Inspiring Conversations with Cory Sherman of Homegrown Real Estate

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cory Sherman. 

Hi Cory, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My family was part of the great Nor’Easter migration in the mid to late ’90s. I’ve lived in the Triangle since I was 9 years old. I went to Hunter Elementary, Carnage Middle, and Enloe High School. After high school, I headed up to Appalachian State and ended up with a degree in City Planning. During my team in college, I took a year off to live and work in Alexandria Egypt as an English teacher and in exchange, I received Arabic lessons. That experience sparked a love of travel that continues to this day. The following year I rode a bicycle with 32 other crazy kids from Jacksonville, Florida to San Francisco, CA. It took us 63 days. 16 of those days we stopped in various communities around the country and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity. The goal of the ride was to raise money and awareness for affordable housing. It was with an organization called Bike & Build. That experience taught me the importance of home and got me thinking about our sense of place in the world and how home is so unique to every one of us. It also instilled in me a love of travel by bike which I continued after college. in 2011 I met my cousin in Edinburgh, Scotland and we rode our bikes to Berlin, Germany. Along the way, I met my now-wife at Oktoberfest in Munich. There is a much longer story there that could be an article all on its own 🙂 A year later, I went back to Berlin with 2 friends and we continued our bike journey all the way to Istanbul. I’ve now biked across 2 continents and have my sights on the rest at some point in my life. Maybe not Antarctica. My wife is from Northern CA and our story brought me to the Bay Area where I lived for 5 years and worked as a pedicab driver. I loved giving tours of San Francisco and teaching visitors the history of that great city. Towards the end of my time in San Francisco, I started working in the beer and wine industry which I continued to do when my wife and I moved back to the Triangle in 2016. After a few months searching for jobs in the beer and wine industry, I had 3 people from different parts of my life ask me if I’d ever thought about getting my real estate license. The crazy thing is they all asked me the same question in the same week. I’m a firm believer that if you keeps your eyes and mind open, sometimes the universe will give you signs. I took this is as a sign and started exploring a career in real estate. A few months later I was working full time in my real estate career. Fast forward 4 years and I now run a small real estate team, Homegrown Real Estate, that is consistently ranked as one of the top teams in my office of over 350 agents. 

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Absolutely not. Being a real estate agent and building a business is a lonely path. Since we are 100% commission-based, it is hard to predict what your income will be. When I quit my bartending job in Durham and moved into real estate full time, I would go months without a paycheck. This was right around the time when my daughter was born and my wife was working part-time. Needless to say, the ups and downs of a real estate career can be challenging on the heart and mind. The pandemic hit our industry hard in the beginning because there was so much uncertainty. It ended up accelerating our market into the competitive one we’re in now, and it took my business along with it. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I know that real estate agents do not have a great reputation which is why we strive to break that mold. Homegrown Real Estate’s principles are rooted in authenticity, honesty, education, and trust. We will never try and be someone we aren’t. We won’t ever pretend to have all of the answers, however; we will make every effort to find out. We always put the clients’ wants, needs, and desires first and foremost in everything we do. We believe in service leadership and that if we do the right thing for our clients and their families, they will take care of us and our business will succeed. We are committed to using our knowledge and experience along with the most up-to-date technology to help folks through the real estate process and we are firm believers that success comes through education. We take the time to educate our clients on the decisions they face and think of ourselves as a guide in today’s market. We believe that when you purchase a home you are putting down roots in a community. Homegrown real estate has firm roots in this community and we love where we live and want to share it with as many people as possible. Our mission is to seek first to understand the clients’ motivations so we can use that as our compass. We work with people looking to sell a home, buy a home, or invest in real estate in the Triangle. We have recently partnered with 95.7 That Station as a sponsor and support their mission of Music and Community First. You can expect to see us at many events throughout the Triangle in 2022. 

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Don’t go it alone. Find a mentor. Success leaves clues, you do not have to reinvent the wheel. Find a firm that teaches you how to be a great agent and changes your mindset toward that of a business owner. Once you start thinking of yourself as a business owner, everything changes. 

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.homegrownrealestatenc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coryshermanrealestate/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/homegrownrealestatenc
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJffRc8Tn0P1nnASMJVUy1A