Real Estate Agent Turns Lemons into Lemonade

As the founder of Bailey & Hunter Realty, Michelle Falconer has learned how to roll with the real estate punches. She bought her first house at 19 and her first investment property at 20. “It was an empty shell,” she recalls. Little did she know, that shell of a home would launch her passion for real estate. “Twenty-three years later, I’m still doing it,” she says enthusiastically.

Bailey & Hunter Realty specializes in working with investors to help them find and manage investment properties. “It’s the largest investment you’ll probably personally make,” says the mother of four who resides in Southwest Atlanta. “And no matter if you’re buying a house to live in or [to use] to make a profit on, it’s still an investment, and you need to treat it as such.” Over the years, Falconer has met hardships head on, including the Great Recession. “When the market changed, property management became what everybody needed. There were all of these houses with no owners in them, so we became a hot commodity because we were already in that space. We became the largest minority, female-owned property management firm in the Southeast.” Talk about turning lemons into lemonade.

Why is it important to you to inspire other women entrepreneurs, whether or not they’re going to be in your particular field?
When you’re an entrepreneur, you’re figuring it out as you get to it. So it’s invaluable to learn from other people’s mistakes and to share with them your successes.

What do you hope your kids learn from you as a business owner? I want them to learn that your life is a book, and there are different chapters. You can have long chapters, and you can have short chapters, but you can write whatever you want on your pages and start a new chapter whenever you want.
https://baileyandhunter.com