Inside a Multimillion-Dollar Real Estate HQ Built in 6 Years with Lauren Callaway

[00:00:00] Get out of your own way and just do it. So the thoughts that you allow in your head is exactly what you will do and who you will be.

Host Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Reside Platform podcast. I'm your host today, Suneet Aderal, and today I am joined by someone who perfectly blends creativity, business strategy, and heart. Lauren Callaway is the CEO and founder of pH realty team, pH, design firm, and several other ventures.

Host Well, we're gonna talk about all of it. All based in Texarkana, Texas. In just six years, she's grown from one business to 10, and recently opened up a new multimillion dollar headquarter that brings all her companies under one roof, and we're gonna talk about that too. She's a real estate broker, interior designer, entrepreneur, wife and mom, [00:01:00] and she's built her success by connecting all those pieces into one awesome vision.

Host We're gonna dive into how she built it, what drives her, and how ancillary businesses have become her biggest asset. Let's dive in. Lauren, what's Kraken? How's it going?

Guest I'm good. Thank you for having me on. I'm so honored.

Host before we got started, you were talking about being in your new podcast room.

Guest Yes. So in my new office, we kind of, so we took an old warehouse and remodeled it into our actual, office. So we worked with the, current footprint. Of course we took it down to the studs and, and redid, but we had some of these kind of awkward spaces, so I was like, I think those would make perfect.

Guest Podcast rooms. and with everything, social media, how important it is, reels, videos, all those things, I really wanted to give the agents and designers a space that they could go and just, you know, geek out on all the podcasts and [00:02:00] all of the reels and things like that. So we created these, two different rooms.

Guest This is one of them. This is actually the first time I've personally used this room.

Host That's so cool. That's so cool.

Guest I love them. The agents have loved them. I actually put these walls up with my own two hands.

Host That's awesome. Dude. I want something. I've had podcast rooms and green screen rooms forever, but they never look cool like yours.

Guest Thank you. Well, what's so funny is, these were kind of an afterthought. So these were not originally budgeted in. So when we got to the end, we just did not have the extra funds to really do it super professionally. So I just did some research and I thought, you know what? I can do this myself. and then obviously with my design background, with our staging furniture and everything, we were able to just kind of pull in some things.

Guest Oh. Everything off of Amazon as far as the walls go. And I just got in here one weekend and [00:03:00] put it all up and then decorated it out.

Host Can you send me the link? And for those of you you watching and listening, we'll put the link for the wall pieces in there too. 'cause I need some of that in my life.

Host It looks so good.

Guest Yes, absolutely.

Host So you built this ecosystem of companies, which we kind of talked about, real estate design staging. Yes, all under the pH brand, what do you got and how do they connect and how do they support each other?

Guest So I actually. I was in the design business before I got into real estate.

Guest I've always been in sales and, and I was more in the fashion industry for years. And then I just started doing design for friends who were building, who needed help. And I then turned that into a business and then they started taking me to properties that they were going to buy, and were asking me how I would turn it into their, you know, forever home.

Guest So I thought, why don't I get my [00:04:00] license and I can just find the home, sell them the home, I can list the home, remodel the home before listing, you know, all the things. So that's how that started. once I started my real estate career, I was an independent. Agent with, a different brokerage for several years, and in the state of Texas, you have to have four years under your belt and a ton of hours, before you become a broker.

Guest Okay? So once I was able to do that, I had started my own independent thing and then joined exp and grew a team. And so that's when the real estate side really kind of blew up other than just my own, you know, self and, sales. So. With the design, we obviously get a ton of clients into the real estate world because I've either designed their home and every single time I'm remodeling or designing a home, I always have resell.

Guest And my clients really appreciate that. 'cause even if they're building it or remodeling it as their forever [00:05:00] home, there's a large chance that may not be the case. So they really appreciate the fact that I can come in there and I know the real estate side of it and can design things based off of not what's only gonna work for you, but what's gonna be, you know, for the masses.

Host Yeah. That's awesome.

Guest so, and then I started a property management company. and I also have the investment side where we flip, we host sell, we buy and hold. so really just everything is full circle. I mean, we are. Finding properties for investors, which then obviously we can turn around and manage, with our design services, we can offer all those make readys for our property management, properties.

Guest And so we can send our crew in and get everything make ready for them. They really don't lift a finger. They don't have to do anything themselves. We take care of every single thing from top to bottom.

Host You are real estate ing for real. [00:06:00] Wow. You are doing all the real estate things. I love it.

