Real estate pro puts his expertise on the air.
It wasn’t a grand plan or a career road map that catapulted Jeremy Smith into real estate. Rather, it was a 2012 assignment from a business class at Georgia State University that introduced him to his future as one of the youngest members to hold a lifetime membership in the Million Dollar Club of the industry’s top producers.
“I had always been curious about real estate, so when I had to interview a business owner, I called Atlanta Intown Real Estate and 10 other big companies,” he says. “Intown was the only one that called me back.”
Smith started the meeting with the brokers with basic questions around how real estate agents get paid and licensed, but the conversation quickly branched off into other areas, particularly around the company’s foreclosure inventory, much of which was in Smith’s hometown of Dallas, Georgia.
“It was nearing the end of the recession, and they later called me and asked if I could help with their listings,” he says. “I immediately started working with them, doing everything from making repairs to marketing, and I was soon managing their foreclosure inventory.”
As foreclosures began to fade, Smith left Intown to work as a business assistant to Julian Rather, an Intown colleague who was opening a new venture. “I learned a lot,” he says.
In 2019, the Peachtree Heights resident became Rather’s partner in the office of Engel & Völkers Atlanta that specializes in Buckhead and Midtown high-rise condos. “There’s more to selling a condo than a pretty pool and a nice gym; we do our homework on the homeowners association financials, the reserves, the building’s history and more so you will know everything about it before you move in,” he says.
Last fall, Smith expanded his business onto the airwaves as a monthly host for “The American Dream,” a 30-minute TV show that highlights the metro area’s culture, lifestyle and real estate on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, the Travel Channel and, locally, CW Atlanta. At first, he was skeptical about doing it, but when he learned the other hosts were also real estate agents, he signed on.
“When people hear the name, they think it’s a reality TV show with people yelling and pulling hair; it’s not!” Smith says. “The last episode I did talked about the Buckhead shuttle. Another filmed Atlanta Fashion Week. Then we throw some real estate into it.”
The show has become a marketing tool that showcases Smith’s personality as much as properties. “We filmed a penthouse at the W Atlanta Downtown, and it ended up selling pretty quickly,” he says. “But it’s just as much a unique way of marketing myself.”
The show was recently nominated for a local Emmy for outstanding achievement in a magazine program. And he’s on track to earn the Atlanta Realtors Association’s Phoenix Award, given to agents who have been top producers for 10 years. In 2022, the company’s team tallied more than $36 million in sales.
When he’s not showing and selling properties, Smith gets away from it all at his house on Lake Allatoona with his partner, 11Alive reporter and anchor Cody Alcorn. “I literally sit on the deck and do nothing, absolutely nothing,” he says.
jeremysmith.evatlanta.com
@jeremy.k.smith
