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About Ken Lampton How Ken Became
A REALTOR© Ken's Market Area More

HOW KEN BECAME A REALTOR©

When I was growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, a career as a salesman was the furthest thing from my mind. By the time I was twelve years old I had a pretty clear picture of my goal in life: I wanted to be an engineer.

When I attended high school I chose to ride a public bus far across town just so I could attend Louisville's DuPont Manual High, which we would describe today as a "science and technology magnet school."

My college years were spent at Speed Scientific School at the University of Louisville, where I graduated from a five-year course of study with a Master of Engineering Degree in Mechanical Engineering. As in most engineering schools, the geek factor was pretty high. No budding salesmen in there!

I wanted to live my adult life in a large city, so I jumped at the chance to take a job at Texas Instruments in Dallas. I must admit I wasn't well-suited for my position because they didn't have anything for me to design. I wanted to design! Graciously they laid me off, along with about 3,000 other employees.

This was one of the best things that ever happened to me. One week after I was laid off I got hired as a design engineer by a company that manufactured mobile drilling equipment mounted on trucks, trailers, and tracked carriers. Now I was in my element.

I was fortunate to be involved in new product development for eight years. It was exciting to design a drilling rig from scratch and then take the prototype into the field for the first time and put it through its paces.

But then I was moved into the marketing department, into a job titled Product Manager. I was forced to rub shoulders with salesmen on a steady basis, and my curiosity and competitive instincts were aroused. For the first time I began to imagine a life outside of the engineering profession. Could I be a salesman? Maybe so.

By this time I was living in a 1923 Tudor home in the M-Street area. I'd been renovating it for several years. Plus I'd been involved in a year-long zoning fight with Dallas City Hall. I'd come to feel real estate development was the backbone of the Dallas economy and I was excited about all the improvements being made to old homes in the M-Street neighborhoods. I wondered if there was a place for me in the real estate industry.

Then lady luck intervened once again in my life. The collapse of oil prices in late 1984 lead to the complete shutdown my division. Though there was some talk of a position with the same company in Virginia, I decided to strike out on my own and become self employed. I decided to put my knowledge of the neighborhood to work helping people buy and sell homes in the M-Streets.

By March I had obtained my real estate license. I had become a salesman in spite of myself.

WORK SUMMARY

September, 1972 to November, 1974:

Employed as a Process Engineer at Texas Instrument.

December, 1974 to January, 1985:

Employed by Cooper Industries Portable Rig Division as Design Engineer and Product Manager.

March, 1985 to July, 1988:

Associated With The Heindel Group, Realtors©.

July, 1988 to November, 1990:

Associated With Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate©.

November 1990 to Present:

Associated with RE/MAX Realtors©.

"RE/MAX© is the best real estate brokerage
for the agent with an entrepreneurial spirit."