Award-Winning radio personality, Egypt Sherrod, on finding her true passion in Real Estate and her HGTV show ‘Flipping Virgins’
After gaining success as an award-winning radio personality, Egypt Sherrod found her true passion in real estate. She’s created her own company, Egypt Sherrod Real Estate Group and is currently the host of HGTV's "Flipping Virgins."
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After gaining success as an award-winning radio personality, Egypt Sherrod found her true passion in real estate. She’s created her own company, Egypt Sherrod Real Estate Group and is currently the host of HGTV’s “Flipping Virgins.” During an interview with theGrio, Sherrod opens up about her transition from radio to real estate and why it was important for her to start her own business.
“I was in radio for my goodness, I retired in almost my 19th year in radio.“I started when I was a teenager…actually I started when i was 5 . That’s my story and I’m sticking to it,” Sherrod jokes.
“It was great…rewarding. I think it prepared me for the next phase in my career but it wasn’t all that I felt I had to offer to the world. What I mean by that is, the dream of working in radio wasn’t my dream; It was what I started doing when I was in college. It paid me, it was great, it was fun, and everybody thought it was the dream job.”
“So, I did what many people do, you just continue the road and every time you get promoted or offered a new gig you just keep going, but it doesn’t mean that should define you. And I was longing for something that I felt was a little more substantial, that would allow me to have a plan B, because if you ever stood in the unemployment line, you’ll know it’s good to have a plan B. For me it was real estate, I always had my foot in real estate while I was in radio as well. Worked in Tandem, worked the job while I built my plan.
And now we get to see her expertise on HGTV’s “Flipping Virgin.”
“Flipping Virgin’s is a show where I take first time investors– people who wanna flip houses– take them for the first time by the hand, walk them through the emotional roller coaster because it’s a high stakes game,” says Sherrod.
“It’s not easy, it’s not for everybody,” she adds. “I always say, ‘flippen aint easy’ because you have to understand the formula to how we choose houses to flip; you have to make sure you built your dream team before you even start. Those are the people thats gonna work on the house and make sure you stay on track and in budget.”
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“And everybody’s watching tv and they’re seeing all these flip shows that show you these huge profits, but they never show you the ugly side of it. So, I thought Flipping Virgins, a show that teaches first time investors all of those steps and shows them how you can lose your shirt as well was healthy and its a lot of fun to watch. It’s really funny to watch. My Flipping Virgins, they try to steal the show, they do every time.
As black women continue to lead the way in entrepreneurship, Sherrod touched on why it was important for her to start her own estate group.
“I started the Egypt Sherrod Real Estate group… actually I got licensed in real estate first to take the middleman out of my transactions,” she explains. “I would see that these realtors were walking away with huge commissions off of homes I either brought or sold and I said well wouldn’t it make sense, and wouldn’t it be more profitable for me to get my license and then represent myself on both ends.”
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“So, I did that first and then as I grew to love real estate, and help others, it made sense to start my own business as well, my own flagship. And you’re right, African-American women are leading the pact as far as owning their own businesses right now.”
“You know women as a whole , we kinda got it going on, says Sherrod. “I have a daughter, I have a six-year-old and a stepdaughter, who is going to be 17 soon and I want them to see that the sky really is NOT the limit. We always hear that and there’s this glass ceiling above us that tells us how far we can go, these defined roles that we have in society based upon either our gender or our ethnicity and to me,I don’t see the limit. It’s as high and as far as I wanna go and I want my girls to see mommy doing that , so that they grow up feeling that.”
“Just like the little kids that saw Barack Obama as President, to them they will never grow up thinking that they can’t be one because the very first president that they saw was an African-American man. So, I want my daughters to see a woman running things but at the same time having home-life balance and being there and present for them.”
Catch Egypt Sherrod teaching first times investors the rules to flipping houses every Monday, 9 p.m. ET/PT on HGTV.
Watch more highlights from the interview below.
Egypt Sherrod on the importance of balancing family and a career:
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Egypt Sherrod ‘s advice to those who want to change careers:
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