For many of us, growing up came with exciting twists and turns, looking for what we actually wanted. We wandered, as if blindfolded, looking for our purpose. And sometimes our route took us back to a truth we started with. An exceptional few are lucky to have found their purpose as clearly as rising real estate star, Sarah Thwaites.

“My dad has an entrepreneurial spirit, two MD degrees, an MBA from SMU, a medical education company, and he was a Green Beret for ten years. So, he always instilled work ethic.” Sarah knew what she would do and worked at it. “I was dead set on anesthesiology or radiology. I went to med school training camps. I was super passionate about it.” Until college.

“The cliché that college is not for everyone – I did not believe it until it wasn’t for me.” After transferring schools every semester, she set college aside. Fortunately, she had the support of her parents.  

 

Then young Sarah spent the next several years saying, “yes.”

 

“Any opportunity that came my way, let’s try it. I was living the life.” She helped write a book with a doctor, studied under a motivational speaker who did TED talks, gallivanted throughout Europe, went on a spiritual retreat with the likes of Justin Bieber, and more. She packed a ton of different experiences into her early 20s. 

 

“One of my crazy adventures was with a foundation called Love Your Melon. You buy a hat, and they give one to a child battling cancer. I lived on their tour bus for the whole summer – no bathroom on the bus, for three months, brushed teeth out of a water bottle, dry shampoo. I didn’t know what I was getting into. They called it the ‘Million-Mile Tour,’ and I felt them all, on a bus, with 12 strangers.”

 

Sarah’s group would visit sick kids. They would make the kids’ day the absolute best day possible, sometimes dressing up as superheroes. It was a bunch of college kids doing their own version of Make-a-Wish.

It was sometimes hard, though. “My first hospital visit was the best-worst day of my life. There was this sweet little girl. She had no energy and was down to skin and bones. She was about 3 years old and was on borrowed time. I played with her a bunch that day, and after we left, I was just sobbing.” 

 

Sarah gained purpose about kids and about people. “That’s where I became adamant about believing everyone deserves a special service…to feel loved.” 

 

Several people she admired suggested a career in real estate. She didn’t give it serious consideration until she watched her parents struggle to sell their home. “It made me upset when the agent didn’t do right by them. That made me so angry! I felt like my parents got taken advantage of.” Sarah knew this was the opposite of helping people to feel special and loved.

 

Sarah was compelled to help. “For there being so many REALTORS®, so few of them have that knowledge or care. My parents’ home had been sitting, and there are such easy little things that can be done to get a house sold. It can be as simple as a coat of paint.” They painted the home, relisted at the same price, and got multiple offers in three days. Sarah declared, “It was just the paint! And the first agent should have told you instead of waiting 160 days.”

 

Now Sarah is passionate about helping people through real estate at Synergy Realty. It taps into her truth that runs through all her previous twists and turns – that people deserve to feel special and loved. 

 

Here is one particular victory that shows Sarah’s passion and heart: “I got a phone call one day. A young buyer said, ‘Ma’am, I have one more thing I need to disclose to you. I have a felony on my record.’ And of course, it’s easy to think, ‘Well now I don’t want to help this guy.’ But he was so kind. His felony pretty much took all options off the table. Then he shares that his mom recently passed away and left him with his 11-year-old brother to care for. He goes on to say, ‘I’ve been out of jail for three years. I’ve turned my life around. Now I’m raising my 11-year-old brother, and I need a place for us to live so he doesn’t end up in foster care.’” Sarah felt more compelled than ever. “Now I really got to help this guy. I don’t want his brother to get taken away!”

 

Sarah explains that the young man had $8,000. “We bought him a house. I gave half the commission to his down payment. When we closed, he cried. He told me I was the first person that told him he could accomplish things. Now he could raise his brother safely.” 

That’s the level of service Sarah had looked for. She made that young man and his brother feel special and loved. And that, in a nutshell, is the truth of how Sarah approaches her real estate business and why she is such a rising star.

Three tips from Sarah for other rising stars: