legendary leader

By Ruth Gnirk Photography By TresPiña Photography

David Garcia has created a culture of depositing value into his team and the Coastal Bend community. He and his team help, they don’t sell. They don’t have goals, they have commitments. David and his team don’t live by the Golden Rule, they live by the Platinum Rule: Treat others the way others want to be treated.

DAVID

GARCIA

“If you listen, people will tell you how they want to be loved,” David explained. Garcia taught his team not to look for “leads” but to be looking and listening for people who want to connect. “People don’t want to be sold. They want to be heard, understood, and valued.”

“At one point, I was a taker,” said Garcia. “I thought it was all about me. Now I’ve discovered it’s not!” Garcia observed that too many people want to make an ATM withdrawal from others without making any deposits first. David Garcia hasn’t always thought like this, but part of his life mission now is to help others live beyond their concern for themselves.

Garcia was born in West Corpus. He was fascinated with design, and in high school he studied drafting. He loved the hands-on creativity of drafting, which he studied in high school. He graduated from Moody in 1992, and took a few classes at Del Mar College, but then took a job with UPS to start bringing in income.

Garcia worked faithfully for UPS for about seven years, until a back injury prompted him to find a job that required less lifting. David wanted to create a more secure future doing something he enjoyed, so he went back to school to study Computer Aided Drafting and Design.

Garcia accepted a position with a local mechanical engineering firm, where he sat behind a desk, reviewing blueprints. He remembered feeling excited about drafting in high school, so he was disappointed to find how unfulfilled he felt in this new position. That’s when he realized something important about himself: David Garcia missed interacting with people.

David’s strengths did not involve working on a computer without the opportunity to connect with others in meaningful ways. Garcia realized that to set himself up for success, he would need to focus on his natural strengths, such as being coachable, accountable, understanding about truly connecting with people, technology, and also having an understanding about aspects of business.

“Everyone is really good at something,” David reflected. “Identify what that is, so you can leverage your strengths. This allows you to win before you start.”

In 1999, a friend from David’s past called him on the phone. They filled each other in on their lives up to the present, and then Garcia spontaneously encouraged his friend to get into real estate. He had no idea how influential that seemingly random conversation would become.

His friend called back soon after, to share some real estate success stories. That was enough to energize David to enroll in the Real Estate Institute. His wife was pregnant, and they were living in an apartment. The timing was less than ideal, but David had hope and says he “jumped into real estate. All in.”

FOCUS ON GOOD BUSINESS, NOT ON MONEY.

His first week and a half as a licensed REALTOR® was discouraging. Garcia started working for a real estate company that was a well-known national franchise. He was full of energy and hope, but he quickly realized that this culture and mindset were not right for him. He even asked one of the successful agents if she would mentor him, but she said she didn’t have time.

Garcia recalls that he had learned the technical aspects at school, but they didn’t really teach agents about communication, strategies, or negotiation. He desperately wanted to learn these things, but needed someone who was willing to share their knowledge and experience with him.

David transferred to another franchise for six months and was able to learn a little. Then he joined another national franchise. He reflected later, “That was one of the best decisions I ever made.” The culture was great, there were plenty of active leaders and mentors who were willing to share with David. He experienced good broker support and a great energy among the team.

Garcia became a fierce competitor for the top five positions up until the economic crash in 2008. “Because of the business structure,” Garcia explained, “it was great during the good times, but it was not possible for me to continue working like that during the crash.”

By this time, David had a passion not only for connecting people with the houses of their dreams, but also for mentoring others and helping them become better people and better REALTORS®. He put his passion into action and opened his own brokerage, Home Experts Realty. Although his license gave him the opportunity to sell commercial property, farm and ranch, and residential, Garcia decided to go deeper instead of wider. He focused on residential properties and built a team of experts within a culture of collaboration. He compared this structure to the difference between an infantryman and a Navy SEAL. Garcia’s mission is to continue building a Navy SEAL team.

David knows that his strengths, his areas of expertise, are working with homeowners, and understanding the housing market. “I believe in transparency. If I am asked something out of my specialty, I don’t make up an answer. I simply say, ‘I don’t know, but I know who does,’ and then connect them to the expert.” Garcia’s team contains a variety of specialists, and each member uses their natural skills to help the clients and the team.

Garcia takes his team-building and culture-building seriously. The team and their families participate in community service events. “We don’t just cut a check, we participate in cancer walks as a team, with our families.” The team and their families have also done volunteer work at a local food bank, to complement their donation.

“Too many people are concerned with the end result,” said Garcia. “It’s about the process.” David says that real estate is like any other relationship: it’s the process of “daily.” He also compared it to baking. “People using the same ingredients get different results because of the process they use. The systems are like a recipe. Be patient. Be kind. Be available. Be consistent.”

“Focus on good business, not on money,” Garcia cautioned. “There is gold in staying connected to, or reconnecting with, people.” Although David and his team have the advantage of experience, they never make decisions for clients. They help clients understand how to make better decisions based on more information.

“You need a prognosis before you can have a diagnosis,” David said. He and his team collect the data, then deliver possible solutions. “Do the right things in the right order. We have processes and systems that remind us how and when and what to do. You can win before you start if you trust the system.” Most importantly, Garcia emphasizes effective communication. “Find out how the customer wants it and needs it. And manage expectations.”

David Garcia says his “why” is to be a chapter in everyone’s book, and his mission is, “To bring value to everyone’s life.” He continues to create a culture of mindset, core values, and principles, knowing it will flow into action within each interaction.

Some of the team core values that David Garcia intentionally cultivates are practicing work-life balance, owning the problem and solving it, never giving up but staying committed to the process, always doing the right thing as a person of integrity, and that each team member holds themselves accountable. Garcia’s culture core values include openness and honesty, people before profits, strong family foundation, open-mindedness, use of power words, and more.

Garcia’s goal is to be a servant-leader, not to be served. “I seek to surround myself with people who are more successful at creating this culture.” Garcia and his team are here to deliver results. “This is a contact sport,” chuckled David. “We have to intentionally make contact!”