Amy & Kim, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
My mission has always been simple, but as I am succeeding in the industry my mission became more complex. My real estate experience with my realtor was never the best, most of the realtors in my community, all of them all lack morality and the basic professional standards. Many times the agent ran late or did not make time for me for showings. From then, as soon as I met my partner Kim, who was working as a real estate assistant in the field, we decided to start a Real Estate journey together to make a change in our community. The goal was just to be more informative, punctual, provide more honest care, and stop with the kickbacks going out from the competition in the community. As we are reaching our goals and now being more well known, our mission goes beyond our service. We also have a mission to EDUCATE our people better in the home buying process as we noticed many misinformation spreads because of their lack of knowledge in the process. Also, their realtor never informed them well either. We want to eliminate the illegal practices and any discount offers going on in our community. If your realtor does their job right, we all know that we work hard, we deserve the pay that we get and it is not right offering discounts to discredit our line of work. Kim and I both know it is a far fetch mission from the start, but we are standing by it. Let’s see where it goes, this change will be good for the future generation of Realtors in our community!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m Amy, I started in the real industry well over 10 years ago with my first home purchase along with investments. I became a Realtor/Broker in the last 5 years to start a great new journey in Georgia. Often I look back, I have to pinch myself, a girl really accomplishing and living her dreams – being top producer/team lead of not only on my company – Better Homes and Gardens Metro-brokers, but top 5% of Metro-Atlanta. You can say that I am still new, but I have progressed really fast. I remember about 2 or 3 years ago, when Kim and I walked in the corporate office, we were memorized by the HALL OF FAME. We looked at each other and asked, “I wonder if we will be on there one day”. We looked at ourselves, new and minorities in a such a big company, not sure when and even IF that was going to happen. I just want to prove to everyone that Vietnamese Women are good, and I can make that change. Not even 2 years later, my sales did not just double every year, it triples to quadruples. Soon a team of 2 became 4, and now a total of 11 agents within a short span of 3 years. All this is due to our Team’s vision to provide better care, honesty, and marketing in the Real Estate world to our clients. Kim and I had the vision like no other in our community, we have been through so much scrutiny just being successful women in the Real Estate world. Real estate professionals always favors the MALE population while discrediting the FEMALE achievements and professionalism. I still experience it today, that I can produce 2 to 3 times more than my Male Colleague but he gets more praised in the community than I do get recognized. No one in my community has a team this well known, this big, and this successful – and it’s lead by 2 Vietnamese Women not Men. We are just top in the Vietnamese Community, we are the top team in the largest real estate company of GA! I am so in disbelief sometimes, going back to the first encounter at the Hall of Fame at Metrobrokers and look at us today.I remember the more challenges I face, we kept rising even better and greater. I’m proud to say LA’TEP GROUP now is its own brand, very well known in my community and I want it to spread to other communities as well as a symbol of successful minority group that have big hearts and a good mind to win.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
There are many stories to share from getting “lectured” by the male competitor in my community to other competitors creating fake accounts to Cyber Bully us on social media. Let me see, I would say the most outrageous thing I have encountered is a phone call I got, from my fellow Vietnamese Male Agent (also a top producer). As we were gaining a lot of attention through social media and on FACEBOOK, he tried to do the same. Mimicking our ideas and execution, with his own touch, of course making it seem like he created it all. He gave me a phone call asking for input. I gave him a simple reply that he was too spamming. He seemed not too pleased with the answer, and told me that WE need to “slow down” as well, I should focus more on my family and husband versus spending too much time on my business. I did not know how to respond to that at the time, I was in disbelief! Considering we were friends and had a cordial relationship. Of course, from then on, I kept my distance with him. I never once slowed down, I had my formula for success and ideas for the future. This opinion will never break me from my mission. It is so ridiculous someone would give me that input just because I am a woman in business with a family!
Can you tell us the story of how you met your cofounder/business partner?
I met Kim, co-founder and partner, through a community event with the Vietnamese American Community of GA. Already from the start, you can tell we were so much alike in from our interests and even looks (haha). We both love to volunteer in our community and give back. That’s what drew us together. We worked together to give school supplies for the kids in our community. I invited her to do a business venture with me in the beauty industry, and we worked together very well. Even though we decided to end that Business Venture, we had plans for another venture which was Real Estate. Kim, worked as an assistant for a Team, a well known Realtor in the Community. She did not like what she was encountering from the men and realtors at the time as well, mixed in with my unpleasant experiences on the consumer side, I quickly said yes to take the real estate classes together. So as you guys can see, I met my soul mate in business and the rest is history!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.latepgroup.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/la.tepgroup/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/La.TepGroup/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeWDfbsXZi-ic0znPI_xmFg