Guest Yes, so all of our staging too, when we go in and stage a house that's done through our design company and we have an e-commerce site where people can actually go shop all of the furniture that is in our homes. So a potential buyer may walk in and say, I mean, we just wanna buy it as is. And so they just go on that link and buy all the furniture and it can just move right into the house.

Host I love that. That's so neat. That's so cool. So after hearing that a bunch of people are gonna be inspired, I just say, wow, I wanna, I have a team, but I wanna do some other stuff like that. Yeah.

Guest I mean, being able to make renters. Into first time home buyers is a really cool thing.

Guest So I mean, you have an entire database of renters. Most who think they can never buy a home. Well, we can start marketing to them right as they [00:07:00] become tenants. Like, Hey, did you know? You may not be ready now, but we can show you how to get ready and we can turn you into a home buyer. So we have a whole database of people that we can work with on that regard.

Guest So it's, really like all of my agents are amazed at how many really organic leads we get just from all of the other companies.

Host Yeah, of course. I mean, that's what you want, right? Right. I I love how that. How that works. So what advice do you have for someone that wants to do something like that, start building those, uh, supporting businesses?

Guest probably the number one thing is, well, there's two really important things. One being you have to have help. You literally cannot do this all by yourself. I mean, I have a direct hand and a strong hand in all of it, but I have people that are helping me in each, business, running the daily operations, you know, helping with the design because you, you, you cannot do it alone.

Guest So [00:08:00] if you're not a designer, maybe you find a designer who wants to partner up and you know, you guys can create a company together that way. things like that. And then systems. Systems are so important and honestly to this day, I still work on the systems and that's like one of the number one things that I'm obsessed about because when you do have so many, ancillary businesses that play a part with each other, how you, you know, get one business involved with the other business and you teach the agents all the different opportunities they have, it can be confusing.

Guest Totally. So getting systems down is really important and I, we are like just on the cusp of being pretty dang perfect at it. So I'm, wow. I'm very excited about that. Yeah.

Host so what's the system now? Now I'm curious. cause I have five businesses running out of one [00:09:00] platform.

Host I'm curious.

Guest So our CRM, we run our entire CRM for all of our businesses out of follow up boss.

Host Okay, great. And then is it a lot of the same account?

Guest yes, all the same accounts. So I have, and we just have different ponds and we have teams set up in follow-up boss. So my designers are on a team.

Guest My agents are on a team. We have our, acquisition agents who are working in the investment side, are on a team. We have ponds for everything but. We originally did not have everything in the same CRM and it was a nightmare because trying to, the whole purpose is to get business from each business. So when we switched everything over to the same CRM, which we did about a year ago, game changer.

Guest So that was super helpful.

Host That is so smart. Yeah. All and follow boss. I really like that.

Guest Yes. we use, as far as our transaction management, aside from what exp has us [00:10:00] use, we use CSU and we're able to incorporate, task and triggers and forms that would then pop in to say, so if somebody needs staging, then it goes over to the design side and a designer is alerted to them.

Guest So it, it's a whole thing that we've had to set up to where everyone is able to kind of work together.

Host So let's talk about the new multimillion dollar headquarters out there. Yeah. we talked a little bit about the podcast room. It's setting it up, but what was that process like? What's the field walking into that spot now?

Guest I mean, it was amazing. Like I can't even, I still pinch myself that it's like an actual real thing. I mean, the fact that I can even afford to build this is a just still be like it. I never, that's so thought, I never would've thought that I could actually afford now. I mean, I still have to pay for it every single [00:11:00] month.

Guest So, I mean, we've gotta, we've.

Guest Fathom having this is completely amazing to me and I'm, I'm very proud, I'm very proud of my team and everyone involved because they were really behind me in all of it and, and are so excited to be a part of it too. Yeah.

Host Like if you got that warehouse, like what kind of, how many offices are in there like.

Guest So we actually have only six dedicated offices. Now they are large enough to where right now we're not doing this, but they are large enough to where if I need to, one of the things that I did with this office is all of our wall systems or modular. Oh, okay. So I can go in and rearrange and redo, as needed.

Guest Thinking ahead. I also built it to where the front half I can actually put in a second floor. Oh. So I can go up if I need to. so we've got it to where we can [00:12:00] grow, but sort of. I sort of, the design is like, I call it my mullet. It's like a business in the front and party in the back. So this sort of mullet is where we all are sitting in an open space area.

