First Team's Michelle Harrington on Building a Real Estate Empire from Military Roots
When Michelle Harrington completed her service maintaining C-130 engines in the United States Marine Corps, she knew two things: she had a fierce independent streak, and she wasn’t cut out for bureaucracy. What she didn’t know was that these traits would propel her to build one of Southern California’s most successful real estate enterprises.
“I discovered that I’m a little bit of a rebel, and the military environment isn’t meant for rebels,” Harrington reflects on her transition from military service. This self-awareness led her to seek a career where she could be her own boss with minimal startup capital. Real estate offered that perfect entry point.
The discipline and precision instilled by her military service proved invaluable in her real estate journey. “I just used the same kind of grit and perseverance and discipline that I learned in the Marine Corps in real estate. And it was just like cutting butter,” she says of her early success as an agent.
But Harrington’s ambitions extended beyond individual sales. She found her true passion in the creative aspects of real estate – structuring innovative investment deals and, ultimately, building companies. After initial success as an agent, she ventured into real estate investment, focusing on commercial and apartment buildings. She developed financing solutions for sellers seeking to maintain financial involvement while stepping back from property management.
The path wasn’t without its challenges. The 2008 financial crisis dealt a severe blow to her first company, nearly wiping out everything she had built. Yet true to her Marine Corps training, she persevered. “I just tried to wake up, every day, and say ‘how can I get out of this situation?'” she recalls. By 2010, she had rebuilt from scratch, eventually selling her company to First Team Real Estate, where she now serves as CEO.
Since taking the helm as CEO in October 2023, Harrington has driven First Team’s growth, increasing the company’s volume by approximately 20% – from $5 billion to $6 billion. She approaches her leadership role with characteristic entrepreneurial spirit, seeing an opportunity to strengthen a respected industry institution.
“It’s like somebody handed me keys to a vintage Mercedes Benz and I just needed to restore it back to its former glory,” she says of her mission at First Team. Her leadership philosophy emphasizes strong teams and accountability structures, particularly for new agents entering the industry.
Harrington remains a staunch advocate for real estate’s accessibility. “I think the real estate industry is an amazing way for people with little to no education to get in, work hard, and make a lot of money. There’s not a lot of industries like that where you can just get in with a high school GED and bust your ass and make a lot of money.”
As a former board member of the California Association of Realtors and federal political coordinator for NAR, Harrington has emerged as a leading voice on industry policy, where she says industry organizations need to focus on industry protection as their primary mission. “[These organizations] have a certain limited amount of resources, a limited amount of people, and when you’re using those resources and people to do things that just don’t move the needle for the industry, then you’re distracted,” she says.
“We definitely need organized real estate because of the federal and state governments,” she emphasizes. “I always said for the last 20 years that it’s not going to be tech that disrupts our industry, it’s going to be the government that disrupts our industry.”
Among the critical issues that Harrington highlights is the focus on protecting independent contractor status and key industry programs, as well as a protecting an accessible path to home ownership. “Protecting the mortgage interest deduction [is a priority], so that people can have a good reason to own a home and save money. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA – those organizations help make it easier for homeowners to have guaranteed loans”
Looking ahead in 2025, Harrington’s ambitions remain high. With a strong management team in place and improving market conditions, she aims to add another billion in volume to First Team’s impressive numbers. Given her track record of turning military discipline into real estate success, few would bet against her achieving that goal.
