“So many people talk about the thank-you gifts they give their clients,” says Debbie Gates, a RE-ALTOR® representing buyers and sellers across Southern California’s Ventura County and Simi Valley. “But it’s humbling and amaz-ing how many heartfelt thank you cards my clients send to me!”

she says. “I am so incredibly lucky that my clients feel as fortunate to have found me as I am to have them.” Clearly, Debbie loves her work and the people she has represented since entering real estate in 2004 following a career as a flight attendant.

It was a couple of years after 9/11, when her daughters were toddlers, that Debbie decided she no longer wanted to keep leaving her little ones. “I had always been inter-ested in buying and selling houses for my own use and it was time for a change,” says Debbie, explaining that her original plan was to sell a house or two a year. “That didn’t happen. I sold a house or two a week!” She became a Rising Star her first year in the business, fueled by her distinctive attitude toward real estate. “I don’t treat it as a business so much as a network of friends, a network of families and a network that puts buyers and sellers together.”

Debbie considers the act of matching buyers and sellers to be an art form. Rather than finding people for homes, she finds homes for people, whether working with buyers or sellers. “It’s the homes that have to find the people, not the other way around. Every home is so special and so different.” As part of this matchmaking, Debbie spends extra time understanding what clients want so that she can find them the right house and home. “The perfect house for everyone is out there waiting to be found by the perfect buyer.”

She therefore layers her marketing efforts. An early adopter of Internet marketing and social media in 2004, she continues to maintain a deep and wide online pres-ence. “We need to market everywhere,” she says. “I tell my sellers you never know where your buyer is coming from and we won’t discriminate where they come from, so let’s just get a buyer!” Although the Internet is the first stop for most buyers, some still don’t use social media or conduct online searches. “I have one client who doesn’t even have email,” she says in support of her theory behind

layered marketing. Marketing layers, she says, include local, door-to-door efforts, print advertising, mailers and more. “You never know who’s going to learn about a listing and tell someone they know.”

The future of Debbie Gates & Associates includes slow, planned growth. This year, for the first time, she hired another agent, Brook Murray, to join her. Prior to Brook’s arrival, Debbie had not considered forming a team, choosing instead to network and partner with other agents, with whom she still maintains wonderful rela-tionships. “I couldn’t be more excited to have Brook on my team,” she says. “I thought I was good, but she blows me away!” Debbie also hopes to fulfill her desire to start a foundation aimed at helping people who suffered short sales and foreclosures. “I’ve been blessed and so fortu-nate with such a successful business that I really want to give back to others,” she says. “Now that many of them have rebuilt their credit, I hope to create a support net-work to help make ownership a reality for them again.”

Given her modest, initial goals of selling two homes a year and the eventual reality of her top agent status, Debbie says she did not achieve success alone. “I am so grateful for my husband, who has supported me and my business tremendously along the way,” she says. “We wouldn’t be where we are without him. He’s the num-ber-one member of my team.” The Gates family, whose daughters are now 13 and 15, enjoys quiet time togeth-er, board games, outdoor activities and travel to parts of the globe that help them appreciate the world’s diversity.

DEBBIE GATES

Copyright Top Agent Magazine

To learn more about Debbie Gates, visit http://www.debbiegates.com

email Homeswithdebbie@gmail.com or call 805.428.1100