Pleasanton, CA — January 30, 2020 — NextHome is proud to announce our newest addition to the franchise, NextHome Leaders, based in Pikesville, Maryland. The brokerage represents the seventh office location opened in Maryland for the NextHome franchise.
NextHome Leaders is owned by Tabitha Richardson, a Maryland resident for the last 18 years and a real estate professional for almost 15 years.
Located just northwest of the Baltimore City limits, Pikesville is a suburb of Maryland’s largest city.
Tabitha and her tight-knit team of friendly associates are happy to help with all types of commercial and residential real estate needs. They enjoy working with sellers to get their homes sold, first-time home buyers, and investors looking to expand their portfolios. NextHome Leaders serves clients across Maryland and Washington D.C. The brokerage is also in the process of obtaining all the proper licenses to serve Pennsylvania clients.
Tabitha got her start in real estate after a long career in sales and customer service. In the early 2000s, she relocated from New York to the Baltimore area to explore better career opportunities. Shortly after she relocated, Tabitha was fortunate enough to purchase a house as a single mother. Her experience with relocating and buying was so seamless that friends began asking her to give them home-buying advice.
“I realized if I became a licensed Realtor, I could help other people like myself also realize their dreams of homeownership,” Tabitha recalled.
In 2005 she obtained her Maryland real estate license and began working for a small independent brokerage where she remained for the first two years of her career.
After America’s housing bubble burst, the slow housing market made it difficult to remain a full-time Realtor. However, Tabitha never gave up on her real estate career and continued as a part-time associate.
As the market started to show positive signs of recovery and growth, Tabitha returned to a full-time real estate career in 2012 and obtained her Broker’s license. As a newly licensed Broker, she decided to leave the large, nationally franchised firm to start her own brokerage – Premier Homes Realty.
“When I started my company, I never thought about bringing on other agents to join my brokerage,” Tabitha said.
Her ability to foster a culture where agents thrive attracted an avalanche of area talent. Premier Homes Realty eventually had 44 agents working under its banner.
“What I think attracted people was just the culture that we had created,” Tabitha said. “It was a family-oriented company of people who shared their expertise. Many were newer agents who were growing and looking for a place where they could feel connected. That was important to me – to make people feel they were connected to something bigger.”
As agent talent evolved, Tabitha began reassessing her roster and thinking critically about how to reshape Premier Homes Realty to face the challenges of an ever-changing industry.
Although several national brands reached out to her, Tabitha never felt franchising was the right decision for her. That is until she saw an article about NextHome in Realtor Magazine.
Tabitha recognized many of the best practices she already used to build a great workplace culture. After more research, she was also intrigued by NextHome’s fresh approach to real estate and the company’s treatment of franchisees.
“I liked that NextHome still allowed the broker to maintain a level of control over their own office,” Tabitha said. “It really felt like NextHome was there to support me, not the other way around.”
Today, Tabitha leads an office of tight-knit agents who operate more like friends than competitors.
“We have an atmosphere of sharing, caring, and helping and I really admire that about my agents,” Tabitha said. “If someone is going to be out of town and they need help with their clients, another agent will step in – they just want to see each other succeed. We are here to collaborate and grow together.”
That spirit of teamwork and collaboration makes a difference for clients. In addition to providing well-trained agents, NextHome Leaders associates have unparalleled support systems behind them.
“NextHome has equipped us with everything we need to market our client’s property in the best light and make it stand out from the crowd,” Tabitha said. “Our agents also go through a first-class training program, so they are able to handle any situation. In addition, there’s always someone who has that agent’s back; our people are never at a loss for an answer. With the wealth of experience in the entire office, NextHome Leaders clients are not just relying on the expertise of one agent – they have the backing of the whole brokerage.”
When she isn’t helping agents, Tabitha is working on her plans to create a non-profit organization to help with Baltimore’s affordable, sustainable housing problems. The non-profit aims to bring a holistic approach to rebuilding communities in Baltimore’s City’s low-income impoverished areas.
“My goal is to help be a part of the solution to uplift forgotten communities in Baltimore,” Tabitha said.
Tabitha has been married to her sweetheart, Gerald, for five years. She is also the proud mother of three children; Shane (25) who plays professional basketball internationally, Chase (19) a pre-med student at Howard University, and Taylor (18) who recently started her first semester of college.
Please join us in congratulating Tabitha on the opening of NextHome Leaders in Pikesville, Maryland!
Interested in being a part of the NextHome Real Estate Franchise? Contact VP of Sales Charis Moreno at Charis@NextHome.com.
Each office is an independently owned and operated business.