Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexandra Shalhout.
Alexandra, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Telling the story of how I started out in Real Estate is funny to me. It’s a story I only saw as clear and linear with the perspective of hindsight. My career is the result of my evolution from a young age through the present and we both continue to evolve.
Growing up, my biggest female influencer’s worked in Law. I thought that was the epitome of dignified and cool. I grew up in those law offices after school, working on organizing files and doing research. I was so lucky to have that experience because it helped me immediately find employment after graduating high school at a small law office which handled real estate related matters. I learned what it means to be a fiduciary and the importance of always acting ethically on your client’s behalf as an agent. I also learned about accountability in small business and the critical role that strong systems play in your ability to serve your clients effectively.
How did all that turn into a career in Real Estate? Well, my family moved several times in my late teenage years, which gave me the affinity for house-hunting. At the time, my go-to tool was ole’ Craigslist. When the recession hit in 2008, I moved back in with family and shortly thereafter that, I started working as a receptionist at a mortgage company in Orange County. Since this was during “The Housing Crisis,” it’s not exactly like the phones were ringing off the hook, and they encouraged me to study for my real estate license during my downtime.
Actually, the best part of my job was to draft a market update to send to our clients. I spent the mornings at work devouring the news and all the expert opinions on the economy, and the summarized it into relatable terms for our clients. There was a real estate company that shared office space with us called NOVA Real Estate Services owned by a guy named Harry Solomon. The economy and housing market was terrible, but he was busier than ever and always in an awesome mood, making jokes and chatting with everyone. In mid-2009, Harry offered me an administrative position in his firm. I saw this as the perfect next step in my career, and I happily accepted. I was right and with Harry’s mentoring, after 3 years, I transitioned into the role of a real estate agent in his firm.
Now, Harry is as close as one can be to the family to me and my husband, and I’m happy to say that I continue to hang my real estate license with him today. By that time the economy was beginning to rebound and the housing market was hot for buyers – home prices were still low and mortgage interest rates were at their rock bottom. In 2014, I recognized the difficulty many real estate agents had in scaling to the growing housing market and adapting to the new technology and tools the industry was being flooded with.
I saw an opportunity in that, and I grew my team and diversified my business offerings to provide consulting services and virtual assistance behind-the-scenes to other agents. I find that those two parts of my business compliment each other very well, as my consulting allows me to build such strong relationships within my industry, and that helps us all to come from a collaborative mindset and put deals together for our clients.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My road has most certainly not been a smooth one – as most peoples’ are not. We all have “our” story – the ways in which ours and our families’ histories are triumphant and traumatic. There are varying levels of actual and financial security we experienced and the ways the decisions we made along the way affected us, which all shape who each of us becomes. My particular difficulties stemmed from being raised by a single mother in a complicated family dynamic. I was not exposed to proper financial education, which was the case for a large number of people in my generation.
My childhood and, in particular, teenage years were difficult. Addiction runs in my family and, while I have been so lucky not to struggle with the disease, anyone who has lived through it will tell you – it takes a huge toll on a family. I missed a great deal of the “normal” comforts growing up so, when I graduated high school, I was eager to set off on my independent adult life. As I mentioned before, I began working right at the time of the housing crisis. I entered adulthood watching everyone I knew be rocked by the financial crisis – families were losing their homes and their jobs, and the world was changing in ways we are only now beginning to understand. These years, though devastating, were extremely formative for me, both personally and for my career.
Despite the housing crisis, I focused on my love of real estate and began working it full time in 2009. At that time, I was working with an high-volume agent who was focusing on the ‘REO’ market sector (foreclosures). This was an extremely difficult time for many Americans, as people were trying to manage impossible adjustable-rate loans and finding themselves unable to make their mortgage payments. Eventually, many homes were repossessed by lenders.
Our agency’s involvement happened next. After lender’s foreclosed, my broker focused on getting the homes fixed-up and resold on their behalf. Our agency was juggling tons of listings and needed full-time support to manage the volume of work they were doing. I started doing bookkeeping and administrative work and quickly grew to help coordinate home listings and helping with the sales process. During this time, I got married and earned my real estate license. However, in 2012 the real estate market began to recover and consequently the foreclosure business started to slow and my position was quickly becoming unnecessary.
