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At 34, Amy Barrett has already proven her entrepreneurial success and accomplished her childhood goal of becoming a real estate agent.
In 2008, she started her first two companies by buying a mobile home park and opening a brokerage firm in Mississippi. The next year she expanded her brokerage to Ocala, where she continued to operate independently, hoping to keep 100% of her commissions.
But when the market was hit by the recession, she started to look to cities that would recover faster. That’s how she landed in Tampa, joining Colliers to tap into the company’s global resources. “Coming from an independent small shop to the third-largest commercial real estate firm in the country…you increase production times 20 because of the resources you have access to,” she says. “When you surround yourself with the best, you become the best.”
Barrett is the 2015 president-elect of Certified Commercial Investment Members’ (CCIM) West Coast District. Only 6% of brokers in the world have a CCIM designation, which Barrett compares to earning a graduate degree through completing education and proving yourself through transactions.
Barrett is still an owner of the mobile home park and the brokerage firm in Mississippi, which does about $6 million a year in volume. “Sometimes when you go through things like that, you think: ‘This is impossible,’” Barrett says. “Being strategic, disciplined and not doubting yourself” are keys to success, she adds.
— Traci Beach
Name: Amy Barrett
Age: 34
City of residence: Clearwater
Twitter handle: @CREBarrett
Employer: Colliers International Tampa Bay
Title: Senior Associate of Commercial Services
Birthplace: Philadelphia, Miss.
Years on the Gulf Coast: Two
Marital status/children: Single/No children
Alma mater: Mississippi State University
Best place to network: CCIM West Coast District Monthly Socials at Grille One-Sixteen in Tampa
Coolest business experience: Owning a Mobile Home Park — I have stories for days.
The most important business lesson I’ve learned: Follow through on what you say you are going to do and always do the right thing
One website that makes your job easier: GoogleEarth
One community group you’re most involved with: CCIM West Coast District. Serving as the 2015 President-Elect.
Favorite off-hours activity: CrossFit
Two people, dead or alive, you’d like to have dinner with: Only two?! I have a minimum of three: Rich Froning, Sara Blakely, and Napoleon Hill
What you would be doing if you could pick another career: Live on a ranch and train horses
Most adventurous thing you’ve ever done: Tough Mudder: 10-12 mile obstacle course designed to test physical strength and mental grit.
What’s at the top of your bucket list: Mission trip
What new skill would you like to learn: Fly an airplane
Who would play you in a movie about your life: Kate Hudson
If I had a magic wand I’d: Provide a new and better life for all the starving, abused, and neglected children in the world.
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