We hope Preston’s story inspires you and serves as a stepping stone for your own real estate agent career.
What led you to become a real estate agent?
Before becoming a realtor, I was an athletic coordinator on my way to becoming an assistant principal.
At this time, I was educating myself via real estate investing podcasts and stumbled across one titled BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Podcast. The more I listened to the podcast, the more I wanted to learn.
That spring, I purchased my first house and just fell in love with the entire home-buying process and would discuss the topics I was learning with my real estate agent.
One week after we closed, I started the course from Champions School of Real Estate to begin my journey to becoming a licensed real estate agent.
As a former educator, I love learning and teaching, and being in real estate provides me with a way to continue learning and teaching in a new avenue that I never thought of before.
However, this time, I am not teaching students; I am teaching and educating home buyers and helping simplify the home buying process from start to finish.
What challenges did you face at the beginning of your real estate career?
At the beginning of my real estate agent career, I was still a full-time teacher and coach, and I was trying to launch this new career in real estate on evenings and weekends.
Working with clients while also teaching students was very difficult, and I had to work diligently to manage my time.
Juggling being a husband, full-time teacher/coach, and part-time real estate agent made my free time essentially zero.
Since I could not work on my business during regular work hours, I had to spend evenings and weekends trying to find clients.
In the evenings after soccer practice, I would show clients local houses for sale, and every weekend for five months, I would host an open house.
I knew that this lifestyle was not going to last forever and it was just the season of life that I was in, so I decided to give it my all so I could have a shot at being a successful real estate agent.
What helped you to overcome those challenges?
Prayer, my faith in the Lord, and the support from my wife and her encouragement.
What was the most stressful challenge you had to overcome during your career?
In the first six months of my career, everything was so new to me.
I knew as a realtor, I had a code of ethics I had to abide by and I didn’t want to jeopardize my license because I accidentally looked over something since I was a part-time realtor.
During that time, one of my clients was a lawyer and a few times he would push back or question my decisions regarding his contract.
I remember thinking I could get in some legal trouble if I missed something during his transaction, but thankfully, his house closed without an issue and he is now a great friend that I go to if I need any legal advice.
What has been the most rewarding part of your career?
In my first year, I was named rookie of the year at my real estate brokerage all while being a full-time teacher and coach.
Since then, I have been able to transition careers and I am now a full-time realtor.
What lead generation strategy have you found to be the most effective for your business?
Calling, messaging my current database of friends and family asking them if they know anyone looking to buy or sell.
Receiving a referral from someone I know is one of the most rewarding things.
What essential software tools do you use in your business that you can’t live without?
There is a simple app called FollowUp. It is free, and it just gives you a reminder to follow up with someone on a certain day.
You can add notes and how many times you want to follow up with them. It’s a very easy and convenient way to stay in touch with people.
Can you share any funny or unusual anecdotes from your career?
On my first contract, the listing agent replied to an email asking me to “attach my TC to this email chain.”
Being a new realtor, I was not aware of the lingo, so I texted my supervisor and asked who the TC is for our office. He replied with her name and her contact info, so I proceeded to attach the TC to the email.
A few minutes later, I received a separate email from the TC, saying, “Hi, I see you have added me onto an email, I guess you are needing a TC for this transaction?”
I simply replied back with, “Yes I am,” without really knowing what a TC was.
After a few minutes, I messaged back and asked, “I’m sorry, but what is a TC? What do you do?”
She replied back with, “I am a Transaction Coordinator. After you are under contract, I then handle all the amendments and help your clients close on the property so you can focus on finding your next client. You pay me after we close.”
When I found out what TC was and that I had to pay her, I replied back to her email saying, “Oh I understand, I’m sorry but I am good, and I don’t need a TC for this transaction.”
She was very sweet and let me know that she was there any time I needed her.
After this, I texted my supervisor and said, “Do you recommend that I use a TC?”
He replied back with, “Yes absolutely, we use a TC every transaction and with you being dual career, you for sure should use one. Having a good TC is invaluable.”
So with my tail between my legs, I fired off an apology email to our TC letting her know that I would love to use her services and that I wasn’t aware of what she did.
All in all, I learned that it helps to ask a few clarifying questions ahead of time.
Read more funny real estate stories shared with us by our professionals.
What is your advice to newbies who are just starting out in their real estate career?
Host an open house every weekend you are available for a year and pass out flyers to the neighbors the night before.
Don’t let up and don’t take your foot off the gas pedal. It is always the things you don’t want to do, or the open houses that you don’t want to host that turn out to be the most beneficial.
If you also want to share your real estate success story with the thousands of Real Estate Bees’ readers nationwide, apply here. It’s absolutely free!
Kimberly Anderson is a Senior Creative Editor and an award-winning Journalist at Real Estate Bees. Her love to real estate began early on in her professional career right after she graduated college. Over the years Kim made it her goal to become industry's leading journalist. Since then she has been covering real estate space, which later became her core specialty. Throughout her career, Kim wrote, co-authored, edited, and fact-checked thousands of articles about various real estate topics.
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