When someone first moves to a new country, the change in lifestyle is often overwhelming. Aside from the immigration itself, there are multitudes of new processes to go through and adaptations to be made. From paperwork and regulations to adjusting to unfamiliar social behaviours, the list goes on and on. Then add to this the stress of finding the right place to live in an area you don't know anything about...it's enough to make even the strongest of people feel like they're drowning in stress. What those in this situation need the most is simply some guidance. Someone who knows what needs to be done, how it should be done, and who is willing to take the time to walk them through it. Unfortunately, people like this aren't always easy to find.
Michelle Vega is one person who has realized this need, and has decided to do something about it. As a young Realtor, she's taken the initiative to put herself in front of people who often get overlooked during one of the biggest decisions of their lives: choosing a home. Although some people see real estate as just a transaction, or helping one person sell a product to another, the best real estate agents understand that it is so much more. Michelle knows that when someone is requesting services from a Realtor, they are considering a change in one of the largest parts of their life. They may be trading one a house for another, but, really, they're leaving one home to make a new one. This is especially true of people who are going through the immigration process. When someone moves their life to a new country, they also enter a market they don't understand, with rules they've never learned. Because of this, they often need extra guidance and a lot more help through the home-buying process. This in itself can cause some Realtors to avoid that market, as they don't see the extra time and effort to be worthwhile for them.
Michelle Vega herself experienced some of this during her own search for her first house. As a young woman looking into beginning her real estate journey, she had difficulty convincing a Realtor to work with her. At one point, after finding the home she was interested in buying, she called the listing agent to ask for some direction as to her next steps. The agent asked if she had a preapproval from a bank. When Michelle answered that she didn't, the Realtor said, "Find one," and hung up. Michelle remembers being confused, as she thought she had been calling someone who could guide her through her first time stepping into the housing market. Instead, she had been cast aside because she didn't know what to do. Wasn't it a Realtor's job to help people buy houses? This experience highlighted to Michelle that there were plenty of other people just like her that needed help and probably weren't getting it.
A few years later, when she started her real estate career, she vowed to be the person that could help those who needed it the most. She directed her focus toward first time home buyers, young couples just starting out, and especially to those who were going through the immigration process. Rather than looking at how she could benefit financially from the real estate market, she did her best to make a difference in the lives of her clients. Those who needed the most help, naturally needed her to put in more time and effort, and she was more than happy to oblige. She found great satisfaction in being the one who could alleviate some of that burden newcomers felt when trying to understand their new way of life.
This outlook brought Michelle Vega immediate success. Clients found her diligence and care to be extraordinary, and she quickly climbed to the top of her real estate firm. She then began to build a team of Realtors who shared her vision of making a difference. In 2020, the year that Michelle started her team, they sold 230 houses, more than 300 in 2021, and they show no sign of slowing down.
But, to Michelle, the real measure of her success isn't in the amount of money she makes or transactions she's closed, it's in the number of families she's helped. 90% of her clients are first time home buyers and those going through the immigration process. Does she have to work a little harder and a little longer to make it all come together? Absolutely. And that's just fine with her.
"My goal is to help more immigrant families, and any family for that matter, that wants to know how to get in the door but needs the proper guidance to do so. To give people a chance when other realtors tell them no."
