Today we’d like to introduce you to Kimberly Dotseth.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My business background began in the early 1980s working for very large, well-known corporations: Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and Shearson Lehman Brothers. I enjoyed working in high-powered financial settings. But when I took a job in the late 1980s for La Jolla Bank as the assistant to the president, things really changed for me. He quickly moved me to the loan department and I was put in charge of finding wholesale mortgage brokers. I built a great department over a few years and then was laid off. Working in the loan department put real estate firmly in my mind.
In 1989, I was hired as the county-wide administrative manager for Grubb & Ellis Commercial Real Estate. I managed all facilities, the annual budget, all staff, hiring, firing, and all of our transactions. We had over 50 commercial agents in two offices. But I was emotionally abused by my own boss and left my job voluntarily in 1997.
With a real estate salesperson’s license in hand, which Grubb & Ellis needed me to have while on the job, I decided I wanted to sell houses, which I had always dreamed about. I had no income though, having walked away from my well-paying job. So, I got a job as a part-time pharmaceutical rep making $40,000 a year for about 20 hours of work a week. That supplemented me while I was a residential real estate agent and loan officer (my broker’s office did in-house lending so all agents were loan officers).
I became very good at the real estate part of my combo career, and quit the pharma work — which was some of the hardest work of my life. Because I was doing well and treated independently by my broker in Mission Valley (The Real Estate Advantage), I felt like a broker.
In 2007, I decided to go for it and actually become a broker and study for my broker’s exam. I treated studying like a full-time job. In October 2017, I sat for the test and knew my material cold. A test that was to supposed to take six hours took me 85 minutes. I passed.
In 2007, I launched my first brokerage, Green Box Homes. We offered a “green” niche to our home buyers and sellers. In January 2012, I was named the Broker of the Year for the San Diego Association of Realtors. In March 2013, I re-branded to Blend Real Estate. Today, we specialize in listings and do several things for our sellers at no additional charge to set us apart from bigger firms. I am in my dream life, my dream job, and my dream career. Finally!
Has it been a smooth road?
The road has been anything but smooth, but time and looking back, my career path seems OK. I never went to college full-time, only part-time, so part of my early career was going to college at night, getting all A’s, but not being able to complete my degree as my daytime world became more demanding.
That haunts me, but I am not sure I would be where I am today if I had been a traditional full-time student. I got my job at Merrill Lynch at a very young age and was treated as a college grad. In other words, I had to emotionally and professionally step up to a level of achievement that was expected of me regardless of the degree (or no degree).
The hardest part of my career has been the supervisors over me who were so hard on me. I had a woman at Merrill Lynch in La Jolla who would routinely scream at me in the office. I had a boss at Grubb & Ellis who was a horror to me in what he said and how he acted towards me. It takes a lot for me to quit something, but those two people caused me to resign from good jobs. To this day, I do not really forgive them, but it made me stronger.
If I had any advice for someone in my shoes but who is in her 20s, I would say that the older you get in business, the better it gets. Hang in there. Quit if you need to. I am 55, and about to turn 56 in March. I earn every dollar I make and it took me 30 years to get here. No one gives me a regular paycheck. That’s sort of a bummer during leaner times, but no one screams at me. That’s never going to happen again. I own every aspect of my time, life and business now. But the road was not smooth.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a residential real estate brokerage firm that also does about 10% in commercial transactions. We specialize in listings, so we list houses and condominiums for sale. I consider that the “business side” of the transaction, and it’s where I want to be. I paid some real estate coach a couple thousand dollars once for a course on how to grow my business, and he had a comment about working with buyers that I won’t repeat here. But it rang true for me… We only work with buyers we know well, typically because my real estate coach was right. Buyers are unpredictable and challenging. The money I paid him was worth that one sentence alone, and he gave me permission to focus on sellers.
We work with all ages of sellers and married people or singles, with kids or not. With dogs or not. With issues or not. Our sub-niche is working with seniors and typically their families as the senior leaves their lifetime home and the house needs to be sold. That’s my love and passion: listing seniors’ homes for sale. I love my seniors.
What we do for all sellers sets us apart from other firms: we have each house professionally cleaned at our expense before putting it on the market. We pay for full staging of every home, and we have the most glorious photos. Plus, all of our unique marketing. No one does what we do. Most of our listings sell in a few days. I am so proud to have built a small brokerage that does exactly what I would want done for me if I were selling a home in San Diego County.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
San Diego is a wonderful place to sell houses. But it’s hard to be able to afford a single family home here, one with no homeowner’s association to tell you what to do and one where you own your own land. That is the American dream for many people and I support that dream. Don’t pay someone else’s mortgage. Do what you have to do to buy even a studio condo. Start somewhere! What I like about San Diego real estate is that obviously you can cater to higher budgets with homes in La Jolla, Coronado or Rancho Santa Fe. But I really like the zip codes that cater to smaller budgets. Those houses are out there, too. I love those neighborhoods.
What San Diego can do is worry about helping real estate agents, but it should help homeowners by working on its road paving projects! I drive through every neighborhood and on every street. The worst streets tend to be in the lower-priced neighborhoods. But those homeowners have pride of ownership too, and they shouldn’t have to have third-world quality streets in front of their homes. It disgusts me on a regular basis.
If you’re just starting out in San Diego real estate, I say DO NOT pick a neighborhood to specialize in. Throw your net much wider. Specialize in the county. Many would disagree with me, but learn the highs and lows of all of San Diego County. Embrace all neighborhoods and market yourself widely.
Pricing:
- The average price of a home we list for sale is typically betwen $500,000 and $700,000.
Contact Info:
- Address: 7770 Regents Road #113-275
San Diego, CA 92122 - Website: blendrealestate.com
- Phone: 858-291-8110
- Email: info@blendrealestate.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/blendrealestate
- Facebook: facebook.com/blendrealestate
Image Credit:
Sympzy.com
San Diego Magazine
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
