Throughout history, great personal wealth has been attained through real estate ownership, but for most of us, it has been limited to investment in a primary residence. While Mexico 2nd home real estate can be a viable investment venue, Americans have had a great deal more trepidation considering properties “south of the border” for many reasons in recent years. The residential market in Mexico has been slow to recover since the “go-go” days of 2000 through 2007. With the collapse of the U.S. banking, mortgage and financial markets in 2008, Americans were simply not in a position to make Mexico 2nd home purchases. Couple that with the fact ownership rights for foreign buyers vary with the location of the realty and the conveyance process not in any way like that of U.S. transactions, Americans figured they had better purchasing opportunities in American real estate…, and in a recovering U.S. residential market. However, Mexico provides an alternative, attractive arena for potential investment and home acquisitions. Real estate in Mexico can have a similar appreciation “upside” as real estate in the United States – coupled with the advantage of use and enjoyment of the property as a vacation residence. The caveat though is that interested buyers must be savvy and educated because acquiring real estate in Mexico, a civil code jurisdiction country that utilizes Mexican public notaries in the establishment of real property rights, is not like buying property in the United States.

Mexico has incredibly beautiful and diverse developments in many different locales. One needs to ask, “what do I prefer, beach destinations or the interior of Mexico with its historically colonial ambiance”. From Cancun and the Riviera Maya to Puerto Vallarta, the Riviera Nayarit and the Los Cabos markets to name a few, the diversity of property types, resort amenities, hotels and golf courses with residential properties for acquisition is simply staggering. Real estate prices for lots, condominiums, townhomes and single family detached residences vary from $250,000 to $10,000,000. It just depends on the development, its location, property type and amenities. In the interior of Mexico, there are many desirable options for home purchases. From Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara to Cuernavaca, Ajijic, Lake Chapala, Delores Hidalgo and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico’s colonial landscape, history, mountains, mind weather and development types serve to attract many American and Canadian buyers. In particular, San Miguel has been a major destination for many expat retirees and 2cd home buyers. It is estimated that more than 10,000 American and Canadians are residing in this historic and richly Catholic municipality with a population of approximately 120,000. San Miguel is landlocked almost in the dead center of the nation at an altitude of about 6,000 feet. This provides a nice respite to the searing Houston summers. It is centuries old with European style cobblestone streets and nestled in a valley with hills on all sides with an average year round temperature of 75 degrees. All one has to see and visit is the El Jardin and the Parroquia, a spired, fancifully-gothic confection of a church located in the center of town and it is easy to understand why San Miguel de Allende is so popular with Mexican nationals and foreign visitors.

A new, stunningly beautiful project is under construction just outside of San Miguel. Located 5 miles from city center on the highway to Celaya and Queretaro, Vinedo San Miguel is an innovative and exceedingly unique fractional residential development surrounded by 150 acres of vineyards. Vinedo San Miguel is first and foremost an enterprising vineyard boasting 12 species of grapes for harvest and wine production under 3 labels for consumption and sale. Within the expansive stoned walls lining the “carretera” (highway) and the privately gated arches entrance to VSM are 22 residences and 7 villas being constructed that will offer deeded and recorded fractional interests for sale to foreign purchasers and Mexican nationals. Buyers will be able to acquire a 1/10th fractional interest, or a ¼ or ½ interest based on a 12 month period on any one of the 7,000 square foot elegantly appointed units including 4 bedrooms, a pool, decks overlooking the vineyards, large kitchen and living room complete with a wine room. The furniture and decorations included in each residence add to the allure of the residences. Each fraction conveyed will be consummated by a Mexican notario publico (public notary) that provides for a 50 year renewable beneficiary interest via a Mexican bank trust known as a fideicomiso. Each bank trust will be recorded in the public registry of property in San Miguel and will include a title insurance policy issued by Stewart Title Guaranty de Mexico, an owned subsidiary of Stewart Title Guaranty Co. in Houston. Financing will also be available as provided by the development group.

Vinedo San Miguel has exceptional amenities and is astonishingly beautiful in all phases of the development. In addition to the vineyards and grape production facilities, VSM will have a boutique hotel for guests and family, a wellness center, a large lake and gardens with a clubhouse and pool, horse stables, a riding arena with tennis and paddle courts as well. There is no development anywhere in the Republic of Mexico that exists or is like Vinedo San Miguel. And most importantly, it is affordable, well located and completely secure in the ownership interests that will be conveyed and title insured for all purchasers.

