Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashton Theiss.
Ashton, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In the truest sense, I am a small-town Texas girl. I was raised for the majority of my adolescence by a close-knit family in the small town of Hockley, Texas, on ranches, at the lake, and – curveball – at the races. My father, brother, uncles and cousins have been in the dirt track racing world since I was barely old enough to stand. Needless to say, I learned from an early age that “a little dirt don’t hurt” and loved being a little bit of a tomboy. My family’s business is in the construction industry, so I grew up with an understanding of the sticks and bolts that make real estate a reality.
In addition, I saw my grandparents and parents build extremely strong businesses from the ground up with close to nothing from the start. That example of hard work and entrepreneurship was engrained in me to the core from a very early age. Now life is about balance, right? So I balanced the country, outdoorsy lifestyle with a long stretch of competing in pageants including the Miss Texas USA system. I say all of this to give you an understanding of my background – outdoorsy grit + a hardworking, blue-collar entrepreneurship + a competitive spirit driven by becoming the most refined, confident version of myself I could. Looking back, I can see how each of these aspects of my life are still ever-present and a huge part of who I am today.
I was blessed to have the opportunity to go to college. When it came to deciding where to go, I applied to one and only one university, TCU. When my parents asked, “Well, what’s your plan if you don’t get in?”, my response was simple (and perhaps a little naïve), “Well, I’ve got to. That’s where I am going.” And that is where I went. While attending college at TCU, I attained a BS in Strategic Communications (advertising, public relations and marketing) and a BS in Sociology. During my time at TCU, I was on a hell-bent path to walk off the stage of graduation with a killer resume of experience in the marketing realm as to hit the ground running with my career. I was the marketing director for Roma Boots, worked in the events in promotions department for Texas Motor Speedway and was the marketing director for two other independent car companies. Basically, I was working as much as I was going to school.
But, halfway through my senior year, something clicked with me. I realized that the idea of always having a boss and knowingly entering a career that had a very finite ceiling on it was not exactly what my entrepreneur mind had pictured for my post-grad reality. Driving home for Christmas that year I called a family friend to inquire on my newest career venture idea. The conversation went about like this, “So, I really think I might like getting into real estate, can you give me some pointers?” I literally had no idea what this industry entailed or what I was going to do in it aside from this: In real estate, your success is based strictly on your hard work, tenacity and ambition. There is little to no ceiling on the success you can achieve. Finally, and possibly most importantly to me, real estate allows you to be your own boss.
So, I graduated from TCU with two great degrees and an impressive marketing resume and was licensed in real estate the following month. At 22, I went into real estate full time as doe-eyed, determined grad hell-bent on, not just surviving in, but being a real success in an extremely competitive, trying industry that has one of the highest failure rates of all careers. Statistics vary, but most I have seen state that 90% of people that enter the real estate industry fail within their first few years and that 10% of agents are the ones that actually sell 90% of real estate.
Getting started in the industry was a whirlwind of 60+ hour weeks, trial and error and pure hustle. It didn’t matter how small the deal was, I was going to take it and run with it to get it done. Within a year, I was a top producing agent at my company. And the growth just continued from there. At this point in my career, I have been able to close almost $40M in transactions and have another $15M+ in current listings.
While I started my career in residential sales, I quickly realized that I had gifts and interests in other areas. I found a love for design and flipping and have designed and renovated over 25,000 SF of residential properties. In the past 3-4 years, I have been called back to my roots and began working heavily in the land and ranch realm of real estate. Within land and ranch, I have worked with all kinds of rural acreage properties ranging from sod farms to exotic hunting ranches, river properties to weekend getaways.
About three years ago, I felt the growing pains and need to expand my bandwidth. At that time, I brought on my first assistant and started to grow my team. In this, I have seen how much I love to mentor and develop young, bright talent to show them how they too can make this career something that they absolutely love and can build into their own entrepreneurial empire.
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?
Absolutely not. Real estate is anything by smooth and predictable. There were times in my career that “life” happened and I saw a huge decline in my business. The biggest indication of if this career is for you is if you pull yourself up from your bootstraps when you think you’ve almost failed.
Please tell us more about you, what are you known for?
I am known for being the one to take on the hard, difficult, “weird” deals. Even if I’m not an expert in it, people know that I will teach myself and figure it out. That’s where much of my success has come from. I have never had a direct mentor, per say. I have had a lot of people along the way that have guided and encouraged me, but being resourceful and determined has been the underlying basis for being able to take on new, challenging opportunities.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I loved growing up at the ranch and on the lake. There is something so grounding and centering about fresh air and nature.
Contact Info:
- Website: ashtontheiss.com
- Phone: 8172436075
- Email: ashtontheiss@gmail.com
- Instagram: ashtondfw
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AshtonTheissRealEstateAgent/
- Other: Rogers Healy and Associates
Image Credit:
Brian Hutson Photography
Suggest a story: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
