Nicole Lopez

Founder/Realtor
True Houston

Nicole Lopez’s career in real estate was almost predestined to happen. A 34-year-old mother of three living in the Houston Heights, she draws on a 50-year lineage in Houston real estate. It began with her grandmother in the 1970s, continued with both of her parents, and today Nicole is the proud founder of True Houston Real Estate, an all-female real estate team and brokerage firm started in January 2020.

With 10 years of experience in the field working for New Home Sales, and Intero Real Estate, Lopez saw a lack of females in leadership roles, and made it her mission to correct that with a female-led and female-focused company that empowers working mothers to find success in real estate through coaching and mentoring. “I really built the business around what we can do to help the working mom and realtor in the industry,” she says. “We have a very personal approach to how we train and mentor, with one-on-ones with every single agent on my team, every single week. We are very hands-on, measured and meticulous.”

It’s perhaps this credo that makes Lopez such an emblematic tenant on the SheSpace team. Already, she’s taken on agents who were averaging a $30,000 salary in real estate and coached them into earning more than $100,000 a year. “We stay small. I don’t want to be a broker with 100 agents; I rather have women who want to learn and want to be pushed in order to excel.” The pandemic made officing out of Lopez’s Victorian home in the Houston Heights a challenge for the rest of her team, so she shifted the focus of their office space into something that still had a strong female-focused aesthetic but was polished and professional. SheSpace was a standing representation of what True Houston is all about.

After hounding — her words — the SheSpace founders for weeks and a hard-hat visit, Lopez locked eyes with the perfect Private Office for her team, and within a week, a contract was signed. “I needed somewhere my agents could trust when they’re coming in to do work, that it is a safe and clean space for them to be in,” says Lopez. “SheSpace checks all the boxes in terms of that female-focused empowerment that we’re known for. I’m super excited about the opportunity to network with other powerful-minded female entrepreneurs and business owners. That experience on its own (and the pink couches!) is going to be well worth being in this space.”

Lopez, who also owns a home staging company, Modern Moose, and recently started Texas Relief Warriors — donating more than 100,000 in goods such as tarps and generators to Louisiana after Hurricane Laura and subsequent disasters — admittedly wears too many hats, but that’s just how she likes it. Because she thrives, she’s been able to retire her husband, who stays home with the kids while she builds — literally — a strong foundation for her family. “I love my family, but work is my passion,” she says. “I’m really passionate about helping other women build their careers in real estate.”