We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shanelle Burton a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Shanelle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump into the story of starting your own firm – what should we know?

So starting my own firm was something that I pretty much knew that I always wanted to do. For the past 10 years, I have worked with the same boutique small, family owned Real Estate Firm in Nashville “Historic & Distinctive Homes LLC”. During my tenure there I’ve always enjoyed our small, family feel of agents so I knew that if I ever stepped away starting small with a sense of family and a team approach would be the way to go. So enrolled in to in Real Estate School to complete my course work for my Brokerage License and Passed the state and national exam to receive my Broker License. Upon completion of my course work and after receiving my license the real work begin, of me establishing my firm name, purpose and mission and ultimately finding a location that was conducive for me and my teams needs. The initial struggle of it all was wondering what to name my Real
Estate Firm so after fasting and praying God downloaded the perfect name in spirit so I am now the proud owner and managing broker of the NASH Real Estate Group located in North Nashville’s Germantown District. My advice to anyone starting their own firm or business in general is to seek guidance from God first and remember Jeremiah 29:11.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

So I actually enrolled in real estate school while being a full time Pre-K teacher of which I truly loved!! Now, I will say this I have pretty much always been interested in real estate as early on as the 5th -6th grade of middle school. I literally watched HGTV shows and often would get the free listing books from the lobby at Kroger when I went grocery shopping with my mom. The caveat of all of this is that I never grew up in a house myself, I lived in Nashville’s MDHA public housing my entire life until I became a homeowner as a teacher. So while teaching I enrolled in Real
Estate School at night, completed my pre-licensing course work and passed the national and state exam to become a licensed realtor. So initially, after learning about how easy and accessible home ownership is I definitely seen a gap of knowledge of the process in the inner city and specifically in our black and brown communities so I begin to host free Real Estate Seminars at local community centers and parks to teach people about the process. One of the things that I most proud of is seeing the promises of God come into fruition when I gave Him my YES!! I tell people all the time I operate on Purpose Soley understand that I’m not a lifestyle Realtor but more importantly I operate in Purpose to those that God has assigned for me to serve. None of the success in my career would ever be possible and or feasible without GOD.

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

Well, I’ll say COVID started it all but not really in a fairytale way. So during COVID of course we begin working from home, during this time I was an assistant administrator at a Pre-K Site so no longer a teacher I had been an assistant administrator for about 4 years then. Also during this time, my Dad had become ill and was in and out of the hospital so to try to keep my mind busy and not stress myself out about the things that I ultimately couldn’t control I shifted to investing more time in my real estate career through online professional development courses and just really focusing on my process and brand. The biggest leverage was the COVID Interest Rates that help boom pre-approvals for my clientele. It really all started with one my co-workers and friend asking me for assistance to help her find a home and business has literally been booming since then. The next couple of months I helped her brother and his wife find a home, I had a client DM me from California saying they were relocating here and business literally been booming since then. So to give it to you straight my clients and their experiences working with me help build my reputation.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Being MY SELF!!! I tell my clients all the time I’m just an authentic person, I wasn’t raised to be any other way my Grandmother was one of the bluntest people I ever knew so I’m just me though and through. What you see is what you get, but I advocate for my clients as if they were my own family. I come from a loving and supportive family so I wouldn’t know how to do it any other way.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Nashville.Realtor_
• Facebook: Realtor Shanelle Burton
• Other: TikTok Nashville.Realtor_