Meet Reno, NV Realtor Justin Hertz
- Shay Phillips
- Jun 23
- 5 min read
If you want to understand what it actually takes to build one of the most respected real estate practices in the Greater Reno area, you have to start at the bottom. And for Justin Hertz, the bottom was 2010.
Justin and his wife Mindy had just declared bankruptcy. They had a two-year-old daughter, a mountain of debt from a failed small business, and no clear path forward. Justin had moved to Reno from San Diego back in 2005 to run an online pet products business. For years it worked. Then 2009 hit, Amazon margins evaporated, and the business that had sustained them was no longer worth running. He sold it to an employee for the inventory and walked away with nothing.
What came next is the kind of story that does not get told enough in the real estate industry. Justin got his license in one of the worst markets in recent history, dominated by short sales and foreclosures, with average price points around $150,000. He had no local sphere of influence to draw from. No built-in referral network. No mentor handing him leads. Just the willingness to do the things most people will not do.
"I've always had a chip on my shoulder," Justin told me when we sat down to talk. "I've always felt like nobody was really cheering for me. If anybody doubted me, I'll prove them wrong. I will succeed no matter what."
The Grind That Built the Foundation
In the early days, Justin ran three to four open houses every single weekend without exception. He did floor time. He told other agents he would take any lead they were willing to pass along. He treated every hour away from his wife and young daughter as time that had to produce a result. Not just activity. Results.
About a year in, Mindy saw what was happening and made a decision. She left her job to join him. Justin's honest reaction: he thought it was a terrible idea that would end their marriage quickly. The advice they got from others in the industry changed their minds. Mindy started handling back-end transaction coordination, but after nine months they realized she could do far more. She got her license, and the team of two was official.
The growth that followed was steady and deliberate. From $3.5 million their first year, to $5.5 million, to $8.2 million, and on from there. Today, Justin and Mindy have done over $750 million in combined real estate sales in the Greater Reno area, and their business is built entirely on referrals. They have never paid for a Zillow lead. Not once.
"It's all been totally organic and all relationship driven," Justin said. "And that is, I think, something to be pretty startled by when you get back to being worth nothing in 2009 or 2010."
How Justin and Mindy Actually Work Together
One of the most common questions people ask when they hear that a married couple runs a real estate team together is: how does that actually work without destroying the relationship?
Justin's answer is simple. They stay out of each other's lanes.
Mindy works almost exclusively with buyers. Justin is roughly 90 percent focused on sellers. They are never in the same files at the same time. They do not show property together. They do not discuss business at 8:30 at night because there is no reason to. Their clients are separate. Their transactions are separate. They each run their side of the business and come together as partners, not as co-managers of the same deal.
"I can count on one hand the times in 15 years that we've shown property together," Justin said. "To me it doesn't make any sense. It's totally inefficient."
What he brings to the seller side is a precise process: studying the property, running the comps, pricing it correctly, and handling the marketing with intention. What Mindy brings to the buyer side is a patience and a nurturing quality that Justin freely admits she is better at than he is. The division works because both people are honest about where they add the most value.
What Justin Looks for in a Transaction Partner
After 16 years and $750 million in volume, Justin has worked alongside a lot of agents and lenders. He has a clear view of who makes a transaction easier and who makes it a nightmare.
It is not always about experience. Justin coaches a small group of newer agents and is quick to point out that character matters more than years in the business. You can tell within minutes of a first phone call whether someone is going to be a pleasure to work with or a problem. Professionalism, responsiveness, and a genuine effort to solve problems rather than create them. Those are the signals he watches for.
"There's plenty of experienced agents that are a nightmare to deal with," he said. "And there are new agents that are lovely and professional and communicative and work to solve problems."
On the lending side, Justin is equally direct. A bad lender, in his view, is one who cannot communicate, cannot perform, and responds to problems with excuses rather than solutions. He referenced a line from The Departed: "I'm the guy that does my job. You must be the other guy." That is his standard for everyone in a transaction, himself included.
He also makes a point that is worth hearing for anyone who has ever worked with an agent who constantly mentions how busy they are. Nobody wants to hear it. Clients want to feel like they are the priority. Whether Justin is managing eight escrows or two, every client gets the same level of attention, response time, and care.
"The $300,000 first-time home buyer gets the same level of respect and treatment as the $1.5 million client. That's just about treating people the way they should be treated."
The Client Appreciation Benchmark
One of the most telling measures of what Justin and Mindy have built is not the dollar volume. It is the people who show up.
A few weeks before we sat down, they hosted a client appreciation event. Trivia night, custom charcuterie boards, ice cream bar, drinks. One Sunday afternoon, four to six. Casual, intentional, enjoyable.
One hundred and thirty-one people came.
These were not former clients checking a box. These were people who have genuinely become friends over the course of a real estate transaction or two or three. People who come to events because they want to be there. That kind of turnout does not happen by accident. It is the direct result of 16 years of treating every client like the only client.
Want to work with Justin? Connect with him here:
P: 775-223-7555
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