NEVER GIVE UP rising star

Written by: Zach Cohen

Photos by: Cruz Acevedo, StudioUSA

“I never give up,” Brooke Finnigan begins. “Even when things are tough.”

During her first year selling real estate, Brooke Finnigan closed two transactions. One was for the sale of her family’s home, and the second was for the purchase of their new home. It was a challeng ing year for Brooke, causing her to doubt her choice to move into the real estate business. But Brooke didn’t give up. She called upon her well of resilience, continued working hard day after day, and found a way to succeed.

That success culminated in over $25 million in closed sales in 2022, a personal best for Brooke. The future looks even brighter.

The Road to Real Estate Brooke spent most of her life in Chicago, where she built a successful career as an esthetician. She loved her career, spending 14 years total in the field.

Brooke’s husband, Dave, worked in advertising, and his territory was in Texas. For three years, the couple considered a move, but Dave waffled. Finally, in 2015, the couple took a weekend trip to Dallas to explore the possibility of relocating. They bought a home that weekend.

“I said, ‘Let’s try it for a year, and if we don’t love it, we come back,’” Brooke reflects. “In the end, it was the best decision we’ve made for our family. It’s been great for his career, it’s been great for me to start a new career, and we have more time together as a family. I never thought I’d leave Chicago, but this is home.”

Upon landing in Dallas, Brooke took on part-time esthetics work while preparing to give birth to her third child. Meanwhile, she and Dave had flipped some homes back in Chicago and began talking about doing the same in Texas. So Brooke got her license, intending to use it for personal investments.

Brooke and Dave’s plans to flip homes in Dallas got waylaid, but Brooke decided to put her real estate license to work and begin a new career.

Finding Her Home

Brooke joined a large brokerage, was assigned a mentor, and began her career. However, she didn’t know where to start and didn’t have the support she needed. She floundered for months before changing brokerages and joining JonesPapadopoulos & Co.

“I was really considering giving up. I’m a go-getter, and usually, I succeed at whatever I put my mind to. But that first year, I felt I was not succeeding in this new career path. Things finally changed when I joined this brokerage. I received so much support from the owners. They gave me the support and confidence I needed.”

Over the next four years, Brooke’s career took off. She’s become the top REALTOR® in her neighborhood, Windsong Ranch, and has been named a Top Residential Real Estate Producer by D Magazine for four years running.

So how has Brooke turned it around and achieved so much success? She credits it to the support she’s received at JonesPapadopoulos & Co., her perseverance through hard times, and her authentic nature. She keeps things genuine, and that’s been a winning strategy for her. Brooke also encourages new agents to align themselves with a strong, producing mentor. She knows from personal experience how important it is to have guidance and structure.

“At my first brokerage, I had a mentor taking a percentage of my commission, but I never saw that person producing. I needed a mentor that was producing. I needed direction and guidance,” Brooke explains. “Really make sure you are getting the mentorship when you join a brokerage. People get concerned about commission structure, but as a new agent, you need the support. Having a good mentor is important.”

A Full Life

While Brooke has become a highly successful REALTOR®, it’s not the only thing she’s passion ate about. She also runs a suc cessful makeup business, leading a team of over 400 women. This allows her to stay in the beauty industry, a world she still enjoys.

Brooke and her husband, Dave, have been together for 23 years and have three kids, Ava (13), Nicky (11) and Joey (6). Dave was also recently licensed in real estate; he assists Brooke as operations manager.

Brooke and her family have now been in Dallas for nearly a decade. While they initially hesitated to pick up their lives and move a thousand miles south, they couldn’t be happier with their choice. They’ve settled into their forever home in Prosper, have built a new community, and are excited for what the future holds.

If you haven’t met Kyle Karker at a Real Producers event yet, then you haven’t been to a Real Real Producers event. Kyle is always described as the life of the party, the bold guy in the property management wizard shirt, or the last one there because he can’t seem to leave until he has met every single person.

And it’s not for the sake of just trying to gain business — it’s real. Kyle Karker and Scotty Mitchell co-founded American Real PM in 2017 with the goal of bringing a new attitude to the property management field. And over the last couple of years, they have developed some impactful core values that anyone can take inspiration from.

“Our values really guide the way that we work with those around us. They describe the way we really strive to go beyond and provide a unique edge for our partners and their clients,” he says.

“They include first, being unapologetically real; second, working with unshakable trust; third, moving to create daily growth; and fourth, providing elite expertise.”

Unapologetically Real

As Kyle says, “This value is about working with a sense of ease and freedom, as well as alignment and attraction. We have fun every day, we accept and celebrate who each other is, and we inspire and empower people.”

Unshakable Trust

The outcome that Kyle and his team strive for is for people to be confident in the fact that they can rely on American Real PM.

“With that in mind, we do what we say … when we say we’re going to do it,” Kyle points out. “We also take time to understand and to show that we care. Plus, we communicate consistently, respond promptly, and we are accountable to ourselves and each other.”

Daily Growth

This value is focused on the fact that doing your best makes everyone better and more successful.

“As we say it, a better you makes a better us,” Kyle emphasizes. “We measure progress and celebrate wins together. We also know that small actions, plus consistency over time, equals powerful improvement. We work with a sense of persistence, and we see no limits. Along the way, we tie that all together by encouraging each other.”

“I started in real estate in New York City in 2005. In the process, I worked for 13 years selling and renting places, eventually starting my own brokerage in 2014 before coming to Dallas,” Kyle explains.

“I understand the business deeply. We’re not here to sell houses. Our main focus is to protect the relationships that agents have with their clients. Our role is to manage these properties in between the transactions. We work to help them do more deals because we believe that if a client has a really good property management experience, more houses will be sold.”

Making A Difference

Those who work with Kyle experience a fun, fresh approach to property management — and business development.

“We focus on excellence. Also, since we manage so much property, the owner naturally comes to us to sell a house we manage. We refer those deals to preferred partners, or whoever it was that referred the deal in the first place, and we guarantee the commission if we don’t,” he says.

“Those deals get referred to our preferred partners. Plus, we also have an active real estate investor database of more than 30,000 people that was built over a number of years. We’re going to start to market sales to these investors. We aren’t going to write those deals. Again, these will be referrals to

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