Tammy Randles—broker/owner of Realty Executives SELA—was recently named as a Crusader in RISMedia’s 2025 class of Real Estate Newsmakers. She was recognized for her work combating homelessness in the greater New Orleans area, working to build education on all sides of transactions and creating more paths to affordable housing.
In this entry of our Newsmaker Spotlight series, RISMedia and Randles discuss the fight against homelessness, how she is creating more affordable housing and how others in the industry can work to do the same as her.
Claudia Larsen: Can you tell me a bit about your background in real estate and how you got to where you are today?
Tammy Randles: I have been in the real estate business for 23 years. I started out being an agent full time, then two years and two days later I had a broker’s license and a company—and here we are.
I started managing property right away, and really getting into the investment properties from the very beginning. That really was the catalyst that started driving all of the stuff that we do. Dealing with the investors and investment properties just kind of set the stage for what was to come.
CL: Your Newsmakers profile opens by mentioning that you recognize homelessness is a serious problem in your community—what was your experience like in recognizing this issue?
TR: Working in property management—because I handle a lot of multifamily sales and manage a lot of property—I’m always working with a lot of the case managers of the programs that have these grants to fight homelessness and house people. We house a lot of people using these programs. The case managers literally call me almost daily asking if I have anything available. This is a serious problem. There are always more people that need housing than there are places to live.
CL: It’s interesting to think about the fact that this is a nationwide problem, but people don’t always understand because in certain communities, you don’t see it as much.
TR: That is true. I mean, we’re talking about everything from veterans to families. A lot of the people have mental health challenges, some of them have drug challenges (which can go along with mental health sometimes). So a lot of the programs, at least that we have here in the New Orleans area, really try to focus on not just finding people housing, but how to keep them there, or even prevent others from becoming homeless in the first place.
Overall, I have come across some wonderful case managers who really care about their people, and we work together. If I have someone who looks like they may need some extra assistance, they’re having trouble just keeping up their apartment or something seems off, I may call that case manager to get them some help. Instead of just immediately putting people out, we try to work with them. If they can help us control the behaviors and the environment and things like that, it gives us a better opportunity to be able to keep people in properties.
CL: That’s a great point—prevention is a really important aspect of the issue.
TR: That is what we try to do, we try to work with the people to keep them housed. I’m not going to say that I don’t do evictions, because I do…I have to. It is part of our job. It is absolutely the worst part of the job, but it’s something we have to do. But, we try to use that as the last resort if we can.
I think educating the building owners is also important to get more people to participate in the programs. Sometimes owners have a stigma or they hear things and say “Oh, I don’t want to use these programs.” We’ve had some great tenants that have been on programs, and I’ve had tenants that were not good and were not on a program, so it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter where the money comes from, it’s about the person now. When owners understand that the programs are the tenants, it really doesn’t matter where the money comes from. It’s all about controlling the property and making sure that it’s a good fit for everybody.
CL: Can you tell me a bit more about your project developing seven single-family homes to provide affordable housing in an older area outside New Orleans?
TR: The area is kind of an older area that nobody was paying attention to, but it’s really kind of right in the middle of a lot of commerce outside of New Orleans in Jefferson Parish. We just broke ground on development, so I’m very excited about that. The seven houses are going to be for sale, but they’re going to be kind of entry level and they’re custom to some degree. I would call it a modified custom, because I didn’t want them to be cookie cutter. I picked out every floor plan and every property personally and tried to appoint each one of them differently. That way, it is similar to someone being able to go and get a custom house, but they’re still close enough where we can be cost-effective on that and sell them at an entry level price point.
CL: When you’re trying to break into the market at entry level, your options are often limited in what you can get. So, leaning your development toward that custom design, being able to almost find that uniqueness that people want in their houses but can’t always afford is very nice.
TR: Here’s the other thing too: our area entrances are so high because of all of the storms and things that we’ve had. It will actually be less expensive for someone to buy our property monthly than it will be for them to buy an existing home because the insurance will be less. It will be built up to current FEMA standards for the flood side of things. Also, because everything is new, the homeowner’s insurance will be less as well. Because of that, it will be even more affordable and cost effective to get people into the properties.
CL: Speaking of affordability, it has been a hot button issue in the past few years and is something which you have a lot of experience in. What is your take on some of the ways the industry can work to help improve this issue?
TR: Well, everybody wants to make money, which I completely understand, but we just have to find ways to cut some of the costs. I think bulk building does help that because you can get better discounts with your vendors, etc. Also, talk to your investors and show them how they can make money. Finding land’s not always the easiest, but you have to think outside the box and go hunting.
People get nervous building in this economy, but there’s a need. Regardless of what is going on in the real estate market, someone still always needs a house. Whether they need to rent or buy a house, they have to have some ground to put it on.
Also, people kind of forget that there’s always a need. There was a time where interest rates were crazy things like 18%. You have to take the current market with a different perspective. It’s still a need regardless of what’s going on in the world. People still need a place to stay, you just have to find a way to make it work. There’s ways to do it if you work through it, step back and assess it.
CL: Something else mentioned in your profile was that you assisted the employees of a local business to help them prevent them from losing their jobs after the owner of the business had passed. What was that experience like, can you tell me a little bit more about that?
TR: That’s actually an interesting story. I had a vendor that I had worked with on the pest control side of the business, literally since my second sale in the business. The owner of the business passed, and the children wanted to sell it off. Instead of just letting it close its doors, we decided to start a business. The general major asked me if I would do it with him, and I said sure. I knew they had taken very good care of me as a customer, so I knew that it would be a good benefit. I also hated to see the employees who had been there for so long lose their job. A lot of them were over 50 and had been with that company for a long time. Although we have not been able to take all of them yet, we have taken three. That’s a start, and I hope to add some more as the company continues to grow, which it is growing.
CL: You are clearly very activist and charity oriented in your real estate career. Would you say more people in the industry should be getting involved like you are?
TR: Definitely. I love it. I really do love it.
Personally, I get it. I came from nothing, grew up in some craziness and had to fight my way to where I’m at today. So I absolutely know that it can be done, but it takes work and effort. You have to want it and see the value in it. Some people don’t see that value. So some of our job as real estate professionals is to show people how they can, if you show people how they can and help them do it, then a lot of times they will.
That is what takes us from being just a real estate agent to an actual real estate professional, someone who is here to actually serve. If you take what we do as real responsibility, take ownership of what our role is and how we really can help people better their lives, that’s a start. Then you go from there.
The motto is to help other people. If you help enough people, you will get the things that you need in life.
CL: Lastly, what does it mean to you to be named as one of RISMedia’s 2025 Real Estate Newsmakers?
TR: I’m flattered. There’s a lot of wonderful people in this industry, and I appreciate the recognition. Hopefully it’ll bring more light to what I’m doing here, and maybe someone can take that and run with it. Hopefully others will look at what we’re doing here and expand on it.
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