It’s been a meteoric rise for Sam Powell, who’s reached a celebrity level status as a residential real estate agent in Chicagoland, and she’s making headlines again with the news that she’s moving from Dream Town Realty, where she’s spent the last decade, to eXp Realty.
The ever-busy Powell said in an email response to questions that she began the transition to eXp at the beginning of April and is immersing herself in the technology, tools and resources the brokerage has to offer. “It’s my fifth formal move, so I’ve got some of this down to a science,” she wrote. “But after a decade of being at one company, it’s a bit of a learning curve, and there are always challenges to overcome.”
Reassessing during the lockdown
The decision didn’t come easy for Powell to make the move, but after a year of stay-at-home orders, she began to reassess her career to see what the industry had to offer. eXp’s virtual company concept attracted the tech-savvy Powell, who went paperless in 2006 and has been an early adopter of new technology throughout her career.
Powell had long been intrigued by eXp after meeting company CEO Glenn Sanford and eXp top producer Patrick Lynch at an event six years ago, she explained. “I was intrigued at that time with what he was up to, and his vision for his company, but it just was not the right time for me,” she tells Chicago Agent magazine. “I was loving every moment and every experience at Dream Town and was super busy in my volunteerism at the Chicago Association of Realtors and the National Women’s Council of Realtors … so the thought of moving my team at that time just was not in the cards.”
Dream Town days
Dream Town Realty was the fourth company Powell has worked for in the industry. She launched her career at Prudential in 2002, moved to Baird & Warner the following year and then to Keller Williams in 2006. Five years later she headed to Dream Town where she would spend the next decade. She said it felt like home from the beginning.
“The owner, Yuval Degani, is truly an amazing visionary. The community, family and culture that he has co-created with his brokers is second to none in my experience,” she said.
Her tenure at Dream Town enabled Powell to help launch the first LGTBQ+ division in the nation, she said, along with a number of in-person and online classes for new and experienced agents. “He and his management team and marketing team are truly impressive — if i could bring them all with me, I so would,” she said.
New horizons at eXp
Like with eXp, it was Dream Town’s tech capabilities that initially attracted Powell to the brokerage, along with the firm’s social media and marketing presence, she explained. “They were setting the bar high a decade ago, when I moved my license there.”
Powell’s business partner and buyers agent, and her wife, Jen Thompson, who is a licensed agent, are following Powell to eXp.
Powell also noted the robust LGBTQ+ culture at eXp as a motivating factor for the move. She emphasized the importance of reassessing your career from time to time to “reflect on where you came from, your accomplishments along the way, and where you’d like to see yourself in the future.”
“Research other companies from time to time to ensure you are in alignment with the right one for you and only you and your goals,” she said.
“The concept truly is one eXp where we are all a family together, and rather than doing things separate and then coming together, we come together as a unit always,” she said. “I don’t want to be the smartest person in the room, and I don’t want to be the only person like myself in the room. I want all of us in the rooms, every room, together, sharing and creating a safe space for our company culture and our human culture.”