There are more than 20,000 real estate agents in Minnesota \u2013 some are doing better than others \u2026 Justin Shepherd is doing better than most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shepherd, a third year real estate agent with Edina Realty, has ascended the ladder of seller success to become one of the top agents in the company, selling more than 20 homes in his first year, and is now on pace to sell more than 30 homes in 2016 \u2013 just as he did last year. Averaging a sell every 10 days or so, Shepherd is living up to his moniker, \u201cShep Sells.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Shepherd, real estate isn\u2019t a job, it\u2019s a life\u2019s passion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have always wanted to get into real estate,\u201d said Shepherd, who said it was his grandfather who helped make sure his entry into to profession was a successful one. \u201cOnce I got to high school my grandmother and grandfather cared for me and I told my grandfather I didn\u2019t want to go to college, I wanted to get my real estate license and start selling. He said, \u2018OK, write me a two-page report about real estate to see if you know what you\u2019re doing.\u2019 I wrote the report and gave it to him and he said \u2018You\u2019re on the right track.\u2019 Then he said, \u2018Alright now within the next two weeks find two people who are able \u2013 right now \u2013 to buy a house from you.\u2019 And of course I couldn\u2019t. He told me real estate is about relationships and networking. He told me to go to school and build my network.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s what Shepherd did, attending the University of Minnesota and then going on to work for General Mills \u2013 building his network along the way. Shepherd also built a following as a DJ and event producer with the promotions company, The Cool & Co.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With his network in tack, Shepherd\u2019s real estate business instantly took off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I jumped in real estate I had to quit General Mills three weeks after because I was so busy,\u201d said Shepherd, who is a 2016 Edina Realty President\u2019s Circle awardee. \u201cI started living real estate. I\u2019m up \u2018til midnight checking listings trying to match buyers and sellers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shepherd has thrived by having a diverse customer base, but he said he would love to get more African-Americans into homeownership. According to a report by the Minnesota Homeownership Center, in Minnesota just above 25 percent of African-Americans are homeowners. Comparatively, 77 percent of whites own their homes. Shepherd said the disparity has a lot to do with credit misnomers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA lot of people don\u2019t fully understand how credit works and what lenders are looking for,\u201d said Shepherd, a recent homebuyer himself, and who admitted he didn\u2019t have the best credit when he started the buying process. \u201cWith my clients I focus on their current situation and moving above and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Shepherd many people don\u2019t think they have good enough credit to buy a home and they stop before they even start. He said lenders are understanding of certain debt, such as student loan debt and medical debt. He said some simple maneuvers can have a buyer creditworthy in a short period of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn my situation, I had a department store card with a balance. I was going to pay off the whole balance and I was advised by a credit specialist to pay a certain amount. I did it and my score jumped 14 points,\u201d said Shepherd. \u201cI advise anyone to speak with a credit adviser first. Sometimes paying a credit card off is less favorable than paying into the balance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fast-rising real estate agent said there are several buyer assistance programs based on neighborhoods, income, first time buyers and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of information out there and a lot of opportunity out there and we don\u2019t take full advantage of what\u2019s available,\u201d said Shepherd. \u201cI just want to give the people the real on real estate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are more than 20,000 real estate agents in Minnesota \u2013 some are doing better than others \u2026 Justin Shepherd is doing better than most. Shepherd, a third year real estate agent with Edina Realty, has ascended the ladder of seller success to become one of the top agents in the company, selling more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4596,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[2844,2845,2843],"class_list":["post-4595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-edina-realty","tag-general-mills","tag-justin-shepherd","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Insight-News-Website-Images-10-3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4597,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4595\/revisions\/4597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}