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2022 Real Estate Roundup

Mitch Creekmore
713.724.3381 | mcreekmo@stewart.com
www.clubresidencialsm.com

Gray’s 93-year-old mother must say to all her friends and family, “What a good son I have.” Every day he works, it’s his mother’s needs he considers – and those of fathers and anyone else who wants a comfortable life with style and ease. After 20 years building and managing exclusively for seniors through the transitions of their later lives, Gray is still inspired by what he does.

“I have a passion about it,” he says of his commitment to provide high quality living space for seniors. “I consider it a calling, and I love architecture. For me, this is not just a building. It’s a lifestyle. I think we are actually extending lives. It’s a combination of a career and a passion.”

The “villages” he has developed cater to the changing lifestyles that come with maturity and the desire to live life freer of daily chores and upkeep. His latest, a luxury collection of residences, the Village of River Oaks is at 1015 S. Shepherd Drive is in the neighborhood from which many of his residents will come, most within three miles, previous experience shows. The property, a 1.8-acre tract, formerly owned by R.R. Donnelly, the law book publisher, was acquired in 2011 for $8 million dollars.

The community offers a continuum of care so residents can stay for as long as they want, moving among the three levels as needed – independent living, assisted living and memory care. The Independent living units are already 50% leased. By April, the anticipated opening date, it is expected 70% of those spaces will be taken.

“Our program is to build in the neighborhoods where seniors and their children live,” Gray said. “It’s unique to have a senior’s site in the densely populated urban core. When we looked at the five-mile radius around the site, it was clear this market in close proximity to Houston’s fine arts, theater district and one of the top medical centers in the U.S. was very much underserved in quality senior living options.”

Demographics show that there is and will be a pent-up need of baby boomers for senior lifestyles. The 76 million boomer cohort began turning 65 in 2011 and will continue to do so for 18 years at the rate of 10,000 per day. By 2029, when all of the boomers will be 65 years and over, more than 20 percent of the total U.S. population will be 65 plus. Although the number of boomers will decline through mortality, this shift toward an increasingly older population is expected to endure.

Boomers have lived through some of the most affluent years of the U.S. economy. They buy larger homes and expect high quality finishes such as granite counter tops and upgraded flooring, plus all the amenities. At Village of River Oaks, these amenities and more include an indoor heated pool, a fitness center, a movie theater, outdoor terrace, arts and craft studio, library, town hall and bistro/lounge, plus additional socialization areas to encourage interaction among residents.

“I designed the building with my mother in mind,” Gray said of the Village of River Oaks. “She loves lots of activities and friends. The funniest suggestion she made was, ‘Make the toilets higher.’” And so they are. Walk-in showers also are available. Other safety features in the eight-story building include an entirely concrete structure that will not burn, fire doors that close automatically if needed and wiring throughout the building to receive emergency signals. A key fob will be needed to enter the building and the three-level garage has a secure gate. Valet parking adds to the convenience, and there is no tipping allowed.

Gray’s history reveals his steady commitment to seniors and to the people who are on his team. Glenn House of House Partners has been his architect for 20 years. The Village at River Oaks is the latest of 25 senior living communities Gray developed in the Midwest and Southeast and now in the Southwest. As founder and president of Bridgewood Property Company, his organization currently has 10 properties and manages five others under Retirement Center Management. The Village of River Oaks is a joint venture with Harrison Street Real Estate Capital.

Gray’s role at Bridgewood Property Company includes strategic, financial, and marketing operations. Gray previously served as president of Cypress Senior Living, Inc. that developed and managed senior living communities across the U.S. Brand assets were valued at more than $300 million and included more than 2000 units. He also served as managing director for Trammell Crow Company, where he was responsible for the Industrial Division of the Houston, Texas, office. Gray received his undergraduate degree in commerce and accounting from Washington & Lee University and a master’s of business administration from the University of Texas.

The Village at River Oaks Information Office is open in the BBVA/Compass Bank Building, 2001 Kirby Drive, Ste. 370, on the corner of San Felipe and Kirby Drive. Priority reservations mean future residents can select a premium home and lock in special pre-opening prices. Rentals start at $3,600 for a one-bedroom and up to $6200 for a two bedroom, two two-bath plus study. Assisted living costs are from $4,295 for a studio up to $7,300 for a two bedroom, one bath apartment. Memory care starts at $5,400 up to $9720 for a private space. For more information, call the office at 713-952-7600.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.

