Meet Terry Hendricks | Realtor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Terry Hendricks and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Terry, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
How Do You Think About Risk? Risk is inevitable. We all, sooner or later, take chances.

There’s an old fable that I live by: “Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. Similarly, the gazelle knows it has be on its toes and ready to run, or it will die. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

To that end, success and risk go hand in hand for me.

Growing up in a two-bedroom, one-bath home with as many as 11 people, and no room or bed of my own, I learned early on to always be alert, like a gazelle. I knew if I wanted to change my situation, it was up to me. As my desire for more grew, by 10 years old I decided to take my first risk – selling T-shirts throughout my neighborhood. It was a success in many ways. Sure I made a profit but along with confidence, speaking skills, and self-worth, I learned that progress, like life, requires passion and taking risks.

Those risks helped me develop into a lion.

I say, be a gazelle; be a lion! But to be either you must find the passion that gets you running. So, make the calculations, make the plan, and take the risk. Life speeds by and if you don’t take the chances offered what sort of legacy will you leave?

What role has taking risks played in your life/career?
After my first successful venture at the age of 10, I continued to build my skills and by my early 20s, I bought my first investment property and taught myself about real estate investment. I went on to buy more investment homes and by 22 years old, I had two homes. Then August of 2005 came and I lost both houses to Hurricane Katrina. This was a game-changing moment, but it also came with a valuable lesson:

Risk Mitigation – investments require instilling safeguards to protect them.

My risk mitigation actually took me from good to great. After the devastation of Katrina, many people were pessimistic about investing in New Orleans. Most everyone saw it as a risk. I, however, choose to take a more contrarian perspective.

Utilizing my optimism, my vision, and credit, I did the opposite of everyone else and bought tons of storm-damaged homes. At one point I was plastered on billboards, TV ads, etc., and was one of the biggest real estate investors in my city…and I was only 24 years old!

Taking risks throughout my life has led to adversity but it’s given me a unique mindset I continue to live by:

1. Embrace failure. Fail fast, learn, and move on.
2. Remain confident in investing my money because I have a plan for an ROI.
3. Invest in me. I invest at least 1% of the day on career development via books, courses, networking, and conferences.

What should our readers know about your business?
What you are most proud of or excited about? I’m proud to be living the Dream. Like so many, I came from humble beginnings and traversed several adversities and failures to build an amazing life. I’m proud I stuck things out because those trials helped me become the person that I am today.

My family & friends are my greatest joys and source of pride as they inspire me to continue to be the best person and realtor I can be. Next to my family, my real estate company and the team is makes me proud. Buying/selling a home is a huge life decision and I am grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given and that I now get to guide my clients through such a major life process.

How did you get to where you are today business-wise? Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges?
I learned all I needed to purchase my first home online. After tons of reading and research, I felt prepared to utilize my newfound knowledge and was able to get 100% financing. I even negotiated with the seller to pay my closing costs – this was non-conventional and was something I learned from online from astute, seasoned real estate investors. With the money I got back at closing, I was able to do updates and repairs to the home.

It wasn’t easy. I made many sacrifices and spent years overcoming errors, but without those struggles, I doubt I would be where I am today.

Failing isn’t fun for anyone. But I always had a strong belief in myself and took those challenges as a learning opportunity and kept educating myself. From financing to home design and marketing strategies to community relations, I continue to educate myself on all things real estate so I can be the best vessel for my clients.

What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way?
I’ve learned the old adage is true: “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” I love and enjoy what I do so, yes it feels like work but not a job, and never a chore. I believe that genuine passion serves my clients well as they feel confident and safe with me and my team.

I would say my top career lessons are:
1. Always be hungry and alert for the next opportunity (be the lion; be the gazelle!)
2. There’s great value in being a great negotiator, for yourself and my clients.
3. Harness the art of direct response marketing to generate warm leads.
4. Never disregard the power of public speaking.

What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
I want readers to know my primary driver is not to make money but to help others navigate through the real estate process and to be a true advocate for them. Having gone through a terrible home-buying experience myself, I’m determined to be the best, well-rounded realtor I can be and to provide insightful advice. As someone who knows the value of having your own room, your own safe space, I like to think we make a difference in our clients’ lives.

And for the past 22 years, I have continued to do just that. Through sheer determination, hard work, and compassion, I’ve built a real estate process that is focused on helping others make solid decisions when buying, selling, financing, and negotiating properties, as well as home renovations, design, and staging. We are committed to high standards and continue to raise the bar for ourselves so we can provide our clients with best-in-class, superior service.

Finally, I want readers to know I’m a prime example of self-belief. I never had Plan B and had faith that if I gave life 200%, there was no way I could fail.

So, dream your dream and go for it!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Glorias for the best margaritas in town. The Star for a variety of restaurants from Brunch to Nightlife.
North Park mall for shopping.
Deep Ellum for a multicultural, authentic experience

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
While I consider myself self-made, I owe my mother for teaching me the value of education and hard work. As she always said to me, “You never stop learning.” Because of that, I’ve had a constant quest and thirst to learn all I could. If it wasn’t for that advice, for her, I wouldn’t be the success I am today.

x   

Website: www.TerryHendricks.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terry_hendricks_real_estate/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terry-hendricks-45702113

Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/mrarchitect

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/terrythendricks

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TerryHendricks

Image Credits
https://www.instagram.com/davisphotographytx/