Realtor Bri Goodrich says many agents overlook one of the key factors to success in home sales: finding a region with more people than cows.
Born and raised an hour’s drive from Chicago, Goodrich, 27, had been in real estate for one year when she and her husband, Luke, began earnestly planning for the future in 2021. They envisioned themselves building wealth, raising a family and becoming part of a community.
The first step in reaching those goals was moving to a state that didn’t actively try to siphon all the money out of their pockets, Goodrich says.
“Our property taxes were insane. We owned a $300,000 house, and our property taxes were $9,000 a year. Plus, Illinois has a state income tax, and I couldn’t drive to a showing without having to hop on a toll road. We needed to get out.”
Goodrich and her husband also needed to reconnect as spouses, she says. Her first year as a Realtor had been fraught with stress as she endeavored to learn the business during the wildly active COVID-19-spurred market, and the personal cost was high.
“I was burned out, and my marriage had taken a hit,” Goodrich recalls. “So, we began to look for a new home where we could build stability and something that could last forever.”
Goodrich knew leaving her home state would be difficult, she says, but as a former Division 1 volleyball player, she was no stranger to challenges and had heaps of ambition. So, she and her husband looked west to Wyoming.
While the state’s beauty awed them, Goodrich says, she couldn’t see herself selling many homes there due the unfeasible human-to-cattle ratio.
“There are more cows than people in Wyoming, and I can’t sell houses to cows.”
With the western U.S. out of the running, Goodrich and her husband turned southward to Tennessee, where the cost of living is 10% below the national average and well below Chicago’s, they’d learned.
After eliminating Nashville, which Goodrich says is too much like Chicago (it’s “too big, has too many people, and is too expensive,” she clarifies), and Knoxville, which felt like a college town, the couple found their future home when they visited Chattanooga.
“We immediately fell in love with the city,” Goodrich says. She and her husband especially liked Chattanooga’s compact size, abundance of outdoor amenities and welcoming nature.
Plus, there are more people than cows. “I thought that was something I could build on,” she laughs.
However, one year after moving to Chattanooga in July 2021, their vision dissolved into mist when heartbreak struck Goodrich and her husband.
The transition to the Scenic City had gone smoothly, Goodrich says. After she’d beelined for Keller Williams’ downtown firm, the company’s team leader, Hope Brazzell, connected her with Chattanooga Property Shop, a female-owned-and-operated team, and she was up and running.
Fast forward another year, and the Scenic City fledgling and her husband received exciting news, she says: they were pregnant. Upon learning she was going to be a mother, Goodrich began imagining two words paired together in a way that seemed to point forward: “Goodrich Homes.”
“I looked at Luke and said, ‘There’s a lot of value to being on a team, but at the same time, a large percentage of my income is going to the team.’ So, we decided to launch our own venture before the baby came.”
Tragically, Goodrich miscarried nine weeks into her pregnancy. After deciding to strike out on her own on a Monday, Goodrich began to miscarry on the following Friday. The loss was traumatic, she says.
“The last six months of 2022 were very challenging. I was supposed to be launching a new business, but I could barely get out of bed. I was never diagnosed with depression, but I dealt with a lot emotionally and physically.”
As Goodrich drew inward, she realized the miscarriage had altered her perception of the world, she says. She’d always been a “full glass kind of person,” but the loss of her child had partially emptied the glass, and she didn’t know if it was half full or half empty.
To release her grief and enable herself to embrace her vision again, Goodrich leaned into her family and her Christian faith, the latter of which she says assured her that God had a plan for her and Luke, that the plan was good, and that the timing was His.
As the tendrils of vapor into which her dream had dissolved drew back together, Goodrich saw a dormant part of herself reappear like a perennial sprouting out of spring soil: the competitive spirit that had powered her as a collegiate athlete.
Raised by a diehard hoops fan, Goodrich played on her dad’s travel basketball teams as an adolescent. During her freshman year of high school, she feared breaking his heart when she announced she wanted to play volleyball instead, but he smiled and said he was thrilled she’d discovered a passion of her own. He was also proud of her display of independence, she recalls.
Goodrich turned her passion into quality play, and attracted the attention of the University of South Carolina Upstate, where she competed as a Division 1 athlete and majored in psychology. During this time, she perceived a void in the field of sports psychology and decided to make it her life’s pursuit.
As Goodrich neared completion of her master’s degree at Northern Illinois University, she applied to several schools with prestigious doctoral programs in clinical psychology. But she fretted that the odds were against her.
