Essentially I've always been the Boss.
When I was only 20 years old, I bought the hair salon I'd been working at since finishing hair dressing school a couple of years earlier. I changed the name to Pretty Woman and personalized the branding to include, perhaps not surprisingly, a lot of pink.
After 11 years of sheer hard work and an unwavering commitment to making sure the ladies who left my chair felt great about their new hairstyle, I decided it was time to sell the salon and spend more time focusing on being a Mom to a soon-to-be teenager Shai and her little brother Cayne. But I didn't give up being the boss completely. The tiny home salon we built allowed me to continue serving some of my loyal clients and cherished friends while still being able to be there for my kids.
A few years later we were looking to buy a house near Shai's university for her and a few friends to live in. We found the perfect home for the situation but the experience of working with the Realtor was very frustrating. It was clear that she was more focused on just getting a deal done (and cashing her cheque) instead of working on our behalf.
On the way home from the inspection my husband, Geoff, suggested to me that I should become a Realtor. Given the experience we had just gone through it seemed that there had to be a better way, and he knew I could make it happen. I pushed back with every reason under the sun why I thought this was a horrible idea, not the least of which was the terrifying prospect of going back to school. But with lots of persuasion and encouragement from others, I turned my attention to completing the necessary courses. Then in August of 2007, after lots of studying and hard work, I officially became a Real Estate Sales Representative. And 2 years after that, after the required time frame and some more courses, I became a Registered Broker.
Over the next several years I worked with a handful of large brand name brokerages who all, in one way or another, demonstrated to me that the traditional brokerage model no longer worked. Not for top producing Realtors like me, and not for my clients. Frankly I just got tired of having to apologize for screws ups and confusion caused by out-dated and mis-managed practices in the back shop. It became clear that the only way I could provide my clients with the first class experience they deserved, is to once again, be the Boss. Therefore in September 2018, I opened Lander Realty Inc. so that I could be in total control of every single aspect of the client experience start to finish.
Control Freak? Maybe. Type A Personality? Absolutely. But when there's so much on the line for my clients anything less is simply not good enough.
