Never say never. Emily Bibby was determined not to go into real estate for her career, but soon followed her family’s footsteps into this popular profession instead.

 

“I’ve been a child of real estate my entire life,” jokes Emily. “My grandma was a broker in the Ft. Worth area and both of my parents are agents in Dallas-Ft. Worth.” Her mother was an agent in the ‘80s and her father started in real estate in the 2000s.

 

“I was the only 6-year-old who knew what a FSBO was,” points out Emily. “I would write down the numbers for my mother and she would call them when we got home.”

 

Her childhood has many memories of real estate, whether going on showings, attending conferences with her mother on the local, state, and national level and even working as a secretary at her grandma’s office while in high school. When people asked her, “Are you going to do what your grandmother and mother do?”, Emily was adamant, “Absolutely not!”

 

“I wanted to get my advertising degree and run off to Manhattan,” explains Emily. Real estate was not in her plans. However, she ended up moving to Dallas working as a buyers agent, contract coordinator and marketing manager on her parents’ team. From there, she grew into her role in real estate, eventually to Houston and working for David Weekley Homes in land acquisition and development.

 

“I saw everything from the very beginning,” she explains. She also learned Houston very quickly, marked down vacant properties, and realized that real estate had much more to offer her than she originally anticipated.

 

“I realized that I liked this industry and that there were so many different facets to it,” she explains. At the time, Emily was also pursuing a relationship with her (now) husband. She explains, “My husband and I chased each other around Texas.” In addition to living in Houston, they have also lived in Dallas, Lubbock, and now Austin.

 

Emily made the move to Dallas to work with PulteGroup, doing market, product & demographic research, determining what homes were selling for, who they were selling to and why. She learned a lot in the process. She comments, “I really enjoy market research. As much as I love real estate sales, research stuff is my jam. I’m all about a spreadsheet and the numbers. Give me an opportunity to visualize some data and you’ve made my day.”

 

Emily also worked as a research analyst for commercial brokerage, JLL, keeping up with the never-ending economic growth of the Austin area. However, she missed the “warm fuzzies” of residential real estate. In November 2017, she partnered with her parents at Keller Williams, and is proud to have them as mentors.

 

In April 2021, Emily came on board Spyglass Realty. She explains, “I’ve known Ryan for years and took an Instagram class from him.” Inspired by meaningful content from his class, they stayed in contact for several years before she joined the brokerage.

 

“The office and culture that he has built here is really great. I love being a part of it, for sure,” she says.

 

In addition to day-to-day real estate sales, Emily also dedicates time as a volunteer leader for her local, state and national REALTOR® associations. She has been on the Austin Young Real Estate Professionals (“AYREP”) board of directors since 2018, including serving as Chair in 2020-2021 and is currently on the Texas and National Associations of REALTORS® Young Professionals Networks committees in 2023.

 

“I have enjoyed getting involved in my industry as much as I have enjoyed making my clients’ real estate dreams come true. It has introduced me to so many great friends & mentors and has helped create an incredible, nation-wide referral network of trusted agents”.

 

When not working, it’s all about Emily and Reid’s two furry friends. They have a 5-year-old Belgian Malinois mix named Cooper who loves Zilker Park & Austin’s many trails just as much as them.

 

They also recently welcomed a stray cat named Jerry into their home, who showed up in their driveway one day. “We decided he belonged to us now. Or, more likely, he decided we belonged to him,” says Emily.  

 

Other pastimes include enjoying the “incredible food scene” in Austin and cheering on Austin FC to victory.

 

We are honored to feature Emily as this month’s Rising Star! We can’t wait to see what trail she blazes next in real estate. With her drive and determination, anything is possible!