Crye-Leike Realtor Josi Meek uses different words for certain things than her American friends. A native of Wales, she calls potato chips “crisps” and French fries “chips,” for example. Her most unique twist on words, however, is calling a meeting with a client “date night.”
“I met with one couple every Tuesday night to show them two or three houses. It was our date night,” she says, laughing.
“Date night,” then, isn’t a native habit Meek has had a hard time breaking during her 22 years in the U.S., like calling a trash can a “bin”; rather, it’s a cute term she applied to the process of helping her clients find a home.
For Meek, who’s licensed in Tennessee and Georgia, helping clients is at the heart of why she became a Realtor.
“I love working with buyers. They come to you and tell you what they want, and as you help them through the process of finding and then buying a home, you spend a lot of time together and get to know them. You’re there to reassure them when something falls through, and you’re there when they fall in love with a house. It’s fabulous.”
With her beautiful Welsh accent, natural smile and personable, relaxed demeanor, Meek easily becomes friends with many of her clients. Recently, she attended the baby shower of the couple she helped on Tuesday nights. “It was family and me,” she says.
Tuesday nights weren’t just convenient for Meek’s clients; they worked out well for her, too. As a single mother with a lot on her plate, she does most of her real estate work nights and weekends. During the day, she helps to run the family business: Meek’s Antique Auctions. Based in Red Bank, Tenn., the auction house imports and sells French and English antiques. Meek also lives on a 62-acre farm in Dunlap, Tenn., a scenic locale she says reminds her of her childhood home in Bridgend, Wales. Although it’s not a working farm, Meek does grow hay and care for horses on the property. And then there are her two children: Mason, 10, and Madison, 9.
“In essence, I work non-stop,” she says, laughing again. “If I’m not at Crye-Leike, then I’m at the auction house, and if I’m not at the auction house, then I’m on the farm.”
Meek is having a typically busy day. After getting her children to where they needed to go, she was at Crye-Leike in Hixson, Tenn., by 9:30 a.m. Later, she’ll process a shipment of antiques that’s arrived at a dock in Savannah, Ga. Her evening will consist of meetings with real estate clients.
“My parents help a lot,” she says, looking relieved at the thought. “One of the upsides of working for the family business is I can leave if I need to show a house or attend a closing.”
Meek became a Realtor four years ago after purchasing her land and then building a three-story barn and a house on it. She worked with an architect to design the home she wanted and then acted as the contractor to make sure it was built to her specifications. “I picked out every nail,” she says.
The homestead is more than a testament of Meek’s can-do ability to carve a life for herself out of a piece of earth; it’s also evidence of her desire to provide a good home for her children. If helping people is at the heart of her work as a Realtor, then her love for Mason and Madison frames the house she built and is behind each minute she spends laboring in the office, at the family business and on the farm.
Meek has placed reminders of her children everywhere. In her office at Crye-Leike, two large paintings, one by each child, hang on the wall behind her desk. Mason provided a rough representation of a canine to remind his mother of an English Bulldog she once owned, while Madison drew inspiration from their farm for her depiction of a horse. Like the uniqueness of each painting, Mason and Madison have distinct personalities.
“My son plays tennis. He’s my Energizer Bunny from six in the morning until ten at night. I don’t know where he gets the energy,” Meek says. “My daughter likes to sit and write. She’s my straight A brainiac.”
Meek invests all of her spare time in her children. “They’re my enjoyment in life. I wish I had more time to spend with them, but it is what it is.”
While Meek and her children like to hike across their farm, life isn’t all fun and games for Mason and Madison, both of whom help at the auction house. “I’m trying to keep them grounded and am raising them to understand that if you want something, anything is possible if you do the work,” she says.
Meek’s cell phone buzzes, a subtle reminder that her work has no end. There appear to be few limits to her ambitions as well. On top of everything else, she’s considering venturing into commercial real estate. “It interests me,” she says matter-of-factly.
If Meek does add commercial real estate to her already substantial load, she’ll undoubtedly approach it with the same energy she does everything else. She might not know where her son gets his energy, but it’s clear to everyone else, especially her buyers.
“I’ve been on my own for eight years,” she says. “I have a lot to do, but I always get it done.”