In real estate, it’s all about being in the right place at the right time. And for eXp Realty agent Christina Namaki, a fortuitous phone call produced the listing of a lifetime — the Katy, Texas, childhood home of Academy Award-winning actress Renee Zellweger.
“My husband (Aaron) and I own a remodeling company. The phone rang at 6 p.m. on a Friday night just before Christmas and asked if we could give an estimate the next day to paint the interior of a home,” recalls Namaki.
She had no idea it was Zellweger’s former home, but she was eager to get the business as well as pitch her expertise as a real estate agent. The owner, who had already interviewed a dozen agents without landing with any of them, agreed to talk.
The next morning when Namaki did a walk-through of the house, the owner dropped the tidbit that Zellweger once lived there and it was where she attended Katy High School. Namaki got the listing.
“(The owner) felt comfortable with me and trusted me. He also loved the fact that it’s a team effort,” Namaki said of her eXp team, Tricia Turner Properties. “It showed I wasn’t just one agent.”
News of Zellweger’s Former Home Goes National
Namaki started marketing the property and said she casually dropped some Zellweger mentions on her Instagram and Facebook pages. Then, she pitched it to the local news outlets where it was quickly picked up by the national media.
“It was actually pretty insane,” said Namaki. “We were in People magazine, Today and of course, the local news sites.”
Take a look at this 1-minute video for an overview of the house:
The house is listed for $750,000 and is a star itself. It has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, measures 2,897 square feet and it sits on two acres of unrestricted land, meaning it can be used for residential or commercial use. In addition, it has its own baseball field, which the family used for T-ball practices. And, this being Texas, horses are also allowed.
The home went on the market Friday, Jan. 24, just days before the Academy Awards aired and Zellweger took home the Oscar for Best Actress in her starring role in “Judy.” While there has been an overwhelming response, the most interest is for commercial use such as a daycare facility or medical office.
Prior to joining eXp in March 2019, Namaki was a paralegal and logged intense hours in addition to making the 45-minute commute from Katy into Houston.
“I love eXp,” she said. “I love the platform and how it’s about agents. We are what makes it work. It’s not about putting money in broker’s pockets.”
eXp’s work-from-anywhere mentality is also a godsend in helping to raise their four children, ages 8 to 16. “Yesterday I was at my daughter’s softball game at 4:30,” said Namaki. “I couldn’t do that if I was still in the law industry.”
