Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lisa Ashton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Lisa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

To be successful in the real estate industry, I feel that one must be honest, moral, and ethical. You must always do the right thing, even if it costs you. You must also care about people over profit. My customers that list and purchase homes with me are my top priority. What is in their best interest is what I care about most. I’ve lost many a sale or listing I’m sure because I’ve given my honest opinion and told a potential customer now is not the time to sell or purchase, if you can help it. It’s the same with my agents that work for me. My agents know they are not “walking dollar signs” to me. That is exactly what I tell them. They are real people and I truly care about them. They can come to me with anything.

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 got into the real estate industry because I was tired at working at a bunch of dead end jobs and no matter how hard I worked or how efficient and proactive I was, I still got paid the same thing. That wasn’t very motivating for me. Coming from a very poor family where neither of my parents have ever really owned a home and always lived paycheck to paycheck, I didn’t want to live like that. I remember having to sleep in the car or motels at times when I was young because we couldn’t afford a place to live and I remember thinking “I never want to live like this when I grow up”. That life created a very driven person. Money is not number one to me but it is important, as you have to have it to live and function in this world. I looked up top paying careers and “Sales” was the number one paid career. I then had to decide what to sell. I started with swimming pools (naturally because I live in Florida and had ran a number of pool companies adminstratively). I went from pools to mobile and modular homes and then to full blown real estate. It was then that I found my passion. I love helping people and I get to make good money while I do it. I am also a Christian so real estate sales was a win/win for me. I get to share the gospel with the thousands of people I meet in real estate. I have also led many of them to the Lord.

As far as the services I provide my customers, I list and sell Residential, Commercial, Vacant Land, Short Sales, and Foreclosures. Being in the business 20 years, I have done it all. One thing I am most proud of is that I will work with anyone, no matter the price point. I will get calls from potential customers that say “this is probably too small of a deal for you, you probably only deal in high dollar properties, right?” I say, “wrong”. I will help anyone, no matter what the price point. I have sold an old wood frame house in Brooksville for $15,000 and I have sold a bowling alley for $1.75 Million dollars. I feel everyone deserves my expertise. After 20 years in the business, you have tons of knowledge to help your customers. Whether it’s adding an appraisal contingency in on a deal where the buyer is putting a good amount of cash down or paying cash entirely or informing my sellers when accepting an offer with large seller concessions, it makes the subject property appraising out that much more difficult. Those are just too small tid bits of knowledge to help my customers make good offers and informed decisions.

As far as my brand goes, ARG prides itself on turning out some of the most educated and knowledgeable agents in the industry. We having ongoing training for the agents and I am a Broker that uses a hands on approach and am available to my agents on a daily basis. Many real estate brokers not only don’t go in the office on a weekly basis but many don’t even live in the area where there offices are. I feel that brokerage support is very important for agents and for potential customers.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Back in 2007/2008 when the market was in steady decline and heading toward a recession, I had to expand my real estate knowledge and get acclimated with short sales and foreclosures, which I did. That is what kept me going through the recession was the ability to list and help negotiate short sales and list foreclosures for the banks.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

My reputation definitely proceeds me. There are many people in the industry that have never met me but know me. Then there are those that I have worked with whether they are my employees or potential customers. They know me by my 2 undeniable qualities, my Christian faith and my determination to always do what is right. These 2 go hand in hand. There is no gray with me. It’s black or white and if unsure, I always err on the side of caution. I have had many customers ask me when I was working for other agencies to accept a commission directly, outside of my broker’s knowledge, which meant the customer wouldn’t pay as much commission and I would make more money because I didn’t have to split it with my broker. My answer was a resounding “No”. I have also had customers ask me if they should hide damage in a house so the house will sell for more. My answer is always “absolutely not”. When I was listing foreclosures, I always had to pay the expenses on the foreclosures and the banks would reimburse me. I had one bank send me the same $15,000 on 3 different occasions and I had my staff send it back all 3 times because the bank made a mistake apparently. They didn’t owe me $15,000. My assistant said I could have easily kept that check and the bank would have probably never realized it. She is probably right but God knew it and I knew it. That’s all that mattered to me. It pays to do the right thing. It may not seem like it but in the end but it definitely does!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ashtonrealtygroup.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashtonrealtygroupfl/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashtonrealtygroup/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/27013398/admin/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ashtonrealtyfl