By Lyric Edwards, Special to TSDMemphis.com
Wanted: a hassle-free search for a new place to live. Well, that kind of experience may require Leasing Angels.
Located at 5308 Cottonwood Rd., Leasing Angels is a residential matchmaking real estate agency that works to make it easier for people to find new places – homes or apartments –to stay.
Nannette Bean, the CEO and co-founder, has been in property management for about 13 years. She started Leasing Angels last August and opened on Cottonwood in April.
“The older I got, the more leasing I wanted to do, the more fun I wanted to have and the more I wanted to help people,” said Bean, “opposed to being the person that enforced the black and white.”
Bean’s business-interest roots extend back to Holly Springs High School, where she pursued honors studies with cross-course education in vocational programming. At Holly Springs Vocational School, she earned a degree that included a focus on business management, marketing and marketing management.
However, it wasn’t a straight shot from there. She had a daughter right out of high school and confronted the need “to make something happen.”
“Somebody took a chance on me and straight up asked, ‘Nannette, can you do this (be a property manager)?’”
Bean, then 18, said yes and has been pushing forward ever since. Now she oversees a wide range of contracts that extend the company’s reach for property owners and property managers to out-of-state areas such as Nashville, Chicago, Charlotte and St. Louis.
“Since August, we have about 15 contracts with property management companies here and around Memphis. Also we have two new contracts, one in Indianapolis and one in Birmingham,” Bean said.
At Leasing Angels, all leasing professionals must go through an internal training program and participate in company-sponsored education programs before they can operate any assignments.
“It’s fun working with Nannette — someone who knows how to have fun, understands the needs of people, has the ability to guide and positively lead, actually cares about clients and goes well above and beyond for the team and our clients,” said Shundrika Watkins, a client manager.
Pinpointing why she “absolutely loves” the connection to Leasing Angels, Watkins said, “Working with people from all walks of life and the feeling of being able to help someone find a home brings a sense of joy for me. When I get that client that has only a few days to find a place to move and they feel helpless, Leasing Angels has allowed me to create miracles in the lives of others.”
The Leasing Angels team has many years of experience in the arenas of multi-family housing, single-family homes, commercial real estate management, manufactured homes and real estate sales.
“They have the same passion to help people as I do,” Bean said. “And they understand the industry because they have been property managers.”
And satisfied customers are great marketing tools.
“We put 110 into helping people get relocated,” said Bean. “Once we do that, they will tell 10 more people and those 10 people tell 20 more.
“In the next 5 to 10 years Leasing Angels will be nationwide, and definitely a household name.”
