Tara Hampton

I attribute my success to how far I've come in this industry. I've been offered a regional position twice, which is above what I'm doing now, though I had to turn it down because I still had children at home and that position requires a lot of travel. My last kid just left 2 years ago for college. I've lived out of state for months at a time, even a year in Georgia, working on property takeovers - going in, rehabbing properties, getting things done with the city. What I'm most proud of is being able to go into a property takeover situation where there's roach infestation or mold and being able to tell residents 'you're absolutely right, let's get you out of here, I'm sorry you were treated this way, let's make it better, let's make it right.' I go above and beyond. I have a resident here with breast cancer right now, and my mother passed away from breast cancer, so I will literally go to her door to get her rent, offer to run to Walmart for her, and my leasing agent walks her dog. She's told me if she passes away, will I please take her dog, and I promised I would. These residents are my family during the day - I'm here 10 hours a day, and this is my home.

The best advice I ever received was from a therapist when I was young. She told me that at the beginning of your life, you either become your environment or create your own environment - those are the only two choices you have. I was like, you are absolutely right. I grew up in a very violent household with a lot of trauma, and I had two things I knew at a very young age: I was going to be able to create my own environment, or become my environment. I focused on school because education was my way out of that environment and the place I was growing up and living in. There was no other way for me to do it. That advice shaped everything - it's why I believe so strongly that education is so important. The more you learn about people, things, just anything, that is how you will succeed.

Be prepared. Have thick skin, you know what I mean? Lots and lots of patience. You don't go far in this career by not learning. The more you learn, the more that you take in, treat everybody that walks in the door - don't look at them like a money sign. People get money for leases, but don't look at them like 'this is $150 for me.' Look at it like you are going to be their home space, their safe place for them to come to, to talk to about their home. Make them feel comfortable, and when you go and show them their home, make it your home - whatever you would want in your home, give it to them. Having very thick skin in this industry will take you a very, very long way. Listen to advice. Listen to your property managers, listen to your assistants, listen to people that have been in your shoes, because we all started out in that position. Take all the knowledge that you can. If you get to a point where you're complacent at a property and you want to venture out, go find another property and another management company, and just keep going. The more you learn, the more education that you get in that position. You just have to have patience - I mean, really, patience is probably your key word. This is a great field to be in because someone's always going to need a place to live. You can make up to $150,000, $170,000 a year as a regional. The more that you learn, the faster you advance. The more progress is seen in you, the quicker you can go up. You just gotta have a lot of patience and thick skin.

Education is very important to me. Learning - even when I hire my employees here, I want to make sure that everybody knows everybody's job. I want to make sure my leasing agent, my assistant, all of them can handle my load of work, and vice versa. If my leasing agent's gone, I need to be able to be in her shoes. I do that with my maintenance staff too - I want everybody to be certified in HVAC and pool. I want everyone to be a team. I learned at a very young age how to look out for myself and put myself first, because nobody else was going to. Education was my way out of my environment. I love reading, I love learning, I still do it. I read the most outrageous books - I even read a book about penguins a couple months ago because I want to learn. When I take my grandkids to the zoo and we go by the penguin exhibit, I'll know all this stuff and they'll think I'm the smartest grandma on the planet. I feel like the more you learn about people, things, just anything, that is how you will succeed.