Today we’d like to introduce you to Kimberly Dotseth.
Hi Kimberly, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Since 2007, I have been the broker/owner of Blend Real Estate, recently rebranded as Blend Luxury Real Estate. This is the greatest time of my life, both professionally and personally. Throughout the 1980s, I was an American corporate worker, climbing the ladder and quite miserable. I dreamed of selling residential real estate way back as early as the 1980s, but there was no way I could survive on “commission-only,” as I had become very dependent on a steady paycheck, bonuses, and health insurance paid by my employer.
As that paycheck got larger due to better jobs along the way, my misery in having someone else own my time also grew. I used to think, “If I could only work in a way that allowed me to be at home to watch Good Morning America, things would really be great.” I don’t watch Good Morning America, but clearly, I did back in the day! That was the marker that I laid down for myself: owning my mornings.
Without over-explaining my career direction, I went from banking to the stock market to a fantastic job in commercial real estate, being a manager overlord of facilities, money, transactions, people, and events. I got that job in 1999 at 27 years old. In that position, I was required to get my real estate license.
I got that salesperson’s license in 1993. Then finally, at the end of my personal rope working for someone else, I finished my corporate career by a simple two-week resignation in 1998. Kind of deflating, in retrospect! It was over like a poof. But I was free. At that point and with no plan and no salary, I took the baby step into residential real estate sales in 1999. For a brief time and to make ends meet, though, because I had no clue how to sell houses and no clients, I got a “part-time” job as a pharmaceutical rep that paid great, even though I had zero qualifications. I did that very hard work part-time (almost full-time), and sold real estate part-time and was the queen juggling of gigs before the gig economy was a thing. The pharm job was during the early 2000s era, and on 9/11, I had to call on doctors to bother them for their time, leave them drug samples, and get their signature on a form to show my boss that I had been in their office. If they’d take 20 seconds to hear my pitch, that was a win. I repped about 15 meds. My territory was all of San Diego County, all the way to El Centro. It was degrading work.
I quit my drug job in 2002 and finally, finally made my way full-time into commission-only residential real estate sales. It was a long, twisty path. As taking chances on yourself can often go, things really took off in my sales career. Fast forward: I got my broker’s license in 2007 and opened my own shop the day after I passed my test. Passing that test was the greatest day of my life, after my wedding day. And, circling back to morning TV, I can watch all the morning TV I want and still do well. I finally got the dream life I wanted because I built it.
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 greatest struggle is the need of a steady source of real estate clients. There is no magic to it, it’s very hard, and it’s very stressful. After this many years, I have many repeat clients, but I tend to represent mostly sellers, so when they sell, they are gone! It hasn’t been a smooth road, but constant marketing doing only one or two things to find new clients has worked really well. Our main source of business is… postcards sent in the U.S. mail! The struggles to get to where I am today are probably the stuff of a movie, but as far as daily struggles in the here and now, it’s the maintenance of a steady stream of sellers. I am still, after all, in commission-only real estate sales. The rain must be made!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
What I am most proud of is being an innovator. I was offering our sellers free staging in 2004 before anyone ever thought about it. And we started having sellers’ homes cleaned for free before anyone else ever thought about it. We still offer these perks to sellers and more. We can prep a home for sale like it’s a Hollywood production! I am running what I call a boutique real estate firm, with a high quality of attention paid to small details.
The more artistic side of my background comes out with every house we prep for the market: During my commercial real estate days, I opened a fine-art photography gallery in Little Italy. It was a contemporary gallery that I ran for years. My one employee would run it during the day while I ran it on the weekends when I wasn’t at my full-time corporate job. She was a full-time dancer at one of the strip clubs around the corner at night, and she worked at my gallery during the day. She was great. I was a pioneer then and feel like I still am because I don’t have to ask anyone’s permission for anything. So, we try new things every day! I am also working on an online course production called Blend Click, after having run an online real estate course under my other brand, Little Bird Broker. All my previous teaching and coaching will be morphed into Blend Click. This is really a fun time for me. I also have a large art collection at home and at my husband’s house, consisting of fine-art photos, paintings, works on papers, and so forth. Art and work have been a constant marriage in my life forever.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I am a cat lady. My husband is also a broker associate at my firm, and he’s a serious cat guy. He and I feed cats in our local UTC park every night at sunset. We’ve adopted two of the cats out of the park ourselves, and the others wait for us every night. We have done trap, neuter, and release (“TNR”) and currently are fostering a momma and her five babies at home. Those cats came to us from a house in south San Diego. All will be put up for adoption.
We have not missed a night feeding our park cats since February 2017. When we travel, we have our cat sitter do it for us. And my husband and I, celebrating our 17th anniversary right now, have never merged houses. He owns his house and I own mine. We have never lived together! But it works out so well. We basically live in separate houses and go back and forth between both homes every day and see each other every day, but we have separate properties! He comes over every night to feed park kitties. Then I make us some elaborate kitchen feast for dinner. We have been Padres season ticket holders for 20 years. We have a very, very blessed life.
Pricing:
- We sell houses at about the $600K level and up.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@blendluxury.com
- Website: blendluxury.com
- Instagram: @blendluxuryrealestate
- Facebook: blendluxuryrealestate
