ATLANTA --- While the rest of the world celebrates Mother’s Day on May 6, every day feels like Mother’s Day at Beacham & Company, REALTORS because more than one quarter of the company’s 46 agents are mother and daughter teams.
While it is not unusual to find mothers and daughters working together in real estate, it is unusual to find so many working together in one office, said Dac Carver, Vice President and Managing Broker for Beacham & Company.
“We haven’t sought out mother-daughter teams, it’s just happened that way,” Carver said. “We are a family-owned, family-run company, and I think the mothers and daughters who work here appreciate the supportive environment we offer.”
When asked what makes for a good mother-daughter real estate team, many of the mother-daughter agents at Beacham & Company say communication is so much easier because of the mother-daughter relationship. Ruth Skogstad, who has worked with her daughter, Kristen Sodemann, for more than 15 years, says she often calls Kristen when she has something on her mind only to find Kristen has been thinking about the same thing.
“We both think alike,” Ruth said. “It makes things so much easier when you work with someone who thinks like you do. You can bounce ideas off each other and you don’t have to worry about where the other person is coming from. We both have the same value system.”
Janey Lowe, whose daughter, Elise Baumann has worked with Janey for nearly two years, agrees that the ease of communication with her daughter makes them a great team.
“She understands me,” Lowe said. “There is a trust factor. We both have a vested interest in each other’s success. Also, she has grown up with real estate her entire life so she knows the demands of the job.”
Sometimes mother and daughter teams work well because, like most teams, each member has different strengths that compliment the other. Glennis Beacham, founder of Beacham & Company, began working with her daughter Blayne several years ago. Glennis is a full-time agent while Blayne is in charge of Beacham & Company’s marketing department.
“I have a little of my mom’s salesmanship in me, but marketing and photography are really my strengths,” Blayne said. “My mom knows great marketing when she sees it but she would never have the patience to sit down at a computer for hours at a time working on a marketing project. I’ve grown up watching her work so I know what she expects of me.”
Jan Hart has worked with her daughter, Georgia Rae Hart, a recent college graduate, for two years. Jan credits Georgia’s computer savviness with helping Jan relate to younger clients who are interested in technology. Jan also says the age difference with her daughter has helped to expand her customer base.
Susan Traynor recently began working with her daughter, Kelly Moulton, who has an extensive corporate background in the financial brokerage industry.
“Kelly is an accomplished businesswoman,” Traynor said. “She is very precise and focused, so she has helped me make my office time more productive. On the other hand, I have been in real estate for 15 years so I can share my experience and knowledge with her. Everything is instinctive to me. More than anything else though, we laugh a lot together.”
As much as complimenting skills sets makes them great teams, their similarities are what keep these mother-daughter teams working together. Alice McDonough and Wight Mixon have sold real estate together for 10 years and are both very active with the Atlanta Board of Realtors where Alice is a past president of the board of directors and Wight is the president elect. Both women simply love the real estate business and feel fortunate that real estate affords them the opportunity to work together.
“We have fun together and love the challenges that this business brings,” Mixon said. “We both embrace new technology and educational opportunities. We ‘pinch hit’ for one another whenever necessary, share stories of our good times and not so good, and love having the opportunity to be together doing something we love so much.”
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Beacham & Company, Realtors® is a residential real estate company that specializes in Atlanta's most affluent neighborhoods. The company was founded in 2006 by Glennis Beacham, one of Atlanta's most celebrated real estate agents over the last 20 years. The firm has Atlanta's highest average sales price and the top selling office by closed dollar volume of homes sold. For more information about Beacham & Company, go to www.beacham.com or call 404.261.6300.