Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke Roeder.
Hi Brooke, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve been an artist, creator, music lover and entrepreneur in Austin for almost 20 years. My career has been full of adventure, experiments, wild ideas and all the things that everyone knows and loves about Austin.
I ended up in Austin because I was accepted into UT’s School of Architecture. I was one of 40 students accepted that year, and it’s so selective that I kind of couldn’t say no. I loved homes, design, and creating on a large scale (and I loved the idea of being a creator with a sustainable, steady career), so it seemed like a great fit. But once I started the program, I found that architecture was not for me. I loved the design aspect, but not the engineering, so I ended up with a degree in painting from the Fine Arts school instead.
My college friends were all the gritty musician kids that made up the backbone of Austin culture. Through a friend, I happened to connect with someone that worked at The Backyard, one of Austin’s Iconic music venues of yester-year, The Backyard was owned by Tim O’Connor, who had deep ties to Willie Nelson & other famous Texas Artists. I talked my way into an internship there, and a year later, while a senior in college, found myself with a real grown-up job with Tim’s company Direct Events, which owned The Backyard and several other clubs around town. For several years I worked in finance for Direct Events, running club shows, working until 4 am and having the time of my life.
When I started a family, I exited the world of live music and founded a company that managed vacation rentals in central Austin. I ran that company for ten years, growing my portfolio to over 35million in assets managed, before selling the company to a national brand at the very beginning of 2020. Throughout those ten years I bought, renovated and sold homes throughout Austin. The habit was bad enough that my kids would say “haven’t we lived here long enough? When are you going to find our next house?” Ha! A few years ago, I decided that I enjoyed my real estate & renovating hobby more than my career and decided to take the big leap and shift gears. It was the best decision of my life. I’m proud of the company I built and sold, but I absolutely love what I do now.
I also love how, full circle, I now find myself doing exactly what I had wanted to do at the start. My art degree taught me so much about color and bringing moods and concepts to life, and I find I use it daily. Over 15+ years of trial and error and DIY projects and building relationships and running businesses, I learned the skills I needed to create the career I had imagined.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It hasn’t been a bumpy road, but it’s been a winding one with some steep learning curves. Being a woman in the design/build world means I’m not only being creative and designing beautiful spaces, I’m also acting as a general contractor, running crews, organizing extremely complex workflows and schedules in a world that is broadly male. I love my crew and we work really well together – I sincerely love it! In addition to my design/build company, I’m also a real estate investor and residential realtor. All these pieces complement each other perfectly, and it’s made for a wonderfully successful career change, but it’s a lot to manage. I work a lot of late nights to make sure I can get it all done and also leave ample time for family (we have five kids!).
As you know, we’re big fans of B3E Creative. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I specialize in high-design renovations. My properties aren’t just your average “flip”, they are highly creative, unique properties that stand apart from everything else and consistently break neighborhood price records. I take often dilapidated homes and create highly unique, well-built spaces. While many people “fly by night flip”, I move all of my projects through the full (highly rigorous) city of Austin permitting process and do everything above-board. As a realtor, my experience as a designer and investor allows me to help my clients find houses with potential and spot other high-quality renovations.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up a quirky artist kid in a small West Texas town. My dad was a music lover and both my parents went to UT. I was dead set on moving to California but looking back, I was destined for Austin long before I got here. I was super smart (I’m a member of Mensa) but not super studious, so I spent more time coming up with funny and creative ways to get out of class than actually doing school work. Regardless, I managed to complete all my school requirements my Junior year, and instead of graduating early, I convinced the school to let me take all art classes for my senior year and enroll in a work-study program for a job I didn’t have. I showed up at noon every day to go to photography or art class. Best year ever.
Contact Info:
- Email: brooke@b3ecreative.com
- Website: www.b3ecreative.com
- Instagram: @b3ecreative
- Facebook: @b3ecreative
