Kay Kim's real estate empire

GWINNETT FOR SALE
Kay Kim's real estate empire was built on a legacy of hard work that began in a different field – and country.
By KARL W. RITZLER
For ajcjobs
Published on: 11/02/07

Her name and face are hard to miss on the billboards along I-85 north.

Kay Kim. Real estate.

LEITA COWART/Special

(ENLARGE)

Kay Kim began studying for a real estate license while she was working as a nurse in Chicago. When she was starting her real estate business in Atlanta, she built its foundation in the Korean community. She now leads a team of real estate agents and assistants from around the world, and she estimates that nonminorities account for most of her team's listings.

She and her team are a presence selling houses in Gwinnett County. Her father knew it was coming.

"Kay, I know you are aggressive. Go overseas," she recalls her father telling her more than 40 years ago. That advice was given to a student ready to continue her education. In Korea, "we always listen to our parents," she said.

But Kim, now 62, didn't leave right away, and she didn't start off in real estate.

After earning a bachelor's degree in nursing at Ewha Womans University, a prestigious college in Seoul, South Korea, Kim married and soon had a baby. She also earned a master's degree in nursing, but she hadn't yet followed her father's advice.

The plan was to come to the United States, earn a doctorate and return to South Korea to teach nursing. Academics was in the family; her father was a psychology professor.

The young family moved to the United States soon after she got her master's degree. Despite language difficulties and cultural differences, she passed her nursing board exams and went to work in a Chicago hospital.

"I wanted to do something dramatic," she said.

After further training, she began working in the hospital's cardiac care unit and eventually became head nurse.

Meanwhile, her husband had opened a garment-manufacturing business. But after three years, the industry had changed, and the business failed. She worked extra shifts at the hospital to meet expenses.

"We lost lots of money," Kim said. "One morning, I was looking out the window. I was working this hard to make more money. I can do something better than this."

A friend who ran a dry cleaning business in Atlanta told Kim that there were opportunities to succeed here.

Kim had begun studying for a real estate license in Chicago — "Two licenses are better than one," she said — and, after moving to Atlanta, she began working part time on weekends as a nurse and during the week in a real estate office.

That was about 24 years ago. "From there on, I never slowed down," she said.

She says she's following the Korean business model: "Work hard, learn a skill, save money and open a new business." And she still follows the work habits she learned as a young person, such as showing up for work early and staying late.

Kim said she works in the office eight to nine hours a day, in addition to weekend work with her listings. She said she'll stick around after hours to help a customer.

"My work ethic is very strong," she said.

She expects the same from her employees. The Kay Kim Team, a diverse group of 12 agents and assistants that was started in 1997, is part of the Re/Max Northeast brokerage.

"Our team is international," Kim said, including people from Korea, Russia, Vietnam and India. Kim's daughter is a team manager.

Selling real estate is "such a wonderful career," Kim said. When she started selling real estate in Atlanta, she made connections through her involvement in Korean associations, her church and her alumnae association.

"At first, I questioned whether American people would give me listings," she said.

But, recalling advice from early real estate training seminars, she told prospective home sellers that she was there to help them — and she was persistent.

Now, her team targets geographic areas, primarily from Norcross through Duluth and Lawrenceville and north toward Dacula and Suwanee.

"We grew up through the Korean community," she said. But now, "non-Koreans are a lot more aware of us." She estimated that a majority of her team's listings come from nonminorities.

While women are well-represented among real estate agents, Kim says she brings the knowledge of what women want in homes.

"I point out the shower and whirlpool tub in the master bath, for example," she said.

She also points out what buyers should — or should not — buy, depending on their situations. "I want their repeat business five years later, when they want to sell," she said.

Before taking prospective buyers to a house, she'll research it thoroughly to point out both its strong points and areas in which it might need work.

As for the recent slowdown in the housing market, "sellers don't want to hear it," she said. "I tell sellers to wait unless they are in a hurry and must sell."

For sellers, she offers tips for making the house ready to show, including "staging" to make it look bigger and more appealing to buyers. That includes de-cluttering the house.

"Once you list with the Kay Kim Team, start packing," she said.

A good agent acts on his or her knowledge of the house and the market, she said. And that takes constant training and studying, whether it's learning how to use the Internet as a marketing tool or finding out what the schools are like in a particular neighborhood.

"Learning is always investing," she said.

That's a lesson she has passed on to her three children. When they were young and she was busy in her careers, she said she told them, "Mom is going to work for you — for your education."

She and her husband, who now owns a liquor store, saved for their children's college tuition, and all three have graduated from college. That's another family value she has passed down.

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