Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Rementeria.
Hi Emily, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My story with real estate started my senior year of high school in Washington State. I had to pick a topic to spend my senior year English class project on. My dad and family had always been involved in real estate, so that is where my exposure began. I decided to do real estate for my project and found my mentor, Dustin Ho, through my dad and his involvement of real estate. Dustin taught me as much as he could about real estate, and I knew from there that I loved every part of it. I ended up getting 100% on my project, likely because I genuinely enjoyed the topic I chose. From then on out, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in real estate. Flash forward to my senior year of college; about halfway through, I decided I wanted to get a real estate internship before I began studying for my license, to have some sort of real life and firsthand experiences with real estate. I knew as well that I wanted to aim big and go for luxury real estate. I knew I had the communication and social skills to handle business with people of those calibers. So, I did my research on the best luxury realtors in the area. I drafted emails and sent them out to over 25 agents, asking for an opportunity to simply let me shadow them, no pay requested, and assist them if they’d let me. The one agent that got back to me was Sammy Snelling. She immediately was so caring and interested in the path I was hoping to take. We had an interview, and she agreed to let me intern for her. She took me under her wing and did more for me than I could have ever imagined. She had just changed to a new brokerage in the area, The Oppenheim Group. At the time, I hadn’t known much about them and nothing about their status with their show. She took me along every step of the way, from deals to teaching me, to having me help her with her media. I saw the office be built, all while being there to help Sammy and her help me. She opened up so many doors for me and introduced me to so many people. To this day, her and I are working together, and I am still learning things from her every single day.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest struggle across the way so far for me has been dedicating time to sit down and study real estate from the book and prepare for my test! I absolutely love being out and about and actually being in person with agents, including Sammy and her associate Suzie Adballah. Suzie is another amazing agent who has taught me so much about real estate and brought me along with her to so many experiences and opportunities. I would take being out in the field with them any and every day over sitting at my desk studying. Although it is crucial for me and my future… sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do to get where we want to be. The other challenge I faced was deciding to stay in San Diego! My family and friends are all in Washington state, and my plan after college was to return home and do real estate there. I knew I could not pass up the amazing opportunity I was given with Sammy and the Oppenheim group.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am interning for Sammy Snelling with The Oppenheim Group. I do all sorts of things for and with her, from setting up listing appointments to preparing houses for showings to door knocking, to making media for her socials.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Put yourself out there, and don’t be afraid to go after what you want! Don’t be afraid to want the best for yourself, and aim high. For example, I wasn’t going to settle for a no, a no response. I knew I wanted to aim high for luxury real estate, and I took the leap to reach out to as many people as I could find to set myself up for success.
Image Credits
Samantha Snelling
Suzie Abdallah
Kayla Cardona
