Courtney Oldham, Realtor, Long Time Amber Ostrich Friend: An AO Shopper Profile

Here at Amber Ostrich Estate Sales, we have many shoppers who are business owners and come to our estate sales to buy for their businesses.

This shopper profile is part of installation of a blog series about our shoppers who are also business owners.

Realtor Courtney Oldham and I go back a long way. We met years ago before I started as an estate sale company owner, when I was working as a massage therapist. She was a client at the salon. She has followed Amber Ostrich Estate Sales from the very beginning and has always been a loyal fan.

Not only that, Courtney has a connection to my last blog post about Maureen Milligan, who bought the Fred Webster estate sale home. After I posted the last blog post, I chatted with Courtney and she said she actually represented Milligan in the purchase of the home! What a coincidence!

Oldham has a connection to another of our estate sales, she was the listing agent for our estate sale home on Waterline, our estate sale titled, “From the Bradys to the Eighties.” This was the red door home that everyone fell in love with. And the funny thing is, I have a great story to tell about the couple who bought that home. That’s coming in next week’s blog post.

One of the things I’ve noticed since being in the estate sale business is that Realtors are a special breed of people. A good Realtor likes to help other people. That’s what it really takes to make a good real estate agent. And Courtney Oldham has that extra special side to her. Being a Realtor isn’t just about helping someone find a home to buy or listing a house for sale, Oldham said, it’s about helping them transition.

“If you’ve got a servant’s heart, that’s what it takes to make a good Realtor,” she said.

Oldham sticks with her clients through time. One of her favorite client stories is about one client, Claire, who Oldham sold her bachelorette pad and her now-husband’s bacholor pad. Then she helped them buy their first home together. Once they had a child, she helped them sell that home, then buy a bigger home.

“That’s the role I like to play. I’m there to help you throughout your whole life,” Oldham said.

But she’s not just a Realtor. She’s an Amber Ostrich shopper too. Oldham happened to be at the Fred Webster estate sale and knew all about the home when she got the call from Milligan. Her sister was in town and loves birds. She said she knew they had to hit up that sale because of the flora and fauna aspect of the home. So when Milligan called her about the house, she said she knew all about it. Small world, eh?

There were multiple offers on the table, but Oldham knew just how to get Milligan that special edge and she asked her to write a letter to the sellers. She said that writing a letter is just one way to get that extra edge up above the competition in home buying, which is fierce right now in Austin.

“Selling a home is a very emotional experience,” she said. “The seller often wants to know that (the person who buys) they care as equally and deeply as they did (about the home).”

Helping buyers isn’t the only area of expertise Oldham has, she is also an aggressive seller. She says that many Realtors are leaving a lot of money on the table when home selling and right now in Austin, it isn’t uncommon to get much more than the asking price. She also sold Milligan’s former home and they received $20,000 over the asking price. Oldham says that the majority of her recent home sales have all gone over the asking price.

“That’s not an accident.”

Courtney Oldham is a Realtor/Broker for Keller Williams. You can check out her website here at: http://www.kw.com/kw/agent/courtneyoldham