Agent spotlight: Grace Alzate on love, family and being a great agent

Like most companies, we’ve been celebrating our LGBTQ+ colleagues and friends all month long. But that doesn’t stop when Pride Month ends – around here, we’re all about creating a warm, inclusive culture all year round. It’s something our agents and employees really appreciate: knowing they can be themselves at work every day. 

Grace Alzate is one of those agents. When she first got her real estate license, she started looking for a brokerage where she would be accepted for who she is. She found that at Property.ca, and has stuck with the company ever since. After two years in the business, her wife joined too, and now they’re a powerhouse Property.ca team! We talked to Grace about what it’s like working with her spouse, why Property.ca is such a welcoming place for those in the LGBTQ+ community – and the reasons she loves being a REALTOR®. 

What first attracted you to Property.ca?

A friend of mine who is gay had been working there for a while and kept telling me how incredible the company is and how LGBTQ+-friendly it was. As soon as I got my license, he convinced me to join. It was the right choice – as soon as I walked in, I immediately felt at home. It’s a welcoming culture that has attracted a number of LGBTQ+ agents and employees, so there were people I could really relate to, and everyone was just so friendly and accepting. 

My wife and I went on a top producer trip to Costa Rica a few years ago, and I remember looking around at everyone and realizing how many LGBTQ+ couples were on the  trip! There were Alex and Britt, who are married now and both work at head office, plus a few other agents who had brought their partners along on the trip. It’s a really cool company that way. 

What's it like working with your spouse?

There’s this romantic idea that it’s easy. Let me tell you…it’s not. There was a definite adjustment period – Lisa and I have pretty different work styles. I mean, everyone is different at work than they are at home, so it took some time to figure out how to work together. But once we got through the growing pains and found our stride, running a business together was better than we expected. I mean, we still disagree on some things, but generally, we’re on the same page. We balance each other out.

The best part of working as a couple is helping other couples and families – it’s an incredible feeling. It means we can give our clients really great service: they basically get two agents for the price of one. Our clients love it and so do we! 

How did you end up working in real estate?

It’s something I’ve always been interested in. I had my career in marketing, but I got tired of the crazy hours. And I liked the idea of running my own business. So I made the jump into real estate. After a couple of years in the business, my wife saw how well things were going for me, and we figured it was something we could do together. I see a lot of couples in real estate – once you get past figuring out the how, it’s pretty incredible to be able to lean on each other. We’ve got each other’s backs.

What do you love most about being a REALTOR®?

I love running my own business. Switching careers was a life-changing experience – making my own hours and being able to choose the clients I want to work with. And if I want to take off and work in the forest or at the beach for two weeks, I can. 

But even more than that, I love the people – and knowing I’m impacting their lives. There’s one client I’ll remember for the rest of my life. When I first met him, he said he was shopping for a townhouse for his fiancee…but that she wouldn’t be involved. And I thought, I don’t know if I’m going to get along with this guy. I’m that agent that always puts the woman’s name first on everything.

But then I got to know him. Turns out he wasn’t actually being that guy. He was taking care of his mom and his niece who were living in a not-great rental, and he wanted to surprise them – along with his fiancee – with a house they could all live in together. He had a pretty limited budget and a lot of requirements. There had to be a main floor bedroom for his mom, a community she could go to, and grocery stores nearby. Everything was about doing the right thing for his family.

After losing a few properties to higher bidders, we found one that was pretty perfect. But the sellers wouldn’t back down on price, and my client couldn’t go any higher. Then competing offers came in – and ours was the lowest one. 

So I started talking. I talked and talked to the listing agent, tugging at her heart strings, telling her my client’s story, how much the home would mean to his family, how it would change their lives. The story made the difference: the sellers signed the offer, even though it was the lowest bid. 

My client was overwhelmed with happiness. The offer was accepted around midnight, and he hopped in his car right away and drove over to his fiance’s to surprise her! I choked up a little when he called me from her place, she was so thrilled and it was all pretty emotional. That story right there, it’s why I do this. Love, family, helping people. Making a difference.

Speaking of love and family, how are you celebrating Pride this year?

In my younger years, Pride was always a big party, a time to reconnect with friends and to just celebrate being you. We did everything from the marches to the outdoor stages to the late night parties. The running joke between my friends was that we all “called in gay” to work for a week. 

These days, it’s more about my family. My niece came out to us last year, and we’ve been watching as she figures herself out – she’s way smarter with this stuff than I was at her age. I can’t wait to introduce her to her first Pride experience, and help her see how supportive the community is, how we can celebrate and find joy in who we are.