Caren McCourt: - Midland Texas Realtor

Her Own Boss: Caren McCourt

Listening to Caren McCourt describe the things that she’s good at, you would no longer wonder how she brought McCourt Real Estate Services and McCourt Property Management LLC to life. The American Mensa Ltd. member admits, “It’s easy for me to be with people and work with them.  I also find it easy to figure out mechanical things, spot trends and figure out how to capitalize on them.”.  In some ways, you’d expect her to live a life of a scientist or maybe a lawyer or a doctor.  But this is the real Caren: thinker, problem solver, and a people person.

Caren is a University of Texas Permian Basin graduate with a degree in Psychology.  She was very active in the university where she once served as President of the UTPB Student Senate in 1983.  In the following year she was named Who’s Who Among American College Students.  In 1997, she received her Texas Real Estate License and became a Certified Property Manager from the Institute of Real Estate Management in 2001.  She’s a licensed Texas Real Estate Broker and an accredited Seller Representative.

In April 1990, Caren started her career in Odessa as a Property Supervisor in Benson Investment Inc.  She supervised ten apartment communities and four self-storage properties.  The properties consistently achieved budgeted income and expenses, closing out with minimal delinquency.  On top of this, she was also responsible for hiring, management training, dismissal, risk management and liability prevention, employee safety program, marketing, and employee rewards and recognition.  During her tenure, the number of TWC {Maybe you should spell this out}claims fell dramatically and there were almost no work related injuries.  There was also a reduced number of nuisance and other lawsuits with vigilance, documentation, prevention, and strong management and maintenance training programs.

Owner, McCourt Real Estate Services, Midland Texas

From April 1998-November 2002 Caren also worked as an Assistant Vice President for Sunridge Management Group Inc. where she supervised approximately 6 to 11 properties, depending on the portfolio and needs of the company.  At Sunridge, she was in charge of hiring, firing, and training new employees.  Caren recruited a solid team of professionals to maintain the real estate and increase the value.  The properties sold under her direction achieved and then maintained occupancy from 93% to 98%, while maintaining strong expense control.  They routinely closed out with zero delinquent rent.  If the company had a problem property, it was automatically assigned to her portfolio.  Her creativity just doesn’t stop here.  She also designed the company’s web page, SunridgeManagement.com.

Active community volunteer in Midland, Texas

Aside from her work, she is also an active member of the Texas Association of Realtors, Texas Apartment Association, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, West Texas Flyers, and Experimental Aircraft Association.  She served as President of the Midland Apartment Association in the past and was a Board Member of the Apartment Association of Permian Basin.  She is currently a Board Member of the Midland County Republican Women.

After more than ten years of hardwork, Caren McCourt adds another feather in her already festooned cap: the McCourt Real Estate Services and the McCourt Property Management LLC.  As the owner-broker of her own company, she shares how she helps people.

“We basically help sellers sell and buyers buy.  We also help investors find profitable properties.”  She stresses the importance of having special skills in marketing in this kind of industry.  “Aside from excellent marketing skills, it’s also very important that you have good people skills,” she adds.  For McCourt Property Management, they own and manage single-family homes.  “We offer property management and consulting services in the Midland/Odessa area for owners of multi- and single-family dwellings.  Aside from her business, people also come to her to ask for her thoughtful guidance.

Caren had previous successful experience in many types of properties ranging from multi-family properties which accepted Affordable Housing, Section 8, and HUD, all the way to class “A” properties such as Wildflower, Polo Park, and Windchase Condominiums.  She’s also experienced in managing Self-Storage properties.  It may appear that Caren is a technical person, she has achieved great things from the things she already knows like an excellent real estate portfolio which appreciates value for the long run, while creating cash flow each month.

Caren McCourt, big picture visionary

You might wonder what’s the secret behind Caren’s success.  There’s no secret.  She’s naturally good in thinking, reasoning, and seeing the big picture.  “I can pull different pieces together to create new things or make things that work better.”  Caren is good at recognizing opportunities, making things happen, and bringing out the best in people.  She also loves to learn.  Caren is naturally drawn to learn how to do things, make things work, learn how people think, and what they feel.  She also enjoys drawing diverse groups of people together, forging them into a winning team, and achieving things that people said couldn’t be done.  Caren is the kind of person who really spends time and money in improving her leadership skills.  “Leadership is the key.  To lead good men into battle has always been the position of greatest honor.  Before organized armies, the person who has an excellent leader was the person who kept your family from starving during a cold winter.  When I am operating in a leadership role, people can be helped and lives can be changed for the better.  In the end, the leader is the person who keeps the hope alive.”  Think that’s a lot of work?  Well, if money were no object she would love to travel and help people.  “I want to make a difference for the good.

Every person is unique.

Life was not a joy ride for Caren.  “Difficult family life in my early years made me extraordinarily aware that there are happy and unhappy, good and bad, healthy and unhealthy ways to live.  I always wanted to be a happy, healthy, well-adjusted person.  She also shares some of the major obstacles in her life while growing up in the Air Force and her rude awakening about bigotry.  “When I came to Texas at age thirteen, I saw racism in and out of school and even within older members of the family.”  This became more evident after she started working as a roustabout for a major oil company, being the first woman hired by the company to work in the field.  “The work was not physically challenging since I had been very active in high school athletics so there was no problem there.  But it turned out that there are many forms of bigotry, and as a woman, I was not welcome in the man’s world.  I didn’t understand at the time, and it caused some pain.  But I overcame it and learned from it.  I have now become the person I wanted to grow up to be.  I am pleased with my character, and I am sensitive to the dangers of stereotyping, and to the damage and pain that can be inflicted thoughtlessly.  In a sense all of us are the same in that we all hurt and cry and can feel great joy.  But in another sense, every person is unique and should be approached as such, without perceived filters, biases and limitations standing in the way of human-to-human interaction.”

True servant to others

She also shares that “I’ve attained harmony in life and have good relations with people.”  Despite her many achievements, Caren still aims to make every person or client feel good when they are around her.  “Even long after I’m gone,” she adds.  Caren McCourt is not only her own boss, but also a true servant to other people.