Real Talk: Jeff Gottschall
Jeff Gottschall is a Harvard-educated former commodities and metals trader on Wall Street.
He moved into real estate, leading acquisitions and portfolio management for real estate technology companies Roofstock and Opendoor around 2016.
Gottschall’s latest endeavor is leading the Dallas branch of Honey Homes, a membership service for end-to-end home maintenance and upkeep.
Dallas is the company’s first expansion outside of California.
“I fell in love with real estate while remodeling a house (accomplished with the help of YouTube tutorials) and after moving with my family to Dallas, decided to make it my day-to-day,” he said. “I started out learning the construction and acquisition sides of the business at a few startups before making the jump to transform the home services industry with Honey Homes.”
Honey Homes handypersons do everything from caulking and grouting to furniture assembly, hanging mirrors or shelves, garbage disposal, and smart home device installation.
Now that you’ve been a real estate professional for a while, if you could go back in time and give yourself any advice, what would it be?
Double down on forging deep relationships with your coworkers. Schedule informal coffees, get involved in team outings, learn about people’s backgrounds. That sense of community in the workplace is so important – especially when teams are distributed – and a big focus of mine as we build our team here in Dallas.
What is the best thing about being in real estate?
The real estate business, particularly in Dallas, is ideal for entrepreneurs. The people make it enjoyable, and the hustle makes it rewarding.
It’s also a field where you get so much cross-functional exposure on a daily basis. At Honey Homes, I’m learning from my colleagues in marketing about the nuances of our funnel, how to deploy our backend technology from engineering, and even which drill bit works best for brick walls from our handymen.
What is your outlook on the Dallas market?
Dallas is enjoying its day in the sun. Businesses have been relocating here in droves for years, and I think the pandemic only accelerated that. With that has come a real estate boom. Quality of life, affordability, and value for homeowners continue to remain strong, which was a big factor for Honey Homes when choosing Dallas as our first market expansion outside of California.
Can you give us a fun fact about yourself?
I have a perhaps unhealthy obsession with Schlitterbahn.
