Linda Brockat a glance
› Job: Owner of Linda Brock Homes, Realtor for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Realty Center.› Education: University of North Carolina at Wilmington graduate.› Career path: Worked as a Realtor for Century 21 in North Carolina, as a relocation agent for Burlington Industries and as elementary teacher.› Distinction: Top-selling individual real estate agent in Chattanooga for most of the past 20 years. Recently awarded the top President’s Award and Agent of the Year by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in Chattanooga.› Professional designations: Accredited buyer’s representative, certified residential specialist and graduate of the Realtor Institute. Also member of Who’s Who in Luxury Property Marketing.com and LuxuryRealEstateAgents.com.› Personal: Brock, the mother of three grown children, is married to home builder Dexter White.
Linda Brock bought her first house in Wilmington, N.C., when she was still in college at age 19, paying the closing costs on her credit card which she later paid off from her job at the local shopping mall.
More than three decades later, after raising three children, working as a relocation agent in North Carolina and teaching elementary school, Brock is still hard at work in the real estate business. She returned to selling homes in 1996, capitalizing on the personal experience of moving nine times before settling down in Chattanooga.
"I used to say I was a victim of corporate relocation," Brock quipped.
For most of the 21 years she has sold real estate in Chattanooga under the different brands at the Kelly family's Realty Center agency, Brock has been Chattanooga's top selling individual agent.
Brock has single-handedly closed nearly $700 million worth of business, including $54.3 million of home sales last year alone. Her mastery of the high-end market in Chattanooga helped Brock to achieve the highest average sales price of any member of the local Multiple Listing Service over the past two decades.
Brock recently won the Top Agent of the Year and President's Award from the local franchisee for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in Chattanooga.
"She has an immense amount of personal courage," said Ben Kelly, the former president of RealtyCenter who presented Brock the agency's top honor before he turned over the business to his son last month. "I don't have the words to express my gratitude and the high esteem we hold for this lady."
After a career of selling homes as a solo agent backed up by her support office in East Brainerd, Brock is adding a couple of other sales agents to her business for the first time.
Brock recently added her son, Lee, and Kevin Wamack, a former Realtor for ReMax Renaissance Properties, to Linda Brock Homes, as Realtors after working with
Lee Brock previously worked selling medical imaging equipment in California before returning to Chattanooga and working for Brock's husband, home builder Dexter White.
Linda Brock said she worked on several real estate transactions with Wamack "and I had the opportunity to see his really strong business acumen and also his heart and mind for the real estate industry."
Brock concedes she is a micro manager and one who has wanted to handle the sales herself.
"But watching Kevin gave me a level of comfort that someone would be interacting with our clients as respectfully as I had run my business," Brock said. "So forming this team is not about getting bigger, but getting better. We want to raise the bar and giving a greater level of service. I can't think of two people I am more comfortable working with."
Brock isn't planning to build a big team of agents to expand her business.
"We're not trying to get bigger with this team, but to get better and raising the bar to make sure we give even greater professional service," she said.
Brock said her business has continued to grow over her 21-year career, even during the Great Recession when home sales nearly fell in half during the 2009-2010 downturn.
Brock was previously an elementary school teacher where she says she learned to be a good listener and to continue to be a lifetime learner, as much as a teacher.
"I remember in the fourth quarter of 2010 I had to remind myself that the world was in an economic downturn because we continued to do well," Brock said.
She says her approach is simple and reflects what her parents taught her.
"Work hard, treat people the way you want to be treated and do what you say you are going to do," she said. "If there is one thing I would ask for is more time."
Lee, her son, says her mother is a frequent 7-day-a-week worker in real estate. Brock said she began working at age 13 as a key punching for her mother and has maintained her work ethic throughout her life.
Even after selling more houses than any individual agent in Chattanooga over the past two decades, Brock said she continues to look to the future.
"There is an old Cherokee proverb that says, "Don't let a lot of yesterday use up much of today," she said. "It does't matter how many millions or billions of dollars that we've closed, the most important home you are trying to sell or buy is today's client."