Thirty-One Years in Real Estate, One Unfortunate Last Name, and a Book That Is Almost Finished - Wyatt Poindexter - The Agency Oklahoma

I am also a little nervous. There is something different about seeing your words printed in a book. A blog can be edited. A typo can be corrected. An embarrassing paragraph can quietly disappear from a website before too many people notice.

A book arrives in a box with the confidence of something that plans to outlive you.

There are still a few finishing touches before it is ready for everyone. Apparently, writing the stories is only part of publishing a book. The other part is rereading something you wrote years ago and asking, “Are we absolutely sure we want people to see this?”

What began as a personal project has grown into a collection of stories about real estate, life, faith, mistakes, unexpected successes and the remarkable things people do when a house is involved.

Some stories are funny. Some are exciting. Some are bizarre. A few are scary. Others contain lessons I would have preferred to learn through a less expensive and considerably less stressful method.

And yes, my name is in the title.

We should probably address that first.

The book is called “My Name Is Wyatt Poindexter. Yes. That’s My Real Name.”

I was reluctant to put my name in the title. The publisher loved the idea. Apparently, “Wyatt Poindexter” is memorable.

I appreciate that assessment now. It would have been helpful if someone had explained the long-term marketing potential to me during the first 18 years of my life.

When you grow up with a name like mine, you develop a sense of humor. You also develop the ability to recognize a joke forming on someone’s face before they have said a word.

“People made fun of my name for the first 18 years of my life. Now the publisher thinks it belongs on a book cover. Apparently, I was building a brand before I knew what branding was.” — Wyatt Poindexter

I have had this name my entire life. I am fairly committed to it at this point. Changing it now would involve far too many business cards, websites and explanations.

So I decided to embrace it. If I am going to put years of my life into a book, I might as well put the name I survived childhood with on the front.

There is a certain satisfaction in seeing something that once made you self-conscious become part of a project you are proud of.

Now, before anyone imagines that I have been rehearsing my acceptance speech for literary greatness, I should explain my expectations.

I did not write this book with a grand plan to become a New York Times bestselling author. I understand that the worldwide demand for a book about a Realtor in Oklahoma may be somewhat limited.

There are people writing about space exploration, world history and groundbreaking scientific discoveries. I have written about houses, human behavior and the situations that develop when those two things meet.

I am comfortable with my lane.

“I’m not expecting people to camp outside a bookstore for a book about an Oklahoma Realtor. If there’s a line, I’ll probably assume the coffee shop next door is giving something away.” — Wyatt Poindexter

Of course, I hope people enjoy it. I would love for someone to laugh, recognize a little of their own life or find encouragement in a lesson that took me years to understand.

But I did not begin this project because I thought the world was waiting for my autobiography. I began because there were stories I wanted to save and people I wanted to save them for.

Real estate has been supplying the material for decades.

One of the things I have always loved about this profession is that no two days are ever the same. You can begin a morning with a neatly organized schedule and finish the evening wondering whether you accidentally accepted a role in a television series with no writers, no budget and very questionable supervision.

There are wonderful days when everything comes together. A family finds the right home. A seller finally reaches the finish line. Months of work turn into an opportunity someone has been hoping for.

Then there are days when a seemingly ordinary transaction introduces a situation so unusual that your first thought is, “Nobody is going to believe this.”

Those are often the moments worth writing down.

Over the years, I started collecting the funny, crazy and unexpected stories that came with the job. Some were too entertaining to forget. Others carried a lesson I did not want to lose. A few belonged in both categories.

“I went into real estate to sell houses. I did not realize I was also enrolling in a lifelong study of human behavior.” — Wyatt Poindexter

A home is deeply personal. It holds someone’s routines, memories, investments, relationships and expectations. Add a deadline and a substantial amount of money, and people occasionally reveal personality traits that did not appear during the introductory meeting.

That unpredictability can be exhausting. It can also be fascinating.

After 31 years, I still find myself surprised. I consider that impressive, considering how much material the profession has already provided.

I did not want the book to become a polished collection of success stories in which every decision was brilliant and every challenge ended with me saying something wise while standing in excellent lighting.

