Krista Seffel

FEATURED AGENT

STORY BY KEVIN GREEN | PHOTOS BY VAST MEDIA

WHEN TIMING IS EVERYTHING

Living a life on the road can be a challenge when you are always on the move. It takes a toll on a person, creating stressors those in stationary office jobs wouldn’t normally experience. That was a challenging reality Krista Seffel, a real estate professional for the BayneBrook Group at Keller Williams Realty Advantage, had to grapple with for 20 years.

Before entering the real estate industry nearly four years ago, Seffel had a career in speech pathology. Although she did have some flexibility because of her four children, her weekly schedule was sporadic and unpredictable. 

Whenever and wherever she was needed, she was there.

“Usually by Friday, I knew what my Monday was going to look like, but sometimes I would wake up Monday and have to add things on,” Seffel said. “So I would either go to Jenks and see a couple of people and then maybe head out to Claremore or Glenpool — it was wherever they needed me. And every procedure took about an hour from beginning to end, so I had to really manage my time because everyone was waiting for me to get out there and do the procedure. I had to be efficiently on top of my time management.” The breaks, unfortunately, were few and far between.

Given the nature of healthcare work, there were no holidays for Seffel. Her job was becoming a seemingly never-ending cycle of driving and time spent in skilled nursing facilities. “I almost felt like I was in a time warp because I was in my car so much,” Seffel said. “Then in the nursing homes, you almost lose sense of time. And like what's going on with TV, I never had time to do anything like that. I was just interacting with the patients and other speech therapists. “I was just gone a lot.”

A TIME FOR CHANGE

Seffel reached a point in her career where people were coming to her for her knowledge and expertise, and though it was nice to have that value attached to her name, she also felt “maxed out." 

She said she believes everything in life happens and presents itself when it is supposed to, and she decided she was ready for a change. It was at that time Seffel reached out to her friend of 20 years, Holly Brumble of the BayneBrook Group, and asked if she would be a good fit in real estate. Brumble immediately seized the opportunity to have someone of Seffel’s caliber join her branch.

“She said, ‘Absolutely. It's totally your personality, and I want you to be part of the team,’” Seffel recalled. Before long, she was taking night classes two days a week after work to prepare for her real estate license exam. Seffel passed the test on Sept. 11, 2019 and officially activated her license in January 2020 as a part-time agent.

THE COVID CONUNDRUM 

However, the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic engulfed the United States just two months into her new career. She was still a speech pathologist at the time, and on top of her catching the illness before much was known about it — forcing her to miss two weeks of work to recover — the program she was working on was shut down for safety precautions. With mask mandates being implemented, putting a camera in someone’s nose to watch them swallow became nonsensical.

That gave Seffel the opportunity to join real estate full-time, and she hasn’t regretted the decision. She and Brumble lived in adjoining neighborhoods, so her training period was never disrupted. Her career segued from speech pathology to real estate without missing a beat, and she is now a member of a bonded, cohesive team that works well together and tackles real estate with “determination, grit and a servant’s heart”, supporting and cheering on each other’s successes along the way.

“I basically quarantined with her, went over to her house all the time and just soaked up all the knowledge that I could,” said Seffel, who also gave credit to Becca O’Dell for her development into a successful real estate agent. “And it was a crazy time in real estate, so it was a fun time to start but also very overwhelming. You just kind of get thrown into it, and I learned so much. She said I packed in like two or three years worth of knowledge in that first year. It was great to have her teach me, and I could ask her any questions that I had all the way through. 

“She and the team at BayneBrook Group were very supportive.

ADJUSTING TO A NEW CAREER

Luckily for Seffel, she developed many of the qualities needed in real estate thanks to her previous career.

One skill she carried over from speech pathology was working in an on-call environment. Her dedication to her work wasn’t lost in the transition, so it is not uncommon to see her drop everything to show a potential client a property at their whim.

“I had already prioritized that and learned how to do that with that previous job,” Seffel said. “Then communication was obviously a big part of my previous job, and managing people's expectations. I worked mostly with senior citizens, so simplifying things and getting to the point and problem solving were also key things in my previous job that have really helped out in real estate.”

The biggest adjustment for Seffel, though, was realizing she was no longer a bonafide expert in her field. A lot of pressure comes with starting from the bottom and building one’s way back up within a new career path, and Seffel certainly felt that in the early stages — especially when called a newbie by her peers.

“Just having to ask other people if I’m doing something right and not knowing everything,” Seffel said. “It’s not like I knew everything in my previous job, but I had become one of the experts in my field. I was like, ‘Can we just fast forward?’ But it goes by so fast. It was a great year, and it was fun learning everything, but I'm the person that just wants to know the answers to everything. I always want to do it right, so it was hard for me to not know, and there's a lot more legal things in real estate. It's just so much more than just showing houses, but I've enjoyed all of it. “It's been really fun to learn all of it and just doing something new and challenging.”

THE WORTH OF IT ALL

Perhaps the best part of Seffel’s career change is her newfound freedom. Travel is still somewhat involved, sure, but it pales in comparison to her previous occupation. Nowadays she is able to set aside time for family and friends, allowing her to be more intentional in her relationships — regardless of whether that entails attending her children’s school and recreational events or enjoying quality time with friends.

For Seffel, that makes being a real estate professional all the more worthwhile.

“That has been an awesome part of real estate because it's really important to be in contact with your center of influence,” Seffel said. “That social part of it is very enjoyable to me, and I love now that I have time if I have a friend or a group of friends that I want to meet for lunch. I never had time to do that before, and now it's crazy to think that that's kind of part of my job to get to do that. “It’s been great.”