When Houston’s prize real estate lady, Martha Turner, was a little girl working in her father’s small family store, Fuller’s Dry Goods and Hardware, in Hemphill, Texas, then population 972, and county seat for Sabine County, she dreamed of being in the business world, wearing beautiful suits, high heels, and perfect makeup. And indeed she does just that.

“When growing up, I didn’t realize how poor we were,” she says. “We lived in a two-bedroom house in somewhat of a family compound, in that our house was in the front yard of my grandmother’s and grandfather’s house, an aunt and uncle lived down the street, and a little further down, another aunt and uncle lived.

“We had cows, with a nearby pasture. I milked cows, and I churned butter.”

Turner, 75, graduated from the University of North Texas in 1962, with a major in music and education. While going to school, she met her first husband on a blind date; they married and moved to Austin where he was studying law at UT/Austin. She taught elementary school and also worked at Montgomery Ward selling lingerie, selling more underwear working part time than her cohorts sold working full time. Then, she and a fellow teacher borrowed $1,000 from her hometown banker and started a successful wig store. Her husband graduated from law school, and they moved to Houston in 1966, where he became a land developer and built houses.

After a 15-year teaching career in Houston, Turner retired in 1978. While teaching, she remodeled, built, and sold a number of houses, which sparked a passion and love for real estate. She attended the University of Houston, earned her real estate license in 1979, and joined a local real estate firm, immediately becoming a top producer. In 1981, real estate was at a low ebb, but in spite of that, Turner and a friend, Nancy Owens, decided to buck the odds and opened Turner-Owens Real Estate.

Turner adopted a principled and personal attention to each transaction. Hiring superior agents, the stressed magic word is “excellence,” which is contained in the company’s mission statement – “The mission statement of Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty is to provide real estate excellence to our clients, customers, and all other real estate professionals.” “I don’t tell my people what to do. I live by example,” she remarks. “We have A-1 personalities, and I have set the tone of a company culture where people feel free to share information. That is what has made this company great by helping to build comradery and also helping in sales. “You will never grow if anyone can’t forgive or say ‘I’m sorry. I have made a mistake.’”

When Turner started the company in 1981, she borrowed $150,000 from Oak Forest Bank, her personal bank, to advertise in Houston Home & Garden, paying it back in six months. She says that her granddaddy taught her not to buy something if you can’t pay for it, and throughout her career she had very little debt.

“I put money into our company to grow, and at the time I sold, I had no debt,” she relates. “You cannot operate a company that has so much debt it pulls you down. In 2014, when Sotheby’s came calling, sales topped the $2 billion mark.”

She explains that when she decided to sell the company, she prayed that the right person would buy. The sales price was estimated to be between 20 and 25 million. In January 2014, the company was sold to Sotheby’s International Realty, who had approached Turner about two years prior about selling. The sale insured that the company will continue and all agents and employees will have a large corporation to provide many options for international advertising. Turner is Chairman Emeritus. Turner’s first husband died in 1986, and she remarried in 1988 to Glenn Bauguss. She has a daughter and one teenage grandson. Bauguss has three children and eight grandchildren.

When asked about slowing down, Turner admits that since she started in real estate, it has been her advocation and vocation, but in the last six months, she has been relieved a lot. She still comes to the office almost every day, mentors agents, goes on listing appointments (in her words “is a rainmaker by bringing in business”), and is a spokesperson for the company. Presently, she is helping work on a $15 million fund project for 501c3 Legacy Community Health Services that provides free medical services for anyone who cannot afford medical care. The $15 million campaign will go toward building campuses in the Fifth Ward and in the southeast part of Houston. “Besides trying to move out of my office to a smaller office, I like to read good biographies, inspirational stories, and history stories,” she shares. “We have a bay house, and my husband and I like to watch the birds. I also like to spend time with my grandson and travel.”

Turner is slowing down, but she still has a lot of steam left in her pipe. She leaves these words of wisdom for the world: “To be successful, you have to love what you do, love the people around you, make everyone feel special, and realize that you are the only person in charge of your life.”.