That would be a very short book. It would also be difficult for the people who know me best to read with a straight face.

There are successes in these pages, and I am grateful for them. There are also failures, mistakes, disappointments and moments when the lesson became clear only after the opportunity to avoid learning it had passed.

Some experiences taught me how to handle a difficult situation. Others taught me what never to do again. Both deserve a place in the story.

A long career gives you accomplishments to celebrate, but it also gives you perspective. You begin to understand how much you owe to persistence, good people, timely advice and the grace of God.

You remember the times someone helped you when you needed it. You recognize the decisions you would make differently. You learn that laughing at yourself is considerably healthier than insisting you have always known what you were doing.

“If experience is the best teacher, real estate has been charging me tuition for 31 years.” — Wyatt Poindexter

Much of life becomes funny once you have had enough time to recover from it.

Sometimes that takes an afternoon. Sometimes it takes several years and a publisher.

Before there was a conversation about publishing, there were my kids. That is where this project really began.

I wanted Cameron and Katie to have something they could read in the future that would help them remember me—my voice, my sense of humor, the things I believed and the experiences that shaped me.

They know me as Dad. They have also grown up knowing that Dad’s phone has a remarkable ability to ring whenever the family sits down.

But I wanted them to have access to more than the busy version of me. I wanted them to know the stories behind the years of work, the lessons behind the advice and the reasons certain things became important to me.

I wanted to preserve memories that might otherwise disappear into a passing conversation.

There is something meaningful about leaving your children words they can return to. Something they can read at one stage of life and understand differently at another.

Perhaps a story that seems funny now will carry a lesson later. Perhaps a passage about a difficult season will help them when they face one of their own.

Or perhaps they will simply read a story, shake their heads and say, “That sounds exactly like Dad.”

I would be happy with that.

One of the greatest honors of this project is having my wife, Angie, and The Agency’s founder, Mauricio Umansky, contribute to the foreword.

They know me from different perspectives. Having both of their voices help introduce these pages makes the book even more meaningful.

Angie knows the stories behind the stories. She has been there for the victories, the disappointments, the long days and the evenings when “one quick phone call” turned into an entirely unreasonable estimate of time.

She knows what this career has required of our family. She also knows the person who puts the phone down when the work finally stops.

Having her contribute to a book I originally began for our children brings the project full circle. Cameron and Katie will have their mother’s words alongside their father’s stories. Long after a particular transaction has faded from memory, that connection will remain.

“Angie has heard enough of these stories to qualify as my editor, fact-checker and, occasionally, the person who asks whether I should really put that in writing.” — Wyatt Poindexter

I am equally honored that Mauricio took the time to contribute. His entrepreneurial vision helped create the company I am proud to represent. Having him be part of a book about my own experiences in this business is something I do not take lightly.

There is also something wonderfully humbling about asking the founder of a global real estate brand to write a foreword for a book that includes several decades of me learning things the hard way.

Between Angie and Mauricio, readers will hear from someone who understands building a real estate company and someone who understands living with a Realtor.

I will let you decide which assignment requires more patience.

As I continued writing, it became clear that real estate alone could not tell the whole story.

My faith is part of how I understand my life. It influences how I approach challenges, how I think about success and how I try to treat people. Leaving it out would have left something essential missing.

My friend Eliud Villarreal helped me recognize that I wanted to give that part of my story more attention.

After reading his book, “Called to the Fast Lane,” I went back to my own manuscript and spent more time writing about my faith and God’s perfect timing.

His book made me pause. I had written about the experiences, the people and the lessons, but I wanted to be more honest about the faith that helped carry me through them.

It is easy to tell a story about something that worked out. It takes more reflection to acknowledge how uncertain you felt while you were living it, how much you prayed and how little control you actually had.

Looking back, I can see moments when I wanted something to happen sooner, when I questioned a disappointment or when I could not understand why a door had closed.

I still do not understand every turn my life has taken. But I am grateful that God’s timing has not always followed my schedule.

Real estate has trained me to pay close attention to deadlines. Faith continues to teach me that I cannot put every part of life on one.

