Makeda Smith is the CEO of Savvy Chicks In Real Estate, a marketing agency that offers community, events, coaching, and resources for women in the industry. Smith was coming out of a career in customer service when she decided to focus on real estate.
With the support of her husband, she got licensed in 2004 as a realtor to start her new career and she has since not looked back. She is now a multi-million-dollar producer and top seller in the market. Also, she launched her own brokerage in 2011 and a marketing agency in 2017 to help women in real estate build their brands.
“It’s from my hard work that I already put in the industry, being a top producer, that I’ve made an impact in the industry. Now, I’m able to take that same drive and shift it to help women in the business,” she told XoNecole.
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Smith noted that the ability to help a family member or an investor buy and sell a real estate property has always been part of her in her early years.
“Now, I’m passionate about helping the agents who have just started out in business or those who have been in business but [are] stuck and can’t get over a certain revenue hump,” she indicated, adding, “We have the inflation rate and gas prices are high, but people will always need a place to live and there’s always opportunities.”
When she started real estate, Smith was careful to carve a niche for herself. She began by figuring out how she can work with a bank like Chase, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac which already had a bulk of listings and could easily be a go-to agent.
“In 2007, when I made top-earner status, I had to bring my husband on in because I couldn’t handle all of it myself,” she noted. “Then we both made at least $100,000 each. We had never ever seen anything like that in our lifetime.”
Smith was also relentless when it came to networking and forging relationships. She was showing up at most conferences hoping for opportunities to pitch. She would also hit up reps over and over again, which she said worked for her as she got the opportunity to meet rep Freddie Mac.
“She [Freddie Mac’s rep] gave me 50 listings that [they] can give you at one time and I was blown away. I finally heard that yes,” she said.
Smith said her mission is to help women in the real estate industry develop multiple streams of income that not only depend on real estate transactions but have digital products and own paid events.
