Sherri Pratt and her husband only have one more “baby” living at home. Her name is Tiny, and the Pratts adopted this furry baby when their twin human children went to college and they needed a pet like Tiny to liven up a very quiet house. Now Pratt and her husband have four cats and two collies.
Although, it may seem like Pratt’s full house makes her a prime candidate to be a zookeeper, she is in fact a Realtor with strong ties to the entire pet population of Chattanooga. Pratt, a Chattanooga native and Realtor at Prudential Realty Center on East Brainerd Road, combines her love for real estate with her passion for pets by making a donation to local pet shelters for every house she closes.
Pratt came up with this idea after realizing that volunteering at pet shelters was not a good idea for her because she would get so emotionally attached to the animals that she wanted to take them all home. “I thought, ‘What can I do that will help them, keep me sane, and keep us from having a house full of animals?’ I decided to make donations for every sale I close, usually a $50 donation to the shelter of your choice.” She says if clients do not have a preferred shelter, she likes to send the donation to Wally’s Friends in Red Bank. Wally’s Friends offers low cost spay and neuter, getting to the root of the problem with preventing unwanted animal birth, Pratt says.
“It’s extremely satisfying to write a check and know that I’m helping to care for the homeless critters and/or prevent more from coming into this world,” she says. Pratt’s pet passion runs neck and neck with her passion for selling real estate in her hometown. She says she is proud of our area because she believes she lives in one of the most beautiful parts of the country. Pratt’s hobby of traveling has taken her to many different places, but she reminds her clients that she stays in Chattanooga because of the mountains, lakes and rivers, nice seasons, an abundance of history, new businesses like Amazon and Wacker coming in, and year round entertainment with tourist attractions like Rock City and Ruby Falls.
She says whenever she is working with a client who is new to the area, she always tries to schedule a little tour of the area to acclimate them to the benefits of living here.
Before Pratt started in real estate, she had twins and wanted to be there for them until they got old enough to be on their own. One thing that pushed her forward to start a career in real estate was buying and selling a “by owner” property and having friends and family encourage her. In 1999, she started working at Hale Realty, initially as a way to help pay for her twins’ college. Hale Realty was sold to someone else, and then that company sold out as well. This was when Pratt decided to go with a bigger company that had name recognition.
She switched to Prudential Realty Center in 2007, and says she is very glad to be here. The Realty Center had been in business in the Chattanooga area for a very long time, and Pratt says she liked the products and services they provided which she could use to serve her buyers and sellers in the best possible way. Pratt is a multi-million dollar producer, an affiliate broker, licensed in Tennessee and Georgia, a relocation specialist, has been in the top three running for the Best of the Best award for two years straight, and is working on her GRI designation.
Pratt says being a successful Realtor takes tenacity. She says it is easy to get discouraged with the market like it is, but our area doesn’t have a really bad market and didn’t bottom out like some areas of the country. Pratt makes sure she lets her clients know that she is always available. “I always say I won’t hound you to buy a house, but if you ask me to do something, I’m going to get it done and give it 100 percent to see it through,” Pratt says. “I also follow that golden rule where you treat others like you want to be treated.”
Another nice thing about being a Realtor, Pratt says, is that if someone invites her to travel she can go and still work from almost anywhere with a cell phone and laptop.
“It’s cool to be able to negotiate the terms of a sale no matter if you’re sitting on the beach or waiting at the airport,” she says. Her advice for new Realtors is: “Hang in there.” She says it’s hard to get started in real estate, it’s challenging, it’s expensive and it takes a couple of years to get into the stride of things. “This business is one of the only ones where you are on commission and you pretty much pay for almost everything. A lot of people have a misconception that when we are here we are getting paid by the hour, but it’s not like that at all,” she says. “You provide all this, and at the end, you get paid and recoup what you have spent. A good work ethic, good attitude, and tenacity are key components to beginning a career in real estate,” she says.
Even though Pratt’s initial motivation for working in real estate was sending her children to college, she says she quickly realized how much she liked working with people with their biggest investments, getting to know them, their transition that caused them to be buying or selling and helping them achieve success with moving to the next phase of their lives. “Everyone has a story. I think if you can relate to them and care for them, they see that,” she says. “One of my favorite quotes is: ‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.’”