Guest So all of the agents and designers are all working together in an open space. We have really cool murals painted in there. We have cool LightUp signs that are just, it's a real, it's fun and fresh and vibrant in the back and our front's a little bit more. Here's our professional face, like with our, our nice furniture and all the things.

Guest So

Host do you have like a video or a website for the office or pictures or anything?

Guest I have pictures and I'm still waiting. We have a commercial coming, so I'm still waiting on that to come back, but I do already have the photographs and then we're gonna start blasting that out on social. Oh,

Host that's awesome.

Host Okay, so everyone watching if you're excited to see what Lauren's new office looks like. I know I am Then. [00:13:00] Day two. And

Guest it's really it's not just the office. So we have a full warehouse attached to our office that's houses all of our staging. It's where we get all of our shipping and receiving for our design.

Guest And then we also have a separate, it's a detached building, but it's on our property and it's a gym. So have a gym. That's what I was gonna

Host ask. Do you have a gym?

Guest We do have a gym on site. Um, that's great. It's one of my, I know, it's amazing. One of my agents is my trainer, she's my personal trainer. So we sort of built it so I could work out, you know, here, and it's become a thing where all the agents, that work for me are allowed to use the gym.

Guest The designers can use the gym. it's not open to the public. You have to only either. Work with a trainer. Trainer or you can go in there if you are a part of the re

Host company, work with one with with your trainer. Absolutely. Cool. So do a little opportunity there too. I love that. Yeah. so you talked a little bit about csu, [00:14:00] talked a little bit about f Yes.

Host What about some other tools that you guys are using?

Guest reside is, you know, we, we are going into circle and implementing a lot of things in there. What I've really loved about Reside is actually putting all of our, team events in there. For whatever reason, that's been super helpful because then it's, yeah, you know, we've tried different calendar things and what, and, and this one, putting it in there and as an event and it pops on all the calendars.

Guest It's been really helpful. And then we're, we're working on actually setting up our onboarding for our team inside Circle so that we can monitor that a little bit better. So that's gonna be cool. we have so many systems that we use across. all the companies that being able to find the ones that really can work across multiple companies has been really important for us.

Guest So that's why Fab's been [00:15:00] really great. we just also use simple o Google, the whole Google platform that Google forms and, drive and stuff like that

Host with all these businesses and how many kids do you have? I have two.

Guest 15 years old and 11 years old,

Host what helps you stay centered and focused?

Guest so for me, I've had to set boundaries and I actually did this pretty early on in my really real estate career. I don't take calls past a certain time at night.

Guest it's actually on my voicemail. Like if you call me past 6:30 PM I will get back to you on the next business day. Now, my clients know that if I'm in an active transaction with them or a design project or something, something detrimental or whatever has come up, obviously I will take that, but you have to really.

Guest Make sure that you're spending that time with your family. I, I'm married and so I've gotta make sure that my husband's taken [00:16:00] care of and the kids. And so just setting those boundaries has been really important to me. But I also love to work. So like going and doing something on the weekend, like putting a design project together, even though that's work, it doesn't necessarily feel like work to me.

Guest So. I don't necessarily have hobbies because my hobbies are my work.

Host Totally. I hear that a lot.

Guest I mean, but doing things like making sure that I make my workouts and I like to my in the morning. My routine is not to get up and workout right away. I like to get up before anybody else is up and have coffee and I read my Bible, and so that's kind of my morning routine.

Guest Sets the tone, and if I don't have that sort of silence first thing in the morning, then I can be just a little, disheveled.

Host Yeah, same. I need a little [00:17:00] self-reflecting time when everyone's still asleep, but then I work out. so you've got this blend of skills, both as a broker and interior designer, which I think gives you a cool creative lens on real estate.

Host How does that design background influenced the way that you approach real estate business

Guest As far as the luxury realm goes, I mean it was an automatic shoe in for that because, people know that I design well. They know what I can do on the design side, so anytime it's a luxury property, they're getting me in there. 'cause I know. All the stuff, like I know what the finishes are.

Guest I know what type of countertops that is. I know the appliances. I know whether it's a Venetian plaster. I know if we have caststone on the outside, like I know those things. That is another thing that I train my agents on. So we actually have people that will come in and teach them. All the different types of countertops, the finishes that they can come in so that they can start to understand [00:18:00] those things too.

Guest Because it's very valuable when you can go into a home and point something out that, somebody doesn't know. like there's a house that we're about to list that was previously listed by another agent. And when I went over to stage it, I told the owner, I said, you've got all this cast stone on the outside of this house.