“Some of the things I prayed would happen never did. Others arrived much later than I wanted. Looking back, I’m thankful God saw more than I could.” — Wyatt Poindexter

That is something I want Cameron and Katie to understand when they read this book. Their dad worked hard, made mistakes, worried too much at times and certainly did not have everything figured out.

Through it all, I needed God. I still do.

I want them to know that faith has been part of the uncertain days, the disappointments and the quiet decisions to keep going. It has helped me find gratitude even when circumstances did not turn out as I hoped.

Eliud, thank you for sharing your story. It encouraged me to return to mine with more honesty, more gratitude and a deeper appreciation for the timing I could not always understand.

I hope you will look up Eliud Villarreal’s “Called to the Fast Lane” on Amazon. His book meant a great deal to me, and I am grateful for the way it encouraged me to revisit these pages.

Those reflections belong beside the funny stories because that is how life has unfolded for me: laughter, pressure, gratitude, uncertainty and faith, often arriving within the same week.

Possibly the same closing.

Many of the pieces began as blogs on my website. Over the years, I wrote about experiences, observations and lessons while they were still fresh. Those posts became a record of what I was thinking and learning at different points in my life.

Much of this book grew from that collection.

There is no strict chronological order. The stories and reflections move from one experience to another, much like a conversation.

You may encounter a funny real estate story followed by something more personal. A lesson about business may lead into a reflection on faith. A serious passage may be followed by a reminder that people remain capable of doing astonishingly strange things.

“I considered putting everything in perfect order, but that would have given readers a misleading impression of my life.” — Wyatt Poindexter

The variety feels appropriate. Life has rarely presented its lessons to me in clearly labeled chapters.

I hope readers enjoy being able to open the book, find a story and spend a few minutes with it. Some pieces may make them laugh. Others may feel familiar. A few may offer something useful at the right time.

For fellow Realtors, I suspect there will be moments of recognition.

For everyone else, there may be a new appreciation for why their agent occasionally needs a minute before answering the question, “How was your day?”

Today, I am looking forward to a delivery.

After years of writing, collecting memories and wondering whether I would ever finish this project, the first copy should finally be here. There will still be details to review before the expected release in the next few months, but holding it will make the whole thing feel real.

I suspect I will immediately find a sentence I would rewrite. I may discover a detail I wish I had added. There is a reasonable chance I will stare at my name on the cover and hear several childhood classmates laughing somewhere in the distance.

But I hope I also take a moment to appreciate what it represents.

Today, I serve as Managing Partner and Owner of The Agency Oklahoma City & Tulsa. Over 31 years in real estate, I have sold more than $1 billion in property and helped clients through more than 1,000 home sales.

I am proud of those milestones and deeply grateful for the people who made them possible. Each number represents someone who trusted me, someone who worked alongside me and an experience that taught me something.

At The Agency, I have the privilege of working with professionals who care about their clients and support one another. The relationships, collaboration and opportunities that come with this business continue to give me reasons to be excited about the work.

They also continue to provide stories.

This book is my attempt to save some of them—the humor, the faith, the failures, the successes and the unexpected moments that have made this life my own.

I know a book about an Oklahoma Realtor will not be for everyone. That is all right. I did not need an enormous audience to have a meaningful reason to write it.

I had my children. I had stories worth remembering. And I had lessons I hoped might help someone else.

If readers find something entertaining or encouraging in these pages, I will be grateful. If Angie smiles when she reads a familiar memory, that will mean something. If Cameron and Katie hear my voice in this book years from now—and understand a little more about the faith that sustained me—it will have accomplished what I first hoped it would.

And if someone buys it because they think “Wyatt Poindexter” is a funny name, that is fine, too.

After all these years, it might as well help sell a book.

Wyatt Poindexter is a premier luxury real estate agent in Oklahoma specializing in high-end homes, gated communities, lakefront properties, and estate homes across Oklahoma City, Edmond, Arcadia, and all surrounding areas.

Wyatt Poindexter - Oklahoma Luxury Real Estate - The Agency - 405-417-5466 - [email protected] - www.OKLuxuryHomes.com