Around the same time in 2012, my husband developed addiction issues himself and became violent in our marriage. Knowing the emotional impacts of addiction and violence, and with the support of friends, I removed myself from the marriage and filed for divorce. Luckily, as they say, “when one door closes another one opens.” Shortly after my divorce, I met and a year later married the love of my life, Ahmad.
Both fortunately and unfortunately, as a result of the reduced REO market, in 2013 I was laid off and needed to forge a new path. Ahmad and I decided to evaluate this struggle for the positives and realized that we could use it as an opportunity to define our future. Ahmad owned a home that he purchased during the recession, and he had gained substantial equity. We leveraged the ability to sell the home and rely on the equity to cement our future in the real estate market. During this time, we traveled, soul-searched. We ultimately decided to settle in San Diego County, which I had called home for several years growing up.
We found ourselves, both individually and as a couple. It was his wise home investment that afforded us the opportunity to make our collective dream come true. For the first time, I experienced first-hand the power of home ownership, and knew I wanted to help others reach that milestone! Later that year, I began working directly with clients coaching them on the benefits of homeownership, the buying and selling process and ultimately helped them into their own homes.
Shalhout Team with NOVA Real Estate Services – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I specialize in working with two main types of clients:
1) First time home buyers who need coaching, real estate services and the support to realize their dream; and 2) Real estate agents who need help with systems, procedures and back-office support.
My passion is mentoring first time home buyers through their struggle to enter the market in today’s economy. Many faces increased debt, often due to high student loans, and have negative perceptions of home ownership due to the Recession. I’ve spent countless hours coaching future homeowners and sharing my experience and first-hand knowledge of the impacts of owning a home vs. renting, and how owning a home plays a role in your overall investment strategy and retirement plan. Because the struggle is near and dear to my heart, I primarily focus on the trends associated with the reduced willingness to purchase in the millennial generation and work fervently to educate them on the balance of commitment of home ownership and the love of flexible living.
For many, homeownership feel too risky and it is always life-changing. This is true whether you’re starting from the position of poor credit and no savings; or a perfect credit score and a healthy investment portfolio. Most people I work with simply need a safe environment to discuss their situation and the goals they’re trying to achieve. I help them recognize and overcome the roadblocks that stand between them and success. I don’t believe in high-pressure sales techniques which are rampant in this industry and discourage an open dialogue. I focus on providing the homeownership education people desperately need. By removing the pressure and answering their questions, together with my clients and I build their roadmap to home ownership. That map may be a 60-day plan or a three-year plan, or anywhere in between and that’s just fine with me.
Throughout these years, I also have noticed patterns in how the home buying community was being under-served due to their evolving needs. As the market began to rebound, tech companies began pouring considerable money into the real estate sector. Suddenly hundreds of websites and tools, for real estate agents and consumers alike, appeared that completely changed the marketplace. Clients used to have to sit in an agents office, sift through a focused list of properties and personally visit each potential home. Today, home shoppers are much more self-sufficient and tend to like to “DIY” a large portion of their home shopping experience. This substantially changed the role of agents. Now a much larger portion of the real estate agents job is technical which shifted the focus from being in the field to being behind a desk.
However, in order to truly serve clients, agents need to be physically present in the market and out spending time with their clients. Without that, agents cannot fully comprehend their clients’ unique needs. In today’s technological society, the job duties and the ultimate mission of a real estate agent conflict. This means that real estate agency is no longer a one-person job, and that realization led me to the path of consultancy. Through real estate agent consultancy, I help agents implement systems, manage their online presence and provide all levels of technical administrative support so that they can focus their time out with their clients, making home ownership happen.
What I am most proud of is that I create order out of chaos. I guide my clients to create realistic goals based on their unique circumstances and work with them to design a path to fulfillment. I am wired for this, it is who I am. I pour my heart and soul into this because I believe home ownership and positive financial habits are the foundation for personal freedom. Isn’t that what we’re all really working for?
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career was when I was able to bring my mom and husband on board with my company. We now operate our family-owned business, serving our local residents and economy. We are investing in a world that we can be proud to pass down to future generations.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2003 S. El Camino Real Ste. 143 Oceanside, CA 92054
- Website: https://alexshalhout.com
- Phone: 949.607.6271
- Email: alex@shalhoutteam.com
- Instagram: @alex.shalhout
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShalhoutTeam
- Other: https://www.zillow.com/profile/shalhoutteam
Image Credit:
Shari Anne Photography
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