Guest I said, people can't afford to put that in at this price point. Today. Like this house was built in 2009 and you could, it was affordable then You can't afford that now. And I said, so we really need to talk about that. And she goes, I didn't even know that that was Caststone. Wow. And I said, well, I mean, it's a valuable asset to be able to get Caststone in your house at this price point.

Guest So we're gonna really, use that as a selling point. So I think that it's, it's helped a lot, but I also can go in, right now I have a listing where, it's, they're selling his mother's home. Well, it's all original, it's dated, but if the bones are great, it's a great, great house. It's just cosmetically super [00:19:00] dated.

Guest So what I can do is I can go in and I can actually virtually renovate. Each room. And what I do is I do a booklet and I do an actual pre quoted, package on this is exactly what it's gonna cost to do these renovations and this is what it will look like. So we, price it accordingly, obviously, to what it is as is.

Guest And they already know upfront what they're gonna spend to get it to way they want it. And so they don't have to do any of the that legwork.

Host Lauren, that's so awesome. Great job. And also like you built everything right there in Texarkana. Is that where you're from?

Guest I'm actually, well, pretty much, I was born in Dallas, moved here when I was two years old. Went to high school here, left when I went to college, said I was never coming back. It's the first thing I did after I went to graduated from college and just never, I mean, I just love to, [00:20:00] I don't know.

Guest I love it here. I love to work here. all my family's here, so it's been good. But

Host all in-laws, everybody, cousins, everybody like you guys, go deep with Texarkana.

Guest Yeah, I mean, we have a small family, but my siblings, for the most part are here. I have, two brothers, a sister and a stepbrother, and all of their husbands and wives, they're all here.

Guest And then I've got a couple of stepbrothers that are not here. But, other than that, yeah.

Host Yeah. So you guys are thick out there. but that's also like unique, right? How do you think like being connected to your hometown has shaped your business and the business culture at pH companies?

Guest it's been huge.

Guest I have a lot of knowledge, you know, about the growth that this town has seen. I mean, I, where the target sits right now used to be a cow pasture and I remember that. When I was a kid, I mean, you know, so one of the relationships that I've garnered is with one of our local hospitals. So anytime they [00:21:00] have, anybody coming in, physician surgeon, C-E-O-C-O, whatever they call me, and I actually take these people around town and give them tours and give them some history, some education on the town.

Guest And then obviously when they come here, we get those. buyers as clients.

Host yeah, you do. Good job on that. Great job on that.

Guest But they come to us because they know I've got information that is helpful to somebody who knows nothing about this area.

Host Love that. Like getting that doctor, getting that local business connections.

Host It's so crucial. what's next for you out there? I know you've been getting into the investments too, right? Like buying more stuff.

Guest Yes. So that's, that's been huge for me. that's been amazing actually, which, it's so weird, especially when you're on the design side and the real estate side, how you don't automatically think of it for yourself when you're in the real estate world.

Guest Totally. So weird. You're like finding it for other people, but you're. Switching it [00:22:00] over to thinking of yourself is not easy. So when I made that switch, it's been amazing. So like I am buying properties and flipping them and buying and holding them at a pretty steady rate. And I mean, my portfolio for my buying hold is just continuing to grow, which again, again is helping my property management company grow.

Guest My goal for 2026, I've said it is I'm, I wanna buy my first multifamily. I'm gonna either buy it or build it. I haven't decided which one yet.

Host But Is all your stuff in Texarkana?

Guest Yes.

Host Wow. Yeah. Shout out to our friend who you've been working with on that. Do you wanna give him a shout out?

Guest Absolutely.

Guest Brandon Brittingham. He has been an amazing mentor and coach to me. He has taught me so much about the investment side. math has always been my worst subject, and it's not something that comes easy to me. So he has, helped me learn it in a way that's [00:23:00] simple. And then, people like Casey Quinn with everybody that's been,

Guest Teaching with Brandon has been a huge help, and I mean, if you're not in the investment side, you should be. I used to think that wholesaling was like icky, but I just realized that the wholesalers that were in the business were icky and the actual process is not. So once I learned that we've been able to help so many people with distressed properties or distressed situations, and they are so thankful.

Guest They've been so thankful.

Host Awesome. Yeah. Shout out to Brandon. Shout out to you for implementing that. I'm not a flipper or a buyer holder. in 2008, I was, and I decided I got some PTSD still Lauren, right? So the only house that I own is this house that I live in. However, I like doing syndications and I like doing them with good people.[00:24:00]

Host Yes, absolutely. Good stuff. Shout out to Brandon, shout out to you. so what's next?

