eXp agent builds top RealTrends Verified team despite cancer battle

Those numbers were good enough for No. 4 in sales volume and No. 5 in transactions sides, ranking among mega teams in Tennessee. MaX House affiliated with eXp in June of last year.

After studying psychology and education at the University of Tennessee (UT), Boatwright sensed that she was destined for an alternate career path.

“I just knew I was great at talking to people and caring, and I went to school initially to be a teacher and also I studied psychology,” she said. “I’ve always loved to understand the inner workings of people, like, ‘Why do you think you behave the way you do?’ Very fascinating stuff. But then, when I graduated from UT, I quickly realized I did not want to be in the classroom setting.”

She also worked with AmeriCorps in inner-city schools before an internship at State Farm proved to be an initial step toward real estate.

Boatwright became a top producer across auto, casualty, life and health insurance lines — buying her first home in early 2017.

However, that transaction left her with a sense that something was lacking.

“I didn’t feel like my agent did that much and was sure I could provide a much better experience to clients,” Boatwright  said. “So, I just started to get my real estate license, and I got that June 19, 2017. My mom thought I was absolutely insane to quit a full-time job and have a mortgage and to say, ‘Hey, I’m going to be unemployed, we’ll see how this goes.’”

The Boattright Group launched in June 2021 and by 2022, she had opened her own team.

Then came the diagnosis that forced her to confront whether she could — or should — continue growing her real estate presence.

The staging appointment

Boatwright’s mother had breast cancer and her aunt died from stage four breast cancer in the 1990s.

Her family history prompted doctors to take her concerns seriously when her husband urged her to call the breast clinic after their son kicked her in the chest.

The staging report delivered worse news than expected. The tumor measured 8 centimeters and had spread to a lymph node.

“Do me a favor and don’t look up numbers based on that again,” Boatwright recalled the doctor saying. “My husband leans towards science, and he’s going to go look and see the data is, so he Googles and then he freaks out.”

At that point, Boatwright was ready to abandon her business plans.

“I didn’t want to open up a firm. I was about to have to fight for my life,” she said. “I was thinking, ‘I can’t do this all. I can’t raise a son who just turned six months, fight for my life and have a brokerage. I just can’t do it.”

A coach’s call changed everything

Boatwright’s coach called unexpectedly that day — connecting her with a Florida team leader who had survived cancer.

“You don’t have to sacrifice one for the other, and at the end of this, you have a really great story, and you’ll write a book one day,” Boatwright said the coach told her.

The advice was practical; identify top producers, formalize training systems and limit direct interactions with personnel.

“[The Florida team leader] and I talked that Saturday,” Boatwright said. “I still live by her advice to this day.  It started with identifying people to replace my production because I was still a producing team leader, like most team leaders start out as.

“I was like, ‘I have all new agents, I wasn’t attracting producers at that point.’”

Boatwright followed through with the plan and her grand opening Sept. 19, 2022 — the same day she underwent full-body scans to determine if the cancer had spread.

Only four people in the crowd knew she what she was dealing with.

“I think that people thought that I was crying because I was first generation for everything, going to college, buying a home, having a business,” Boatwright said. “There’s been a lot of stuff in my background that I’ve had to overcome.”

Chemo and clarity

Boatwright began chemotherapy shortly after he 2022 diagnosis.

Her first four rounds are nicknamed “the Red Devil” in the medical community — with particularly harsh side effects. The oncologist told her upfront the treatment only worked about 30% of the time for her hormone-positive cancer.

“I told them to throw the kitchen sink at it, because I have a whole lot of life ahead of me and I had a baby at home,” Boatwright said.

She had chemotherapy at least every other Thursday while maintaining a regular office schedule and keeping her diagnosis hidden from most colleagues.

That was until Dec. 29, 2022, when she rang the bell signaling the end of treatment.

“A lot of the real estate community did not know until I shared with them that December,” said Boatwright. “They said, ‘You showed up online. You showed up to trainings. You were at the Halloween party.

“You were signing listings, your team was growing and you guys were breaking records. What do you mean you were just going through cancer treatment?'”

The good news

In January 2023, follow-up scans delivered an unexpected result.

“We cannot see any trace of cancer in your body,” Boatwright said doctors told her. “That said the chemo did its job.”

On Feb. 9, 2023, Boatwright underwent a bilateral mastectomy. Surgeons couldn’t find the cancer trail when they put dye in before surgery. Pathology reports confirmed it — no signs of cancer remained.

“I must have over 10,000 photos and videos of my son, because with his first year of life, I didn’t remember a lot of it,” she said. “People will now ask me, ‘How did you manage all that?’ I’m like, ‘I had the most joyful thing to come home to; a smiling, freaking happy, fat baby.’ He kept me grounded and pushing forward.”

Boatwright later learned she is BRCA2 positive, increasing her risk for ovarian, liver, pancreatic and skin cancers — later having surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes.

“Going into menopause as a 33-year-old woman, I’m like, ‘I don’t know how I did all this stuff,’” she said.

Advice for others

Boatwright is now more than six months off her two-year medication and continues taking a 10-year pill.

She’s also writing a book called “The Five-Year Fire” — a reference to the five-year survival mark many cancer survivors chase.

Today, Boatwright runs a $100 million team, watches her son grow and is thriving with agents who share her vision.

While taking pride in her ability to fight through a life-threatening ordeal, she’s thankful for support that stretched across her real estate and personal life.

“The day I got diagnosed, I went to this networking group for women at a local church I’ve never been to,” she said. “My neighbor invited me. They’re like, ‘How can we pray for y’all today?’ I just met them that one time and they delivered dinner to my house every Thursday when I was going through chemo.

“They had something at my door. They sent me flowers. They checked in on me and sent care packages, hydration packages, everything. Get a community that understands you’re going through and will hold you close.”