Tamara Taylor

I pretty much grew up in real estate - I'm born and raised in Germany where my dad was a builder and my mom was a broker. As a kid, I attended open houses and thought I'd never do what my parents did because of the entrepreneurial rollercoaster. I went to college, then law school, graduated and took the bar in Germany. After I got married and immigrated to the U.S. with my oldest daughter Maya, I asked myself what I was going to do with my background in law and operations, and I went into real estate because that's what I knew. But my focus was never on helping people buy and sell - it was always the operational backbone of a brokerage. As I say, I keep my agents out of real estate jail. I started at Keller Williams, then was part of a Next Home franchise, got recruited by Side where I was managing broker and built Oregon and southwest Washington from 15 agents to 130 with almost 15 partner teams. Then I branched out and started my own - Independent Broker Collective. We're small and mighty, building white-label brokerages where the focus is on the agent and they market under their own brands. My main expertise is compliance and making sure agents stay compliant with Oregon Real Estate Agency and Washington DOL. It's sort of like practicing law without a license, which weaves in really well with my background. I'm very hands-on with my agents - they have my cell phone number and can text, call, or email. I do compliance review, transaction work, deal doctoring, and serve as a sounding board and advisory role. Being that backstop and helping agents navigate through challenges is what completely lights me up.