“The average acceptance rate of the schools was 1%, so I started to wonder what I’d do if I didn’t get in,” she remembers.
Her sister-in-law had a thought about that.
“She ran a real estate team where I was living and invited me to join her. I’d just accepted a position managing a gym, and the thought of earning a commission instead of a regular paycheck scared me, but I’ve never shied away from risk, so I accepted.”
Even before Goodrich emerged from her despair, she decided to press forward with her plan to start her own real estate endeavor with her husband, a trained neonatal intensive care unit nurse. She knew the risks involved, but she also had confidence in the toolset she’d developed while working with two teams.
“I’m at my best when I’m speaking with a small group of people or someone one-on-one,” she explains. “I shy away from big groups, and I don’t love cold calling, but I thrive in smaller interactions.”
Goodrich’s background in psychology proves beneficial when she’s working with a client, she says, as it enables her to nurture their trust.
“I want my buyers and sellers to share their fears with me. I want to be their support system when things become overwhelming. I want them to feel safe with me.”
Goodrich launched her business on the outcome of these individual exchanges and built a sphere that seems worthy of a native resident.
“I haven’t lived in Chattanooga for long, so it wasn’t easy, but I’m proud to say 35% of our transactions come from our sphere and repeat leads,” she reports.
Goodrich also claims a love for negotiating, although she says she’s more of a diplomat than a bulldog.
“The competitor in me wants my clients to win, but instead of attacking the other side, the part of me that’s drawn to psychology prefers to shape things in a way that makes it appear to be a win for both sides. I prefer to be more tactical than aggressive – although I can be a bulldog when necessary.”
Goodrich and her husband hit the ground running at the beginning of 2023 and closed over $12.3 million by the end of the year, which exceeded their goal by $1.5 million. (Yes, her goal was $10.8 million in sales, she says, which might seem like an oddly specific number, but she based it on the gross commission income she wanted to earn, which was a rounder number.)
While this level of activity packs her calendar, Goodrich says, the burnout she experienced as a rookie is a mere memory thanks to the efforts of her husband, who tends to her administrative tasks and serves as her transaction coordinator. He’s also become licensed, which frees her to fully focus on becoming the beaming face of Goodrich Homes.
Their mutual efforts do more than push Goodrich closer to her business goals; they also free up more of her time, which has had a healing effect on her marriage, she says.
She and Luke spend these bonus moments engaging in their favorite outdoor activities, which include kayaking on local waters and slinging mud in their Honda Talon side-by-side in Prentice Cooper State Forest.
Their love for their new hometown also inspired them to launch a Podcast titled “It’s Time to Chatt,” during which they chronicle their local adventures, whether it’s exploring Signal Mountain, diving into downtown, or roaming the streets of Red Bank. They’ll celebrate the first anniversary of their humble contribution to the internet in March.
Most importantly, Goodrich muses, are their attempts to cultivate a social life that includes friendships with people who are in a similar station of life. Their involvement in a small group setting at Silverdale Baptist Church has catalyzed promising relationships.
“We’re taking steps to build an uplifting community around us. Finding people who are serious about their careers, and leaning toward starting a family, but aren’t yet racing kids to soccer practice after work, hasn’t been easy, but we’re beginning to make those connections.”
While Goodrich’s optimism hasn’t topped out again, these steps forward are allowing her to see the proverbial glass as being half full instead of half empty. A horrific event tainted her view of the world, and her picture of life is more grounded, she says, but she’s in a better place than she was a year and a half ago.
Goodrich even feels close to being ready to start a family again.
“I want to be a mother, but I also want to stabilize my business first so I can be present for our baby. That feels closer and more attainable than ever,” she says. “I’d be lying if I said I’m not scared, but the doctors said my miscarriage didn’t happen for any reason that should frighten me off from trying again.”
In the meantime, Goodrich has a new set of business goals for 2024 that include a larger and rounder sales number – $15 million. Her glass-half-full outlook says people have recovered from the sticker shock they experienced when interest rates and housing costs skyrocketed in 2023 and are ready to return to the market, so she expects to reach her target by December.
Then, if all goes as planned, Goodrich will consider expanding her team with additional agents, she reports.
Until then, she’ll enjoy the work, the city where she does it, and the people she encounters and befriends along the way, she says.
“I love real estate. I’ve been blessed with the world’s greatest clients and feel lucky to be able to work with people I care about.”