Alex Ray has created a niche in the Austin, Texas, real estate market by specializing as an apartment locator in off-campus housing near the University of Texas and apartments located within a short walking distance of a UT bus route. He created a website, utstudent.com, dedicated to serving this segment. Alex is a graduate of UT-Austin (B.S. 2008).

Here is Alex Ray’s True Calling™ Success Story:

I’ve always been interested in business, and even though I majored in Kinesiology at the University of Texas in Austin, I also pursued a business foundations program there that helped me get the background I needed to pursue real estate. I have a lot of passions and interests, including travel, so when I met Nathan Teegarden as part of a career coaching series, he helped me hone my interests. Nathan helped me see that thinking “a mile deep and an inch wide” is what would give me the focus I needed to succeed in my business.

With this attitude, I became a licensed real estate agent in the state of Texas and then followed Nathan’s advice to target a specialty area. In Austin, I had a million different opportunities, but I knew that I needed to focus on one thing. I discovered a void that I could fill by helping people locate apartments and properties along UT shuttle bus routes. UT-Austin has the largest university shuttle system in the nation, serving 7.5 million passengers annually. But I noticed that no one was doing a great job of helping people find properties within walking distance of the shuttle stops. And I realized early on that finding a place to live near a shuttle stop was one of my clients’ top priorities.

I went to work focusing on establishing a business around locating these apartments primarily for UT students and staff. I did a lot of research on the topic and then launched a website that pinpoints the properties and their distances from the bus routes. I mapped out all of the apartments that I could find within a quarter-mile walk from a shuttle stop, and I included that information on my site along with the walking distances to stops. I then approached the local public transport agency, and they partnered with me by linking to my site.

I’m technically an independent contractor, which means that I can work from home and on my own schedule. In this way, I can balance my work with my other passions. I work extra hard and then can take a break to travel, which motivates me. I’m happy to have this type of balance, and I see myself staying in real estate as a career. Eventually I’d like to get into real estate investing as well, but for now, I’m enjoying the work I’m doing to help people in the UT community.

I went all-out to fill this void in the Austin real estate market by taking Nathan’s advice to go “a mile deep and an inch wide.” This is my niche now, and it has been fun finding a way to separate myself from the rest of the real estate crowd.