Written by Ben Cox – One local business is taking a different approach to their business, with good results.
Brad and Sheri Wells have started The Wells Team, a group of realtors under the Keller Williams banner. After almost 20 years in the real estate game, Sheri says she has been doing things the Keller Williams way for years, but didn’t realize it.
“Traditionally, you do everything yourself. You put the sign in the yard, to making your keys, to doing the listing, to taking pictures, going to closings, writing the listings, to inputting the listings. I realized I needed an assistant. That is the model that Gary Keller (Keller Williams founder) had outlined for teams.”
After working for a few years for a real estate company as a clerk in the 80’s Sheri says she knew their immediate future was not going to be with that company. “The bottom fell out of real estate, so we went back to school and did data processing for 10 years.” After moving to Brownwood in the late 90’s, Sheri planned to not work while Brad went into a successful career in insurance.
But, if you know Sheri, you know the stay at home route was not to last. “I don’t sit still very well!” Approaching a friend who was a broker, Sheri fell right back into real estate, getting her license almost immediately thanks to having classes under her belt from her previous employment in the field.
Brad joined Sheri selling properties in 2005 after realizing “they were having way more fun than he was in Insurance” according to her. After several years working for another realtor company in town they decided to branch out on their own, in large part to bring on another realtor.
Renee Blackstock joined the Wells Team last year, when they opened their office on the corner of Austin and Center. She says “I love the training and culture. There’s a concept of family and urging each other on to make us all better agents.”
Blackstock’s husband, who is a mental health professional, says the training material she took home was “ideal for making better people on the inside, not just make more money.”
Brad says the training is also something he liked about the company, because “if you make better people, you get better employees no matter what you do. If you’re a horse trainer, whatever you’re gonna do you’ll be better at it.”
The training offered to agents also has unexpected benefits for others as well. During the flooding in south Texas last year, there was a training seminar scheduled for Austin, but when the agents showed up expecting classes, they were shuttled by bus to Houston to help in relief efforts. “Nobody complained” says Sheri. “These agents had hotel rooms booked and didn’t plan to be cleaning out flooded houses, but they all went.”
Top Left: Brad & Sheri after hanging the sign on their new office last year, Top Right: Brad & Sheri with Renee Blackstock Bottom Left: Wells Team agent Donna Howington Bottom Right: Wells Team agent Caitlyn Tidwell with Sheri
Brad says “We’re kind of an anomaly. People are watching us, going ‘what’re y’all doing over there?’ It’s kind of fun!”
The team has two other agents, Donna Howington who also joined the team last year, and their most recent addition of Caitlyn Tidwell. Tidwell, who joined the Wells Team last week, says she “wanted to learn and Keller Williams has the best training and that Brad and Sheri are two of the best agents in the business” so she took them up on their offer and is excited to be the latest addition to the Wells Team.
Sheris is also very adamant in saying that their team would be nothing without the support of their Marketing and Administrative Managers Sandi Parish and Rebekah Lytle. “They keep us going, we would be lost without them!”
The Wells Team office is located at 807 Center Ave, and they can be reached at 325-268-1056, on their website or via Facebook. They also have an open house event this Sunday.
