Real Estate and Bourbon: Heather Shimala's Approach to Client Relationships

Written by:

Steve Marcinuk

Date:

02 Jun 2025

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What began as a personal hobby has evolved into a powerful business strategy that sets Shimala apart in a crowded market. “We’ve built our business around the community we created, oddly enough, through bourbon,” explains Heather Shimala, founder of Reserve 76 Realty in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“I always joke with my clients, buyers and sellers alike, ‘I feel like we’re breaking up at the closing table because I don’t get to see you anymore,'” says Shimala. This sentiment captures the essence of Shimala’s distinctive approach to real estate, one that extends far beyond transactions to create lasting relationships with clients.

From Corporate Career to Real Estate Entrepreneur

Shimala’s journey into real estate wasn’t a straight path. She started in 2009, “the best time to start in real estate,” she jokes, referring to the aftermath of the 2007-2008 housing crash. Before that, she had built a successful corporate career as a national sales professional, even speaking about HIPAA compliance.

Despite challenging market conditions, Shimala persevered, though she briefly returned to corporate life when her former employer made an enticing offer. By 2016, she had hired her first coach and committed to real estate full-time, leaving her corporate position just months later.

After gaining experience with major brokerages including Keller Williams and Compass, Shimala founded Reserve 76 Realty in August 2023. The decision came after a revealing insight: “My clients always thought I owned Compass. They’d see a news article or a Compass office sign and say, ‘Oh, you have an office here.’ It dawned on me, they think that’s me.”

This realization prompted Shimala to survey her clients about potentially launching her own brand. “Everyone unanimously said, ‘No, absolutely not. That’s exciting news,'” she recalls. With this encouragement, Reserve 76 Realty was born.

The Bourbon Community: Building Relationships Beyond Transactions

What truly sets Shimala’s approach apart is how she’s leveraged her passion for bourbon into a business advantage. What started as a hobby has become a powerful tool for maintaining client relationships long after closing day.

“It’s been a way to get to know more people and get to know people better, and then it’s just snowballed,” she explains. The bourbon community she’s built serves multiple purposes: it keeps past clients engaged, transforms clients into friends, and creates opportunities for new connections.

This unique approach has opened unexpected doors. “We’ve had restaurants that want to do things with us, and we have distilleries that we’ve done collaborations with,” Shimala says. Her team recently returned from Kentucky, where they completed a barrel pick selecting an entire barrel of bourbon that will be co-branded and used for gifts, charity, and group purchases.

The bourbon connection has also led to specialized real estate opportunities. “It’s gotten me into opportunities. We now work a lot with family law attorneys as a receiver,” Shimala explains, referring to court appointments to represent families or entities that can’t agree on property matters. “We do a lot of probate because of it as well.”

The Side Partnership: Authentic Collaboration

Reserve 76 Realty operates under the Side brokerage platform, a partnership Shimala speaks about enthusiastically. “The beauty of Side is they want us to be successful. They want our brand to be successful. They don’t need to have their name on every sign,” she explains.

What distinguishes Side, according to Shimala, is the authentic culture of collaboration. “Everybody talks about culture, and in my opinion, culture is an overused word in companies. Culture is important if it’s authentic, but if it’s not authentic, it’s just a word.”

She contrasts her experience at Side with previous brokerages: “At other places, I heard ‘collaborate without ego,’ and that was the furthest thing from the truth.” At Side, she can reach out to partner agents for resources and typically receives multiple responses within an hour.

This collaborative environment extends even to agents working in the same zip codes. “We get together for lunch and coffee and brainstorm and are truly helping each other,” Shimala says. “I feel like that has to be the way of the future in this business.”

Market Success: Outperforming Through Relationships

While many agents struggled in 2023, Shimala had her best year ever. Her secret? “I didn’t listen. I just worked. I just served my clients,” she says. “My clients move because they have a need.”

Rather than relying on paid leads or click advertising, Shimala has built a sustainable business model: “97% of my business comes from my sphere or referrals. The other 3% is from open houses.”

This relationship-focused approach has positioned her team well for the future. “We’re literally the sandwich generation in real estate,” she notes. “I’ve got clients my age whose parents are needing to sell their home or have passed away. Then I’m also now helping their children.”

In the Dallas-Fort Worth market, Shimala specializes in properties ranging from $750,000 to $1.5 million. Her listings are selling in an average of 13 days, significantly outperforming the market average of 66 days, and typically closing at 2% above list price, with some going as high as 8% over asking.

The Technology Edge and Pricing Honesty

Technology plays a crucial role in Shimala’s success. “Every listing appointment I go on, I tell them, ‘Listen, the very first showing takes place online. If we don’t sparkle online, they’re not even going to schedule a showing,'” she explains.

Her team employs comprehensive digital marketing strategies, including professional photography, Matterport 3D tours, and floor plans to ensure properties make a strong first impression in the digital space where most buyers begin their search.

Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of Shimala’s approach is her pricing philosophy. “I show my clients the data and then let them decide where they want to list. If they want a number that is higher than I feel the market will warrant, I won’t take the listing,” she states firmly.

This commitment to honest pricing has made her the “second agent” for many listings, coming in after another agent failed to sell an overpriced property. “I kind of joke with them, ‘Listen, my job is not to put a pretty sign in your yard. My job is to get the house sold,'” she says.

Shimala believes this approach is sorely needed in the industry. “We’re doing a huge disservice to our clients by not educating them on pricing,” she observes. “Sometimes the goal of having a sign in the yard is more important than the goal of getting the sale.”

Emerging Markets in Dallas-Fort Worth

The buyer profile in Shimala’s market is diverse. She’s seeing significant activity from local buyers downsizing from larger, multi-acre properties to more manageable homes in planned communities. “They’re going from a $5 million house to a $1 million house,” she notes. “They don’t want to deal with [maintenance] anymore.”

Out-of-state buyers continue to arrive from the Northeast and California, though not at the peak levels seen during the pandemic. These buyers often face a reality check about Texas real estate prices. “They think they’re going to come down and pay $450,000 and get a brand new 5,000 square foot house that’s in the middle of DFW, and that just does not exist.”

As for emerging markets, Shimala highlights South Denton County, where Denton ISD is the sixth-fastest growing school district in the country. She points to massive planned developments like Hunter Ranch, which will feature 6,000 homes, multiple schools, a hospital, and mixed-use spaces.

Another up-and-coming area is Princeton, east of McKinney. “It was a little sleepy town not that long ago, but it’s all new construction,” she explains. Along the 75 North corridor, communities like Dennison, Sherman, and Van Alstyne are seeing major development, driven partly by Texas Instruments’ new chip factory in the region.

Looking Forward with Confidence

For Shimala, the current market presents significant opportunities despite broader industry concerns. “Everybody was talking about how bad 2023 was,” she recalls, “but that was my best year ever.”

Her confidence extends to the future: “Now is the time where the cream rises to the top… People ask, ‘Are you worried?’ I’m like, ‘About what? No, not worried at all.'”

By combining authentic relationships, innovative community-building through shared interests, strategic use of technology, and unwavering honesty about pricing, Heather Shimala has created a distinctive approach to real estate that transcends market fluctuations.