Guest what is next for me, is we're about to have a lending, we're gonna get a lending company in here, so that'll be the next thing that we do. Oh yeah. And then honestly, just keep growing my, investment side, which has been a huge.

Guest Push towards my design business and my property. 'cause my design business runs all the projects. For the investment side, and then we get all the management from the investment side. So it's been, I mean, it's like a no brainer. And then, a lot of the things that we get on the investment side, I would say about a third of them turn into listings.

Guest So, it's a funnel for all of the companies. So I think that's a no-brainer. And it's also a massive, massive tax strategy savings. So, I've learned so much about cost segregation, will not be paying any taxes this year, so that's amazing. [00:25:00] And. I don't plan to pay taxes as long as I can for for many years to come.

Guest 'cause I'm gonna keep doing this, investing stuff and, and costing.

Host That's so awesome. How about what's next for the team?

Guest Next for the team is we have some lofty goals for next year. we've set some transaction, goals that we wanna hit and recruiting on my part. I'm gonna be focusing. I'm gonna be focusing on recruiting.

Guest I'm, I'm one of those that, John Chela probably rolls his eyes whenever I'm, about what I'm gonna say. But I love also my people that are here. I have worked so hard on getting such a great group, and my people that are here are amazing. So I think. My people here can go do the same amount as if I brought 10 more agents in.

Guest So they know that. They know that I believe in them, but they also know that it's a business and that we have to keep, people coming in. So we put a lot of time and [00:26:00] effort into who's here. But we will also be doing some recruiting. So

Host Good. what advice do you have for that agent or team leader or anybody that's listening overall?

Host maybe it's a mom, maybe it's a dad. What advice?

Guest So, the advice that I have, honestly, is to get out of your own way. And just do it. so the thoughts that you allow in your head is exactly what you will do and who you will be. So if you're constantly telling yourself, oh, I don't think I can do that, or I'm not good enough, or, I don't know, that seems too hard, then you're not good enough.

Guest And it's too hard. I mean, you know, so you've gotta tell yourself if you want something. Tell yourself that you can do it and that you're going to do it. Yeah, it's gonna be tough and it's gonna be a crap ton of work, but you can do it. So you just need to get out of your own way and allow it to [00:27:00] happen.

Guest And I had to learn that, it was a slap in my face when I finally like, learned it and I thought, I've been wasting my whole life, like being mediocre, you know? Until I decided that what am I doing? Like I can actually be. Something major great and I can make a huge impact on my community, and the only person standing in my way is me.

Guest So I had to learn to get out of my own way.

Host I love that. That's such good advice for everybody. I hope everyone listening and watching. Think about that because she nailed it. If somebody wants to send you a referral in Texarkana, what's the best way for them to do that or follow you on social?

Guest Follow me on social.

Guest I am, the Lauren under Callaway. It's my, Instagram name, and you'll find me on Facebook as Lauren Callway Francis. Francis is actually my married name, but I'm known as Lauren Callaway. So,

Host Yeah. Alright, so you guys, this was so awesome. Like [00:28:00] very rarely. And you too, Lauren, like you're doing a lot of things right. I'm super excited to see where you go. sounds really cool and I love, you know what, it's like that Texas vibe, you know, you're out there hustling.

Host It's that Texas vibe. It reminds me of one of those TV shows. Yeah. Like, we're doing all those same things.

Guest Yeah, I know. And I'm not stopping anytime soon.

Host I mean, oh no. Why frigging would you? No, I'm not, so That's so cool. I just love like just the multifaceted like real estate angle. Yeah. You ever talk to Reside co-founder Nick McLean about this kind of stuff?

Guest I've never talked to him about anything other than the property management. He's helped me, on that regard. But just listening to him speak, anytime I've ever watched any of his, zooms or anything like he's somebody that I definitely need to have some further conversations with,

Host for sure. He do.

Host He [00:29:00] knows this real estate stuff very, very well.

Guest Two

Host very, very well. All right. So thank you for sharing your story and your perspective. I just love the success, and the purpose that you're doing out there in Texarkana. And being local is just so cool to me, right? everyone watching and listening, if you've enjoyed this episode, which I'm sure you have.

Host Make sure to hit like and subscribe. It really helps us grow and keep bringing you amazing guests. Like Lauren today, don't forget to check out the links in the dis in the description to learn more about Lauren and the pH companies. I'm Sun Aggarwal and thank you for listening to the Reside Platform podcast.

Host See you next time.

Guest Hi guys.