AUTHORITY MAGAZINE - Women Leaders Of Real Estate: Amanda Leigh and Taylor Hahn of House of Rolison On The 5 Things
https://medium.com/authority-magazine/women-leaders-of-real-estate-amanda-leigh-and-taylor-hahn-of-house-of-rolison-on-the-5-things-you-815f5e54cc3f
Always care about the product you’re putting out. People can tell, and if a property has no soul, give it one
Asa part of my series about strong women leaders of the Real Estate industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Amanda Leigh and Taylor Hahn.
Amanda has been building for clients for almost a decade. She is from the east coast, and moved from New York City to LA. Her background is in ground up construction. Taylor has a background in software development and architecture. She’s from Northern California and moved from Berkeley to Los Angeles. They fell in love with preserving and reimagining history in the homes around them and together formed House of Rolison. They both relocated to LA together four years ago.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to the Real Estate industry?
Amanda has been building for clients for almost a decade. Taylor has a background in software development and architecture. We fell in love with preserving and reimagining history in the homes around us and wanted to start our own company to design and build on our own terms in our own way.
Can you share with our readers the most interesting or amusing story that occurred to you in your career so far? Can you share the lesson or take away you took out of that story?
We bought a house in Silver Lake and we punched a hole in a wall and found a hidden bathroom. There were so many personal items both in the walls and still sitting in the rooms of the house we could basically relive her life going through them. We put together a trunk of all her items for the couple who bought the home, so a part of it would live on with the house. We felt the warmth they felt understanding the history of the home, and will always remember that feeling, and how important it made us feel to be able to share that.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We just finished a 1930’ Spanish revival in the Hollywood Hills. 2350 Hollyridge was such a fun design project for us — we were able to bring Wallace neff lighting, revival antiques, and give soul back to the home. It was one of our favorite projects ever. We filled the home with natural materials and we were able to bring the history back into the home through fixtures, textures, and restoration. The son of the original owner came by the home after we were finished and the response was nothing short of heart warming.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
We love to find properties that have been forgotten about. We try to preserve the integrity of what was originally intended based on when the house was built, while contributing to the neighborhood as a whole.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Amanda — my uncle David was a very inspiring person in teaching me what I know about the fundamentals of the building world. He is a developer in Colorado and I always idealized him. Nassar Development is his company, with his wife, my aunt Tracey and my cousin Zach. He gave me a job and I worked on their framing crew in the dead of Winter over the continental divide. It was an invaluable lesson and I’ll be forever grateful for how much I was able to learn from that experience.
Ok. Thank you for all that. Let’s now jump to the main core of our interview. The Real Estate industry, like the Veterinarian, Nursing and Public Relations fields, is a women dominated industry. Yet despite this, less than 20 percent of senior positions in Real Estate companies are held by women. In your opinion or experience, what do you think is the cause of this imbalance?
Construction as a whole is a trade dominated industry. Everything is done by hand. Generally, tradesmen are men. So no secret that women historically would be phased out early on. The misfortune of this is that women appreciate warmth in spaces, design-heavy spaces and are more thoughtful and aware about what surrounds them. We are doing our part to change this.
What 3 things can be done by a)individuals b)companies and/or c) society to support greater gender balance going forward?
Support female trades, don’t call all women in the industry “designers”, and don’t genderize job titles. A project manager can be a woman. A designer can be a man. An electrician can be a woman.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
Men ask all the time “who’s your contractor” and we get great pleasure telling them we are. This shouldn’t come as such a surprise.
Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the Real Estate industry?
I love to see what people come up with in different spaces. We get to do what we love to do every day, which keeps it exciting every day.
Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?
It’s sometimes scary to be a female alone on a job site surrounded by men. We no longer sub out trades. All our guys are with us full time which gives full time jobs to a large group, as well as gives us the security of being comfortable in what would generally be a male dominated workspace.
City regulations are unrealistic at times, and it’s difficult to take an antiquated system and renovate homes based on one code. These systems need more consideration.
Market assurance fluctuates frequently. Holes are valued most frequently based on sqft not condition. There needs to be more in depth analysis on this rather than a Zillow algorithm.
What advice would you give to other leaders to help their team to thrive?
Keep the people who help you succeed close. Treat your teams well, they are invaluable.
Ok, here is the main question of our interview. You are a “Real Estate Insider”. If you had to advise someone about 5 non intuitive things one should know to succeed in the Real Estate industry, what would you say? Can you please give a story or an example for each?
- Always care about the product you’re putting out. People can tell, and if a property has no soul, give it one.
- No one will ever spend more than they do on their home. Make sure you take care of it as if it was your own.
- Always build something as if it was your own. I would never renovate a house I wouldn’t move into myself.
- Don’t overbuild for the neighborhood. No Matter how much you put into a property it may not comp out.
- Always consider the resale value in terms of your design choices, even if it’s a long hold property. At some point someone is going to sell it.
Because of your position, you are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Female empowerment.. freedom to be creative with your thoughts and how you want to inspire creativity in living spaces. Being a couple, as two women in this industry, it’s important to inspire each other and stay grounded in our endeavors. Don’t ever lose sight of what gets you up in the morning, and what you fall asleep smiling about.
How can our readers follow you online?
@houseofrolison
Thank you for your time, and your excellent insights!
About The Interviewer: Jason Hartman is the Founder and CEO of Empowered Investor. Jason has been involved in several thousand real estate transactions and has owned income properties in 11 states and 17 cities. Empowered Investor helps people achieve The American Dream of financial freedom by purchasing income property in prudent markets nationwide. Jason’s Complete Solution for Real Estate Investors™ is a comprehensive system providing real estate investors with education, research, resources and technology to deal with all areas of their income property investment needs. Through Jason’s podcasts, educational events, referrals, mentoring and software to track your investments, investors can easily locate, finance and purchase properties in these exceptional markets with confidence and peace of mind.
Starting with very little, Jason, while still in college at the age of 19, embarked on a career in real estate. While brokering properties for clients, he was investing in his own portfolio along the way. Through creativity, persistence and hard work, he earned a number of prestigious industry awards and became a young multi-millionaire. Jason purchased a California real estate brokerage firm that was later acquired by Coldwell Banker. He combined his dedication and business talents to become a successful entrepreneur, public speaker, author, and media personality. Over the years he developed his Complete Solution for Real Estate Investors™ where his innovative firm educates and assists investors in acquiring prudent investments nationwide for their portfolio. Jason’s sought after educational events, speaking engagements, and his popular “Creating Wealth Podcast” inspire and empower hundreds of thousands of people in 189 countries worldwide.
While running his successful real estate and media businesses, Jason also believes that giving back to the community plays an important role in building strong personal relationships. He established The Jason Hartman Foundation in 2005 to provide financial literacy education to young adults providing the all-important real world skills not taught in school which are the key to the financial stability and success of future generations. We’re in a global monetary crisis caused by decades of misguided policies and the cycle of financial dependence has to be broken, literacy and self-reliance are a good start. Visit JasonHartman.com for free materials and resources.
https://medium.com/authority-magazine/women-leaders-of-real-estate-amanda-leigh-and-taylor-hahn-of-house-of-rolison-on-the-5-things-you-815f5e54cc3f
