Mother/Daughter: Coldwell Banker American Home of Topeka
Photos by John Burns
Michelle Lewis and Amanda Lewis are co-owners of Coldwell Banker American Home of Topeka. Originally founded in 1954, it is one of the longest standing real estate brokerages in Northeast Kansas. Michelle serves as the company’s CEO, while Amanda is the President. Michelle also happens to be Amanda’s mom. Together, the two run a full- service and fully staffed brokerage.
“It is incredibly special to get to work together on a daily basis,” Amanda said. “Some days are easy, others are hard, but at the end of the day, as family, we have the ultimate faith and trust in each other.”
30-YEAR FAMILY LEGACY
Coldwell Banker American Home has been part of the Lewis family for the last 30 years. From January of 1990 until July of 2020, Michelle was the Chief Financial Officer, and over the years, the entire family has devoted their time to enhancing the success of the brokerage. Amanda officially joined Coldwell Banker American Home as an accounting assistant right after graduating from the University of Kansas in 2014. Over the next six years, Amanda stepped into a leadership role, so when the company’s franchise came up for renewal in 2020, they decided to purchase the company.
“As a mother and daughter team, we felt this was our opportunity to build and leave a family legacy,” Michelle said.
LEVERAGING STRENGTHS
Amanda and Michelle each tackle different aspects of the business based on their experience. Michelle is in charge of the financial and operations side of the company, a natural fit after her long tenure as a manager and the Chief Financial Officer. She has been through several recessions and has a good eye for a volatile market. Amanda is in charge of company growth, retention and education, drawing on her real estate experience and relationship with the Coldwell Banker corporate office. Coldwell Banker American Home employs 70 agents, and more than 50 of them work full time.“Our agents are putting in 110% every day, it is not a weekend hustle,” Amanda said.
Coldwell Banker also employs nine full time staff members including transaction coordinators, non-competing supervising broker, in-house attorney, a relocation director and marketing directors, so the company offers full service for agents and clients in-house.
The Coldwell Banker American Home approach also means a lot of individualized support and training for new agents. The company employs many veteran agents who are among the top producing in Kansas, giving agents newer to the field an opportunity to learn from their experience. Amanda points out that the average age of realtors is around age 56, so it is an aging workforce with a lot of opportunity for up-and-coming agents.
“Real estate will continue to thrive,” Amanda said. “There is always someone that needs to move. It is up to agents to find those people. The more work you put in; the better potential you have to be successful.”
Amanda and Michelle love that their work is always changing. The two went into their first year as business owners in a difficult year, but they are always prepared for the unexpected, and their ability to adapt helped them rise to the challenge.
“We came together as a team, all of us, and got through it,”
Michelle said. “We actually came out better in 2020 than in 2019. We had a bit of an increase, and it was because of our amazing team.”
EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY
The pandemic nudged Coldwell Banker American Home to move forward with innovative ways to best serve their clients, with a focus on paperless service that makes the process faster and easier. Clients can even sign digitally from wherever they are. Moving forward, the company is committed to embracing new innovative technology, so that they can continue to empower people to make the best real estate decisions possible.
Both women attribute their passion for real estate and the foundation of their company’s success to the previous owners, Ben Blair and Bryon Schlosser. Both Blair and Schlosser were instrumental in mentoring Amanda and Michelle over the years and remain their biggest supporters and “go-to” individuals when seeking advice.
Amanda and Michelle are proud of the legacy that they are building together, and they hope that others in the family will eventually be interested in carrying on the company.
