‘Selling Sunset’ is Cute, But For Agent Shanai Ragsdale Real Estate Has a Greater Purpose

She starts her day at 4:30 a.m. “Oh, that’s how you do it,” I said when I met Realtor Shanai Ragsdale for coffee in McKinney last Friday.

When I first met Ragsdale at a MetroTex YPN holiday function, I left feeling a little out of breath thinking about what her schedule must be like as a full-time Realtor, mom of four boys (ages 2 to 20), President of the Women’s Council of Realtors in Collin County, and member of just about every committee and association you can think of.

“Sometimes people say, ‘Hey when you’re not busy,'” she laughed. “Yeah, that’s not a thing.”

“This is the life that I’ve prayed for and that I’ve worked for. It’s a lot, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Shanai Ragsdale

Shanai Ragsdale’s Road to Real Estate

Born in Kansas City, she grew up in Grand Prairie from the age of four with stops in Missouri and Florida along the way, she has called Dallas-Fort Worth home permanently since 2007. Real estate is in her blood. Ragsdale’s mother, Janie Ragsdale, is a long-time Realtor, and owner of her brokerage, Exit J Ragz Realty Elite.

Ragsdale herself has been licensed since 2009, having decided to transition into real estate while she was pregnant with her second child. It ended up not being the right time, and she continued her career in corporate America. She worked as an ad sales executive, then in software sales, and later moved into a position as a Global manager over Asia and Australia for a tech company based out of Finland. There, Ragsdale traveled extensively in Europe, Asia, and Australia. Then the pandemic came, and Asia and Australia were the first to shut down.

When it was time to go back to work a year later, she was pregnant with her youngest child. Meanwhile, Janis had bought an Exit franchise during the pandemic and encouraged her to come on board and make use of that real estate license.

Buying Into The Family Business

Ragsdale doesn’t just work with her mother — her father, Fred Ragsdale is also an agent at the brokerage. He worked for American Airlines for 40 years and got his license after retiring last year. Her sister, who was an onsite sales counselor for many years, also joined the brokerage last year. Her brother works for CBRE in commercial real estate. 

“It’s taken some time to create my own identity outside of my family. Can I stand as my own person in this industry outside of [my mother]?” Ragsdale said. “For a long time I would go to events and people would say, ‘Oh, you’re Janie’s daughter.’ Now people are starting to see her and say, ‘Oh, you’re Shanai’s mom.”

Doubling Down on Advocacy Efforts

Just as she was coming into working real estate full time, Ragsdale threw herself into real estate advocacy organizations like the Women’s Council of Real Estate, MetroTex Association of Realtors, and Collin County Association of Realtors, and all the committees that go along with active membership in those organizations.

“I always joke that the Lord never lets me sit on the sidelines wherever I go,” Ragsdale mused.

With Ragsdale’s tendency to move to the front of the pack, her talents were easily recognized by leadership at the WCR.

Oh, you’re active on social media? We need someone to run our page. Good with event planning? We need that too. “No” doesn’t seem to be in her vocabulary, and the WCR recognized a great leader when they saw one. 

“Joining Women’s Council changed my life. It helped me see myself in a different way, and let me connect with amazing people.”

Shanai Ragsdale

When NAR was founded in 1908, it was all men. The first woman joined in 1910, but the organization remained largely male. The WCR was founded in 1938 as the women’s division of the NAR. Today women make up 66 percent of Realtors across the nation.

Ragsdale says the original purpose of WCR was to advocate for women in an industry that was largely male. It created a network to help grow their business skills, connect with each other, and navigate a space where they weren’t always welcome.

“Now it has evolved into an organization whose goal is to help foster, create, and nurture the future women leaders in the real estate space and that doesn’t matter if it’s title, lenders, of course, Realtors, but we really encourage and connect women leaders in real estate.”

This year’s theme is “Better Together,” and Ragsdale’s goal for the year is fostering better relationships among the local WCR groups (there are five in the area), as well as the local councils like NAHREP (National Association for Hispanic Real Estate Professionals), NAREB (National Council of Real Estate Brokers), VAREP (Veteran’s Association of Real Estate Professionals), Alliance (LGBTQ+ Real Estate), and others. And industry folks should be watching for an upcoming spring “Mad Hatters Tea” in April.

Ragsdale Offers Wisdom For 2024

“We are in what could be perceived as a turbulent time with all of the lawsuits, and what’s going on with NAR. How is that going to change what it means to be an agent? It’s a transformative time,” Ragsale says. “We are still going to need Realtors, and we’re still going to need people to help people navigate buying a home. It’s the most important purchase that most people will ever make. It’s the fastest and best way for most people to generate generational wealth for their families. And so my advice for people is to almost just block out the noise. Whatever is going to happen, the industry is still going to exist.”

“No matter what happens, I fully intend to adapt and survive, and be one of those remaining at the end of the day to service clients and my community.” Ragsdale offered a warning to those who would come into real estate thinking it’s easy money. “It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s worth it.”

‘Selling Sunset’ is cute, but housing security is where it’s at.

Shanai Ragsdale

She shared with me the story of a client who is about to close on her first home. The woman is an immigrant, who started the process unsure if she’d be able to afford to purchase a home and confessed that she never dreamed she’d become a homeowner. Ragsdale told me she’d been so focused on the experience of helping make this woman’s dream of homeownership come to fruition that she’d never even looked at the bottom line of the contract for herself.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m making money,” she said, “but when I got to a place where I was working for something besides the dollars, that’s when I knew, this was for me.”