NAWRB’s Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Council brings you the story of NAWRB Certified Delegate Spokeswoman, Laura Harbison. With our Story Tree, we want to showcase the ups, downs, and in-betweens of our team’s careers and lives. Help us grow our tree by sending in your own leadership stories! 

Laura Harbison, Broker/Owner of Realty Executives Southern Nevada Properties, does a fantastic job of managing her very busy life, as a successful business owner and the matriarch of a family of nine.  She has compiled an impressive list of real estate accolades during her three decades of experience and now, in partnership with her husband John, is one of the most successful Real Estate Brokers in Southern Nevada.   

But it wasn’t always a seamless journey. 

For someone who is so obviously adept at the business of real estate, it’s surprising to learn that Laura started out in college at UNLV with dreams of a different kind.   Originally majoring in Computer Science Engineering, and then switching her major in her junior year to Quantitative Management Systems with an emphasis in Operations Research (with core study in finance, marketing, and statistics),   Laura saw herself entering the corporate world after college graduation. 

During her first year at UNLV, one of Laura’s sorority sisters (Delta Zeta) was working at a real estate office and suggested she apply to be an assistant. Flexible jobs were hard to find, and this company needed help seven days a week, at all hours of the day, so it was an opportunity to be employed full time while still being able to work around a heavy class schedule.  It wasn’t something she had ever considered doing, and she had been keeping busy and paying the bills with a variety of odd jobs prior to that. However, she applied and started the following week. Soon she was working in varying capacities at the company, sometimes performing receptionist duties, other administrative and clerical duties, and eventually working as an assistant to the top agent in the company.   By the time she completed her degree, she had also obtained her real estate license. While there, Laura took the opportunity to learn as much as possible about the business and gain all the experience she could. She said she initially thought real estate would be a stopgap until she got around to her “real” career. 

 In the meantime, Laura had fallen in love with the industry and came to the realization that she wouldn’t face the ‘glass ceiling’  in real estate that she might encounter if she took a different path.       

 As she would eventually discover, three decades ago, real estate was also a challenging career for a woman looking to excel.   That didn’t turn out to be 100% true though…  After she had been with that particular company for a period of years and was one of its top producers, Laura became pregnant.  That pronouncement earned her a  30 percent decrease in her commission split, and she saw that less qualified males were receiving preferential treatment. Instead of doing the expected thing and quitting her job, Laura stayed at the company, following through on a vow to herself to become the number one agent in her office and one of the top ten agents in the company overall.    

 Two years later, while standing on a stage at a company awards ceremony, Laura had what she described as an epiphany.    She was receiving multiple awards, among which were being the top producing agent in her office and the ninth highest producing agent in the company overall (out of over 700 agents with the company at that time). She had kept her promise to herself, and NOW she could leave. 

 That was about the time that representatives from the local Realty Executives franchise had begun to speak to Laura about coming to work for them.    The company was female-owned, and Laura was intrigued by the idea of working for a woman-owned company.   Laura looked at other real estate companies as well but felt her possibilities for success were much greater at Realty Executives, and she made the final decision to make her move.    Her former employers didn’t make it easy for her, but the worse their behavior got, the more assured she was that she made the right choice.  She walked away from her last 7 closings and took a leap of faith.   The previous company was so bitter over her exit that they actually sent her 7 checks for $0.00 (as each of the 7 sales closed), among other antics.   

 Besides the idea of working for a woman-owned company, one of the things that most attracted Laura to Realty Executives was the freedom she was given to put together a team and run her business as she felt it had to be run.    By her second year there, she was not only the top producing agent in the company but also the top producing agent worldwide for the franchise system. 

 The advantages of working in a positive business environment cannot be overstated.   Open communication, employee engagement, and the collaboration and sharing of ideas are some of the basic tenets of good business practices and Laura says these were all present in those early days at Realty Executives.  From the very beginning, she just put her head down and did her job, and that type of work ethic was appreciated by her new company.   Her entrepreneurial spirit was embraced and encouraged. 

 Laura is not the type of person to bounce around from job to job.  She considers herself a nose to the grindstone kind of person, a hard worker who just wants to perform well for her clients. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have ambitions. After some time with Realty Executives, she asked to open up her own satellite branch, which she did with great success for many years.   Then in 2016, she was offered the opportunity to become the Broker/Owner of her own franchise, and she jumped at the opportunity. 

 Realty Executives was also a company that supported her personally as well as professionally.   They did not consider her (large/growing) family as a hindrance, but rather an asset.  In addition to running her office and managing her employees, Laura also made time to start a charity (A Touch of Home, that benefits Title One Hope – the Homeless Education Division of the Clark County School District), be a Girl Scout Leader for 9 years, and has been a Catechist teaching 7th grade for her church parish for the last 16 years (a position that she still holds today).   

 About 16 years ago, Laura’s husband John joined her in the business.    In the early 90s, Laura had encouraged him to get his real estate license, but he wasn’t really interested at the time.  

Eventually, he changed his mind and went to work with her. Now he is an integral cog in the company’s wheel, handling what they like to call “Field Services”, which includes a lot of the marketing functions (such as photography, video, 3D tours) and property management functions such as weekly property checks, walk-throughs, attending inspections, etc.    Their partnership works so well because while John is out making sure all is well with the properties, Laura sticks close to the office, ensuring that things are running smoothly there. Together, the two of them manage to make the business side of their relationship work with the personal side, which is quite demanding. 

