Trish Savage started her real estate career with a bang when she launched a Dunlap RE/MAX franchise in 2005.
Although the housing crash that followed a few years later forced Savage to sell her business, she says her ability to inspire loyalty in clients enabled her to keep her real estate career from fading to a whimper during the infamous downturn.
Savage, 44, credits her success then and now to her father, a Baptist minister, and the work ethic he instilled in her.
“My dad taught me to treat people the way I would want them to treat me, so I try to always do a good job for my clients,” Savage says. “And I’ve had a lot of referrals and repeat customers.”
Savage says enjoyed a rural upbringing in Pikeville, a quaint Bledsoe County town with a population of “about 1,825 of the state’s friendliest people,” the town’s website claims.
She briefly considered a career as a paralegal while working for a judge and an attorney in Bledsoe but says sitting at a desk “all day, every day” would have been a poor fit for her.
Instead, Savage moved to Chattanooga, where she believed she’d find a better fit. She quickly settled on real estate and launched her business at what she says was a lucrative time.
After selling her franchise, Savage parked her business at a succession of brokerages, including Keller Williams, Real Estate Partners and RE/MAX Renaissance.
She left her previous brokerage when she found a kindred soul in Heidi Rau, owner of RE/MAX Ambassadors in Ooltewah. Ambition fueled both women when they started their own real estate ventures and Rau’s drive appealed to Savage.
“I like Heidi’s spunk and vision,” Savage says. “She has a fire in her and I want to be with someone who’s focused on growth.”
Rau compliments Savage’s ability to provide what she calls “an exceptional client experience.”
“Trish has a knack for handling hiccups with grace,” Rau says about her newest agent. “Whether it’s issues with inspections or financing, she knows how to work through them and keep a transaction moving forward.”
Savage is focused on growth as well. For the first time in her 18 years as an agent, she’s assembling a team to tackle the housing market in Tennessee and Georgia.
She already has the name: Trish Savage Homes. Now she needs buyer’s agents, she says.
Her pitch to potential team members includes the possibility of learning to sell new construction. Savage’s husband, Billy Rench, has been building homes in Chattanooga for 35 years and is gearing up to make 2023 one of his most productive to date.
Savage says her husband’s building efforts, combined with an increase in the number of clients who are either wanting to downsize or move into a home with a mother-in-law suite, should keep her and her team busy in the year to come.
“The popularity of the RE/MAX name will also help,” Savage adds. “I’m getting referrals from as far away as California.”
Savage does intend to relax in 2023. At the top of her list for leisure time activities is travel – she identifies the Caribbean as her favorite destination – and spending time with her husband and their three dogs.
She’ll also continue volunteer work she says is deeply personal.
“I cook homemade meals and take them to a community in Grundy County for people who are mentally handicapped. My brother was born severely mentally handicapped, so those people have my heart.”
As a Realtor and the leader of a team, however, Savage she’ll be ever ready to provide the kind of client service and team support that would make her father proud and ensure her continued success.
“I have big dreams,” she smiles, “and the way Chattanooga is growing, the sky is the limit.”