Boutique Real Estate Office Set to Expand with Warren Buffett's Blessings

SAN ANGELO, TX — “Why’d we do it?” Laura Vincent Scott repeated my question about why her 10-year-old successful real estate brokerage would soon join a national brand named Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.

“We wanted more structure and needed to increase our referrals,” Laura said.

Addresses Real Estate becomes Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Addresses, Realtors® Tuesday. The ribbon cutting is at 4:30 p.m.

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Above: Laura Vincent Scott, official photo

Irvine, California-based Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices claims to be a tech-infused real estate franchise. Laura and husband Billy Scott said they were impressed visiting the home office in California and thought Berkshire was the real deal and the Next Big Thing. Billy said he was most impressed with the caliber of the people there. All of them were highly experienced as real estate brokers. “They all seemed to get it, what we’re faced with as brokers,” he said.

What the Scotts did not say is by taking on the Berkshire brand, it sets them up for more rapid expansion. In real estate, the name of the game is referrals and having a large network of other brokers to learn from, network, and help each other.

Both Billy and Laura are steeped in the entrepreneurial spirit inherited from their parents.

Billy’s dad, Bill Scott, was the partner/operator of the four-store Caldwell Music Company based in Abilene for years. He set up the San Angelo store in 1988. In the 2000s, the Scotts sold out to Brook Mays Music Company.

After his father’s sale of the Caldwell stores, Billy was contemplating opening his own music store in San Angelo. Before he got too far acting on that idea, Tarpley Music, a five-location retail music and instrument retailer based in west Texas, offered him a job setting up and managing their new San Angelo store.

“Our family was young, we needed more job security. It was to the point that the Tarpley offer seemed more secure, so I sort of gave up my dream of owning my own business and took their offer,” Billy said.

That decision, Billy said, was something he eventually regretted and vowed to not pass up future opportunities to be his own boss.

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Above: Billy Scott, official photo

A few years later, his wife Laura, who was a successful real estate agent since 2004, was pondering leaving her broker and starting her own real estate brokerage. Laura is the youngest child of Drex and Nancy Vincent. Drex made his fortune as part of the Town & Country Convenience Stores story. Her older brothers, Bryan and Blake Vincent, in the mid-2000s, were making their way as entrepreneurs at Agi-Light, the first incarnation of the highly successful San Angelo LED lighting manufacturing company today known as Principal LED.

Laura also credits her mom, Nancy Vincent, for mentoring her through the start-up. “Mom is and always will be my best mentor,” Laura said. Today, Nancy is an agent at Addresses. She will head the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Addresses Realtors® Luxury Homes Division.

Back in the mid- to late-2000s, the no one was sure about the Town & Country deal and Agi-Light was fledgling. Striking it rich with her own real estate company wasn’t a sure deal.

“I really pushed her to do it,” Billy said, recalling what he called his missed opportunity a couple of years prior when he accepted a salary instead of starting his own business. “Even if you fail, I’ll still be proud of you,” Billy recalled his conversation with Laura.

The Scotts made their move.

Laura had her sights on expanding her business as a boutique real estate brokerage. She went after higher-end homes, concentrated on home décor, pools, and country clubs in the era of popular HGTV TV shows. “The branding, logo, and direction I wanted to go concentrated on the higher end of the market,” Laura said. Today, Laura admits, she goes after all real estate, even commercial. “It all just kind of worked,” she said.

The year Addresses opened, in 2008, the financial crisis hit. “Talk about timing,” Laura said. The couple made it through the tough times, and ironically, Billy’s fulltime job helped keep the family on its feet during the lean years.

They made it, and on the backside of the real estate crash, the general direction has been a thriving market, especially during the 2014-2015 shale oil boom. “If we can make it through 2008-2009 on basically nothing, we can make it through just about anything,” Laura said. Eventually, Billy left Tarpley and joined his wife in business fulltime.

Today, on the eve of the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices deal, Addresses Real Estate has 29 agents and has been the top grossing office for much of the past decade in a very competitive market.

Billy and Laura are young, approaching their 40s, and are raising four children. Laura said her biggest challenge as a mom and a business owner is finding balance. “And I think that’s the biggest challenge our agents have too,” she said. “How do you balance life?”

She said she teaches her agents to “grow intentionally.” “Make time for the rest of your life, business will come,” she said. By stressing a life-work balance, Laura believes she helps her agents avoid burnout.

The Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices deal will bring changes, but the Scotts are excited about the doors it will open.

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices is the fastest-growing real estate brokerage networks with more than 46,000 agents and nearly 1,400 offices added to the brand since its founding in September 2013. The network was recently named “Real Estate Agency Brand of Year” and “Most Trusted Real Estate Brand” in the 2018 Harris Poll EquiTrend Study.

“Laura, Billy and their team are the pride of San Angelo real estate,” said Gino Blefari, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. “We love the energy at their company and the pride they show in their real estate craft. Their expertise, service and passion for community are resoundingly displayed in every transaction this brokerage makes.”

“The brand is fresh and exciting, and its namesake is Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., one of the world’s most trusted and respected corporations,” Laura said. “We are all thrilled to represent the brand in our marketplace.” Addressses Real Estate is online here.