From Two Houses in Five Months to $45M a Year with Bunny Terry

In 2012, three months after moving to Santa Fe, Bunny Terry was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. She has a letter from that year, written so she could cash out her life insurance, saying she had twelve months.

This is what she built afterwards.

She sold two houses in her first five months at a new brokerage and borrowed money from her son to attend a conference. Today she is on a pace of roughly $45 million a year — $12.5M in 2023, $18.5M in 2024, just over $30M in 2025 — and more than 85% of it comes from her digital presence.

The mechanics are unglamorous and she says so. 5,700 Instagram followers. B-roll bought from a local kid with a drone. A Thursday email listing three things happening Friday, three Saturday, three Sunday, with the weather and a reminder to bring a jacket. Nobody has unsubscribed in three months.

The principle: “We’re not talking about how we do real estate. We’re talking about how you live in our city.”

There is also a 67-year-old on her team who told her he did not want anyone to see his face. He now posts four or five videos a week and gets a call a day from them.

CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open 00:22 Welcome 01:06 Meet Bunny Terry — Santa Fe, 22 years, $45M pace 01:23 A paralegal who became a realtor out of necessity 02:19 Ranches and lake property in a town of 1,100 05:05 Moving to Santa Fe — and a stage 4 diagnosis 07:05 The partners who kept splitting commissions 08:34 Showing up every day in a market where she knew nobody 09:46 Two houses in five months, and borrowing from her son 10:45 Building community before building a pipeline 12:10 Her father’s answer: “I’d have to be two people” 14:03 A prognosis letter, and choosing your perspective 17:35 The red notebook and the daily top three 20:58 Your brain finds what you tell it to look for 24:02 Breaking into a closed market with a blog 26:09 “I’m not 22” — putting her face on video at 60 28:04 The numbers: $12.5M to $30M to a $45M pace 28:42 Hiring a full-time marketing director 29:39 Why Santa Fe is a second-home market 31:16 The 67-year-old who refused to be on camera 31:56 Sell the city, not the house 32:54 The Thursday email nobody unsubscribes from 34:07 Consistency wins — and no marketing is bad marketing 36:01 “I am an expert at starting over” 36:30 Golden nuggets 39:29 The question that changed after loss 41:31 Favorite book: U Squared by Price Pritchett 43:20 Being purposeful, and nearly quitting 44:08 Where to find Bunny

FIND BUNNY Instagram: @therealbunnyterrysantafe Book: Lifesaving Gratitude, on Amazon

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