With over 20 years of experience in the real estate industry, Sherri Murphy understands the value of meeting with her customers for listing and buyer consultations and listening to their requirements and aspirations. This allows Sherri to sell quickly for top cash or discover the perfect house for her buyer at the appropriate price, all while not missing anything on the market. Sherri’s expertise encompasses residential, new construction, and luxury home sales, as well as REO and short sales, property management, and mortgage lending, allowing her to provide a good and stress-free experience for her customers while developing long-term connections. Working with Sherri will be an unforgettable experience, and you will gain a lifelong realtor and friend.

A Tale of Commitment and Grit

Sherri Murphy has been obsessed with real estate, particularly single-family houses and new construction, since she was a child. Sherri’s parents suffered financially as she grew up. Her uncle and grandfather were home builders, and they hired Sherri’s parents to clean up the construction sites in between stages. She says, “I remember going with them and helping them by cleaning up trash and scraping stickers off the windows and cleaning them, etc.  So, I became familiar with each phase of the construction process.”  She aspired to be an architect and interior designer by the time she graduated from high school. Her parents, on the other hand, advised her to attend college and pursue a career as a secretary or something more secure.

Sherri obtained a job with Finance America in 1983 and enrolled in a Branch Management Training program in Houston. She soon grasped the financial side of the business at the Bank of America-owned company, which specialized in home renovation loans. Then came the oil crash of the 1980s, which resulted in the foreclosure of hundreds of properties. Sherri accepted a position as an asset manager with a PMI company. She was in charge of selling the foreclosed homes that they had fully insured, approving modifications to boost the property’s value, and negotiating contracts when they were sold. She needed her real estate license in order to get this job, so she went out and got it right away. During real estate school, she recognized that it flowed effortlessly to her and that she was born to pursue this sort of work.

• New York Success and Back to Home

The economy eventually began to improve, but now there were failed savings and loans. The Resolution Trust Corporation, or RTC, was established by President, George W. Bush, to aid these institutions over a five-year period. Sherri submitted an application and was recruited as an asset manager in New Jersey. This time, however, she was selling property portfolios on the open market (Wall Street). , throughout the East Coast. They included multifamily, industrial, retail, office space, multiuse space, hotels, malls, and hotels, among other things. She happened to run into a commercial real estate firm that also handled property management. They bought a significant number of failed mixed-use properties at a low price with the intention of turning them around and selling them at market value. Sherri states, “They offered me a job as a property manager over the portfolio and I accepted, knowing my career with the RTC was not going to last forever.” In order to manage these properties, I had to have my real estate license in each state that the properties were located.”  She promptly earned her license in the states where the properties were situated, including New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. She subsequently learned about various types of leases and how to handle various types of properties, as detailed previously. Sherri got the properties profitable again within a few years, and they were sold for a handsome profit. Sherri had been in New Jersey for about 6 years at the time they sold the majority of them, and she was weary of shovelling snow! As a result, she relocated back to the Dallas-Fort Worth region of Texas.

• Making Moves

When Sherri was seeking to come back to Texas, she interviewed with several firms and was eventually employed by a small mortgage company for loss mitigation, but she was eventually moved into sales as an in-house loan officer. The department’s boss soon departed and went to Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, persuading Sherri to accompany her. Sherri worked as a mortgage loan officer for around 8 years, specializing in one-time close construction loans and closings with builders. She enjoyed working with the contractors, but she missed being in the real estate industry. She recalls, “I ended up taking a few years off to be at home with my three children, who were very active and involved in numerous sports, band, cheer, etc.”  Sherri spent a lot of her time fundraising for these organizations and doing philanthropic work with the National Charity League, a mother-daughter group, during this period. By 2015, she was ready to return to work, and a former co-worker at Wells Fargo was working as a branch manager for a small mortgage company. To grow the business, the branch manager appointed her as the branch’s Marketing Director. Then Sherri was snatched up by a broker at a Keller Williams Realty brokerage and promoted to Market Center Administrator of two offices an hour away.

