Becoming Successful in Real Estate: How I Sold My First $15,000,000 as a Single Parent

By Cindy Bermudez Presgraves

As a single mother, Cindy Bermudez Presgraves knows the value of hard work. While going through a divorce and raising two children on her own, she became an award-winning realtor. Consistently a top producer for her agency, Presgraves seeks to empower other women with her success story. In her new book, Becoming Successful in Real Estat

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: Nov 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638377900

Cindy Bermudez Presgraves

Cindy Bermudez Presgraves is a realtor. She is a Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist, a member of the Million Dollar Club, a member of the Northeast Atlanta Metro Association of Realtors, and a Top 5% Award winner for 2021. She is the creator and host of the podcast, Real Estate, Divorced Single Parent. She holds a bachelor's degree in marketing from InterAmerican University in San Juan, Puerto Rico and received her master's degree in management from Kaplan University. She lives in Atlanta with her two sons. Cindy is also on the TV show "Agents on Fire" with Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank of the original cast members - COMING SOON 2022

Book preview

Chapter 1

How It All Started

L

et's be honest—I never thought I would have a career in real estate. When I was eighteen years old, my mom told me, You would do great in real estate. I should go into real estate? I looked at her and said, Are you crazy? I am not going to be a real estate agent. My ignorance at eighteen years old—I wanted to be a professional, and I thought I needed a degree. At eighteen, I was already picking colleges and looking into what my future career would be. I enjoyed everything—sales, marketing, customer service, business, and technology. I was accepted into the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico for computer science and computer engineering, but in my third year, I switched my major to marketing and transferred to the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, Metropolitan Campus. I felt that I had wasted my time because I had to start all over again.

I was determined to finish my marketing degree in one year. Everyone thought I was crazy and it couldn’t be accomplished. I didn’t see it that way. I began in June 2007. I took ten credits in June and twelve credits in July, a total of twenty-two credits for the summer. Did I mention that I was also working a part-time job during that time? I had a lot of sleepless nights, but it was worth it. While I was working part-time at CompUSA in hardware sales, selling computers, I approached a customer. He had been there for probably fifteen minutes. He had a NASCAR jacket on with the BMW logo all over it. When I asked how I could help him, he told me he was looking for computer memory, known as RAM. I opened the case and took his items to the register.

He was amazed at my customer service, and he told me that he had been there waiting to be helped, but no one approached him. He offered me a job. I wasn’t looking for one, but he gave me his card—he was the general manager for BMW in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I felt flattered that someone would want to hire me to work at BMW. I never looked into it. I continued with my crazy school schedule; I was taking twenty-two to twenty-seven credits. All the classes I could handle, I took. In my last semester, trimester, and bimester, I took seven concentration classes. That was insane. I don’t know how many books I read, projects I did, and sleepless nights I had, but I can tell you I was sleep-deprived and overwhelmed. But I got it done. I finished my bachelor's degree in June 2008, graduating cum laude.

At that time, I married into the military, and we moved from Puerto Rico to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. We lived there for a short time and then moved to Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California. In October 2008, I enrolled in Kaplan University's Master of Science in Management program, with a concentration in change leadership. Little did I know that in November, we would receive orders to move again to Minot, North Dakota.

We had fewer than three weeks to move to our new base. We drove from Lompoc, California, to Minot, North Dakota, a place I’d never dreamed I would live. After being raised in tropical weather from the age of six, this was a change. I was newly married; there were so many changes ahead.

Minot was a small town with no more than fifty thousand people; there were a lot of jobs, mostly retail and oil. The town was sustained by the air force base. I had work experience but not much, and I had my bachelor's degree but no background in marketing. My first job in Minot was at Best Buy, where I worked in computer sales. I enjoyed it, but I couldn’t get used to the small store compared to what I had back home at CompUSA.

I quit and began working as a Caribbean sales coordinator for Sony Puerto Rico. This was a very exciting job; I was traveling two to three times a week around the Caribbean to Aruba, Saint Martin, Saint Thomas, and Saint Croix to meet with clients and new people. It was my dream job. It was also an adjustment period for myself and my career, which I was trying to grow and develop while I supported my husband.

During this time, we moved into an apartment until we could find a house since the military had only given us fourteen days to move. In March 2009, we closed on our very first property with a VA loan. While we searched for our first property, we went to various locations. One property was a few blocks from the river. I remember asking the agent if we had to get flood insurance. The agent told us we didn’t have to worry about that because we were in a five-hundred-year flood plain.

What is a flood plain? According to FEMA,

A flood plain (or floodplain) is a generally flat area of land next to a river or stream. It stretches from the banks of the river to the outer edges of the valley. […] If you are in a flood zone your mortgage company will require you to get flood insurance. What is a flood zone or flood hazard areas? Flood hazard areas are identified on the Flood Insurance Rate Map as a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA). SFHA is defined as the area that will be inundated by the flood event having a 1-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. The 1-percent annual chance flood is also referred to as the base flood or 100-year flood.¹ (To find out more, you can go to www.fema.com.)

Sometimes the FEMA flood map will not show your area. In this case, we didn’t check. If we had, it would have saved us from a man-made flood. I did want to get it, but my husband told me to trust the Realtor.

What is a Realtor?

Not all licensed real estate salespersons (or brokers) are REALTORS®. REALTORS® agree to abide by a code of ethics in their dealings with buyers and sellers. REALTORS® are members of the National Association of REALTORS® and participate in a local Board of REALTORS®. REALTORS® have valuable knowledge and industry training regarding how to negotiate various terms in a purchase and sale agreement in the best interest of the seller client. REALTORS® can also provide sellers with, and help them fill out, a pre-printed purchase and sale agreement form. REALTORS® routinely work with and, upon request, can provide sellers with the names of attorneys, home inspectors, termite companies and persons providing other services relating to real estate transactions. Therefore, when you need help in selling a property, you should always choose a REALTOR® first!- Copyright© 2021 by Georgia Association of REALTORS®, Inc. CB13, Protect Yourself When Buying Real Property, Page 3 of 3, 01/01/21

1. https://www.fema.gov/glossary/flood-zones

When purchasing a property, make sure you ask questions and research. It is very, very important to have the right information because misinformation can end up costing you thousands and thousands of dollars.

Little did I know we would experience the Souris River Flood in 2011.

We had to gut the house and rebuild it, find a contractor, get permits, and come up with the money. Though FEMA gave us some relief money, it wasn’t enough. Two hundred dollars a year could have saved us so many headaches and so much financial stress. The flood wasn’t the agent's fault,