Small Business Today Magazine MAY 2014 CUSTOMIZED REAL STATE SERVICES | Page 8

Connie Rankin
Customized Real Estate Services (CRES)

Determined & Focused – Leading Others on a Path to Success

C

By Barbara R. Davis

onnie
Rankin
has never let
the obstacles in
her life deter her
from anything
she made her
mind up to do.
Her mother had
grown up in a time when women
were encouraged to stay at home
and raise children. As the divorced
mother of four girls, Connie’s mom
knew all too much about hopes dashed
and dreams broken and she wanted her
children to keep their expectations low.
She had a dark view of the possibilities for
women.  Whenever Connie expressed
her lofty visions of what she wanted to do
when she grew up, her protective mother
would always discourage her from what
she perceived as life’s harsh realities. Fortunately, Connie’s warrior spirit led her on a
path to success as an entrepreneur, broker,
and commercial real estate expert by goal
setting, focused learning, determination,
and hard work. In addition, Connie’s life’s
desire is to lead others on a path to success in achieving their own dreams.
The first step on Connie’s path into the
real estate world was somewhat inauspicious. Having taught herself to type the

6 SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE [ MAY 2014 ]

bare minimum of 40 words per minute,
Connie landed a job at PRC Realty Systems with a manager who cherished his
reputation as the grumpiest man in the
company, if not the entire city of Houston.
He later told her that he hired her because
she didn’t break down in tears when he
put her through her paces in the interview
and the last person who had worked for
him had quit because he made her cry all
of the time!

PRC printed the commercial and residential Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
books and gave Connie her first peek into
the real estate world. Through the conversations with the Realtors® coming in to
pick up their MLS books, Connie found out
that the residential Realtors® worked evenings and weekends but the commercial
Realtors® did not.That is when she chose
to focus on commercial real estate partly
because she had a young child and couldn’t
envision working every weekend away
from him. In addition, it may have been just
a little because it was such a male dominated field (and still is to some extent) and
Connie always liked challenges.

During her four years at PRC, Connie
took advantage of their employee back-tocollege program and then on to real estate