• Joining Sales

Sherri’s mother grew ill and became disabled, and she wanted to be close to her to help with her care. She applied to a small real estate team near her mother and was employed as the Listing and Transaction Coordinator for an office with 7 to 9 agents. She had let her real estate license in Texas expire when she came to New Jersey, so she took classes to reclaim it during this period. She recalls, “One day, the office manager came to me and said, “You need to be in sales”.”  She further adds, “The brokers tried to convince me to do it, but I had just gone through a divorce and had just purchased a home six houses down from my mother so I could be closer to her to help her.  I sank every penny into that house and literally had no savings to fall back on. I told them I needed to think it over.”  For a week, everywhere Sherri turned, there was a sign pointing in that direction. She prayed hard about it and asked God for one more BIG sign, and boy did God deliver. She recalls, “I got a sign that I couldn’t deny.” I went back to the brokers a week later and told them I was literally jumping off a cliff without a parachute or net to catch me, so failure was not an option.”  Sherri was given a goal of closing $5 million in the next 10 months. Sherri made a profit of almost $12 million and never looked back. She’d discovered her calling and her passion. She awoke every morning eager to meet new people and sell a house.

• New Beginnings; The Ultimate Real Estate Group
  A couple of years later, Sherri felt like she had reached a dead end where she was. She asserts, “I was doing as much as I could as one person.  I knew there was more business, but I could only handle so much. I decided to leave the team and pursue bigger things with Coldwell Banker Realty.”  Sherri immediately started setting herself up to build a team of agents. When trying to decide what the team would be, she looked back on her reviews from past clients, and they all had one thing in common; “I gave them the ultimate real estate experience.”  And there, The Ultimate Real Estate Group was born. The company’s aim is to provide clients with the greatest experience while maintaining integrity, empowering them to make educated decisions by providing them with the information they require and guiding them with its skills and knowledge so that they become lifelong clients. Sherri opines, “Our service does not end at the closing. We continue to provide real estate services to them, including home evaluations, maintenance reminders, etc. for as long as they are in their home.”Sherri presently has two agents on her team that can sell houses and deal with customers ranging from first-time buyers to downsizers. She also works with these sorts of customers, although she has a number of luxury certifications and her clientele is mostly in the luxury sector.

Pandemic Effects

When the epidemic struck, the market in Texas soared. Companies began transferring their headquarters to the area, resulting in a large influx of people to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Sherri recalls that when families were no longer required to return to an office and could instead work from home, it forced them to reconsider their living spaces. As a result, many people began looking for new residences to fit their changing lives. Because so many individuals moved to the neighborhood, supply and demand were uneven, resulting in skyrocketing prices, bidding wars on properties, and an unusually tight seller’s market.

Combining Passion with Leadership

Sherri is motivated by her enthusiasm for serving her clients and assisting her team members in being successful. As team leader, she ensures that team members are kept up to speed on industry and market developments, as well as coaches them on how to be successful.

Sherri defines success as the team achieving its annual goals and the agents having a successful career and a balanced life while being fulfilled by the work they perform in servicing their clients.

A View for Women Realtors

Sherri’s advice to the next generation of female leaders is to never give up on your dream. She asserts, “Use your time wisely as it is your worst enemy, and remember that you must work hard and be consistent.” She further adds, “If you fail at something, don’t think of it as a failure. But instead, think of it as knowledge gained and keep moving forward.” Sherri shares that a quote she remembers keeping in front of her when she was at Finance America said, “You never fail until you stop trying.”

Future Vision

The Ultimate Real Estate Group’s long-term goals are to expand to at least 5 full-time agents and 1 full-time assistant. Sherri is working on a series of publications to help first-time buyers, first-time sellers, and homeowners maintain their homes. She says, “We will be able to give these to our clients at our consultations to assist them during the process.” Sherri will be seeking to start a couple of other companies to supplement the company’s offerings, such as storage units, staging, and Airbnbs for transferring customers or clients between homes.

Leader’s Perspective

• What is the best way to build a great team?
  Getting to know the person you want to bring on board is the best way to build a team. Make sure they have a “Why” for doing what they do and for being on the team. Define their role clearly and keep them motivated with coaching and education. Help them set goals and measure their progress. To be on my team, they must possess certain traits like integrity, honesty, experience, and a willingness to serve others. And they must be willing to work as a “team”. There is no “I” in a team.

• What does “performance culture” mean to you?
  “Performance Culture” for my team is all about providing the ultimate customer service and providing real estate services to the client beyond the closing. It is also about building a relationship with the client. Most of my reviews from my clients state that I am like family to them, or that they have a friend for life now. This proves to me that I have done my job by providing the best service to them as their real estate professional and advisor and making them feel special in the process. Everyone wants to feel special and loved. And we do a great job of this by the little things we do for the client through the process and beyond the closing.

Website: www.sherrimurphyreality.com