 The Harbisons are parents to seven children, ages 31 to 12, and four of them are still living at home.  As anyone who has ever been a parent to more than one child can attest to, one of the most challenging things to accomplish is time management, especially with the young ones. Homework has to be completed, play dates have to be made, and sporting events need to be attended. 

 Last year,  in 2019, John and Laura experienced every parent’s nightmare, when they lost their oldest son to a very aggressive cancer that had been detected only 12 months prior.   During that prior 12 months, they worked together to keep the business afloat, while dealing with doctors and treatments (much of that out of state due to the rare type of cancer), and while taking care of their other 6 children’s needs (physical and emotional).   While many families are torn apart by these types of events, it has brought the Harbison family closer together.       

 Over her 30 years in the industry, Laura has obtained many professional designations — ABR, AHWD, BPOR, BS, CDPE, CRS, DRB, GRI, PSA, RSPS, and SRES.   Among her many other accolades, she has been named one of the top 100 agents in the country by the Wall Street Journal and has been Realty Executives’ #1 Team Worldwide 16 different years. 

 Laura says she also sees strength in numbers when it comes to staffing her office.   Her goal is to continue to foster a workplace climate that encourages team collaboration and success. Being in a position to create that kind of workplace for herself and her employees is surely one of life’s highs. 

NAWRB’s Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Council brings you the story of NAWRB Certified Delegate Spokeswoman, Leora Ruzin. With our Story Tree, we want to showcase the ups, downs, and in-betweens of our team’s careers and lives. Help us grow our tree by sending in your own leadership stories! 

My story is one that has been told before, and it is not totally out of the ordinary. I had a troubled childhood; one that was fraught with abuse and neglect. I was often left to take care of myself, and that self-reliance is the foundation for everything I do. I grew up far quicker than I should have but having a level of maturity that early on has served me relatively well in my adult life.  

Well, before I graduated from high school, I knew I wanted to do more in life than what my small town would afford me, so I graduated early and joined the Army. My time in the service is one that I look back on fondly, and one of the biggest regrets I have from my younger days is that I did not retire from the military. I would re-enlist in a heartbeat if I knew they would take me back, and the life lessons I learned have helped shaped the leader and person I am today. 

I have dealt with unimaginable loss in my life, and nothing has had a lasting impact on me quite like the death of two of my children. While I am blessed to have four children, losing Victoria and Hayden in infancy is an indescribable experience. While it took me a long time to recover from the losses, I truly feel the experience has made me a better mother and a more compassionate person. I understood the importance of giving love and praise as often as possible, not only with my kids, but my family, friends, and colleagues. Life is fleeting and you never know when the next comment you say to someone may be your last. 

When I got into the mortgage industry in 2007, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. My background was in accounting and human resources, and I was largely ignorant of not only the industry but how much it was in turmoil during this time. All I knew was that, as I was learning more about the business while handling the office manager duties, I became more and more entrenched. Before long, I was not only managing all the payroll, accounting, and HR, but I was instrumental in building dedicated mortgage back-office operations. I stood up a closing department, post-closing department, and oversaw all the licensing and compliance for the company. The rest, as they say, is history.  

Over the last 20 years, I have battled ovarian, cervical, and colon cancer, and am happy to say that I have been in remission since 2016. I have endured so many surgeries, treatments, and stays in the hospital, and there are times where my body reminds me of all I have been through. I have battled depression, anxiety, and a severe panic disorder throughout all of this, but I never let it get in the way of me achieving my goals and dreams. I will not lie in that there have been moments in my life where I wanted to give up, especially when I was also faced with misogyny, sexist and discriminatory treatment in the workplace. As a victim of rape and sexual assault, combined with a childhood filled with being told I was not “good enough” or “pretty enough”, it has been easy for me to believe it when I was told I was not worthy of the positions that I have worked so hard to attain.  

As I entered my 40’s, I experienced a paradigm shift in my way of thinking, after dealing far too long with discrimination. With the help and support of my most trusted friends and colleagues, I made the decision to invest in myself and got into a coaching program that literally changed my life. Through this coaching, I have gained valuable tools to advocate for myself, promote my own self-worth, while removing the negative space I was letting the “haters” rent in my head. When I combined this mental shift in thought with a renewed focus on improving my physical and mental health, after a recent medical scare and the unexpected death of my mother, I can happily say that I am stronger than I ever have been. While I still encounter misogyny and discrimination and am still working on my mental health issues, I am now equipped with the tools to rise above them.  

My goal and vision as a Delegated Spokeswoman for NAWRB are to be able to use my life experiences to help other women who have a story like mine. In addition, I want to take the passion I have for this industry to help others achieve the American Dream of homeownership. I specifically want to help our veterans and service members have a better and more secure transition from military to civilian life. I want other women who have had to suffer in silence to know that they are not alone and that they can achieve their goals. With the tools I have access to through NAWRB, along with the network of phenomenal women who are also Delegated Spokeswomen, I am excited to see what I can accomplish in the months and years to come.