Have You Ever Walked Into a Networking Event Where You Felt Like You Didn't Belong?
Have You Ever Walked Into a Networking Event Where You Felt Like You Didn't Belong?
I am going to be honest with you about something I have never said publicly. For years, I felt like the Home Builders Association of Greater Tulsa was a clique, a circle with an inside that I was not quite part of. I never joined. I always carried this quiet sense that there was a table somewhere I had not been invited to sit at.
But I showed up anyway.
I volunteered at the Home and Garden Show for years. I walked the Parade of Homes. I attended the events. To be honest, I was in the rooms even when I was not sure I had a right to be there. But, the people I found in those rooms changed my life.
What the Home Builders Association of Greater Tulsa Actually Does
Before I tell you about the people, let me tell you about the organization, because most Tulsa home buyers, sellers, and even newer real estate agents do not fully understand the scope of what the HBA produces in this city.
The Home Builders Association of Greater Tulsa has served the Tulsa metro since the late 1940s, and its builder members construct nearly 70 percent of the new homes built each year in the Tulsa metro area. They are, in the truest sense, the engine of new construction in this market. Their mission is to advocate for the home building industry while promoting ethical business practices and keeping housing a local priority, and that mission shows up in several major annual events that every Tulsa real estate professional and home buyer should know about.
What events does the Home Builders Association of Greater Tulsa produce?
The Home Builders Association of Greater Tulsa produces four major annual events that serve both the building industry and the general public.
The Tulsa Home and Garden Show is a cherished Tulsa tradition since 1949, featuring over 400 exhibitors as the premier home improvement event of the year, running four days each March at Expo Square.
The Greater Tulsa Parade of Homes is the annual new home showcase featuring more than 100 homes from more than 40 builders, running nine days each June with free admission across the Tulsa metro.
The Designer Showcase is a 45-plus year tradition partnering with the Foundation for Tulsa Schools, featuring the work of Tulsa's most talented interior designers in a spectacular showcase home open to the public each May.
The Home Remodeling Showcase features newly remodeled homes across multiple Tulsa locations each September.
For event details, schedules, and volunteer opportunities, visit https://www.tulsahba.com.
The People You Find When You Show Up to Rooms You Almost Skipped
I want to tell you about the people.
Gary Fears was with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, and I met him volunteering at the Home and Garden Show. Not at a formal networking event, not through a referral, but in the middle of a volunteer shift, doing the work, showing up for a community that did not yet know my name. Gary became a friend, the kind you make when you are both showing up for something bigger than yourselves and you happen to find each other in the middle of it. That is the magic that happens in volunteer rooms and never quite happens at name-tag events. We went to the lake, had dinner, got into several shenanigans, and most importantly laughed our butts off. 💜
Stacy Pennington and Mary Pearce were always there too, consistently and reliably, the kind of people who anchor a room and make everyone in it feel more welcome. I watched them show up year after year, and I learned something from both of them: consistency is its own form of leadership. Our friendship goes deeper than I have words to describe.
And then there was Eric.
Eric Peaden 💛
I met Eric Peaden in 2005. He was larger than life from the moment I knew him, and that is not a cliche when I say it about Eric. It is a precise description of the energy he brought into every room, every conversation, and every project he touched.
He started out working with Alan Jenkins and went on to build Silvercrest Homes. He was a builder in the fullest sense of the word, not only of structures but of relationships, of community, of the kind of professional culture that makes an industry worth being part of. Eric would be so proud of where things have gone.
His daughter Hayley is now absolutely crushing the Tulsa real estate market alongside my former business partner Tiffany Martin. The Martin-Bakovic Real Estate Team at Coldwell Banker Select is helping buyers, sellers, and investors across Tulsa build the kind of life and financial future that Eric poured himself into building for others. Tiffany and Eric dated for several years, and in that time she built a relationship with Hayley that time and loss could not break. Now those two women are out here building something extraordinary together in the city Eric loved.
Eric Peaden built more than homes. He built people, and the proof is still out there every single day. 💙
Eric fought cancer the way he fought everything else, with everything he had, with his spirit fully intact, with the kind of courage that makes everyone around him stand a little taller. We lost Eric in 2016, eleven years after I met him in a room I almost did not walk into.
I still think about him and how proud he would be of his daughter. I think about him when I walk into rooms where builders and realtors are building something together. I think about him when I meet a young agent who reminds me of the person I was when we first connected, and when I remember what it means to be larger than life not because of your achievements but because of the way you made people feel. The most important thing will never be the titles you have held or the money you have made. It will be the kind of person you have become, and Eric Peaden was exactly that kind of person. 💙
What Every New Tulsa Real Estate Agent Needs to Know About the HBA
Here is the practical truth I want every new agent in Tulsa to hear. You do not have to join the HBA to benefit from it. You just have to show up.
The Home and Garden Show runs every March at Expo Square, four days, over 400 exhibitors, the largest selection of home improvement and garden experts in Oklahoma. Walk it. Volunteer if you can. Talk to the exhibitors, learn what homeowners are interested in, and build relationships with the businesses that serve the same clients you serve.
The Parade of Homes runs every June, free, across the Tulsa metro. Walk every home you can, learn what builders are building, and learn what buyers are responding to so you understand what new construction looks like at every price point from $250,000 to over a million dollars. This is your ongoing education in the Tulsa new construction market, and it costs you nothing but time.
The Designer Showcase runs every May and the Home Remodeling Showcase every September, and these events introduce you to the designers, remodelers, and contractors who serve your clients. The more you know about the full ecosystem of the Tulsa real estate and building community, the more valuable you are to every buyer and seller you represent.
How can new real estate agents in Tulsa use HBA events to build their network?
New real estate agents in Tulsa can use HBA events to build a strong professional network by attending and volunteering at the four major annual events produced by the Home Builders Association of Greater Tulsa: the Home and Garden Show each March, the Designer Showcase each May, the Parade of Homes each June, and the Home Remodeling Showcase each September. Volunteering at these events, as I did at the Home and Garden Show for years, creates organic relationship-building opportunities that formal networking events cannot replicate. Volunteers work alongside builders, designers, contractors, and community professionals in a low-pressure environment where genuine friendships form naturally. For information on volunteer opportunities at HBA events, contact Events Director Sarah Gentry at [email protected] or visit https://www.tulsahba.com.
Why I Send Every New Legacy Realty Advisors Agent to HBA Events
At Legacy Realty Advisors, we believe the quality of your professional relationships determines the quality of your career. Not your marketing budget, not your social media following, but your relationships.
The HBA of Greater Tulsa is one of the best relationship-building ecosystems in this city for a real estate professional. The builders you meet at the Parade of Homes become the builders you refer your buyers to. The designers you meet at the Designer Showcase become the stagers you recommend to your sellers. The contractors you meet at the Remodeling Showcase become the people you call when a buyer needs work done before they list.
I did not join the HBA, but I showed up consistently for years, and the relationships I built in those rooms, with Gary Fears, with Stacy Pennington, with Mary Pearce, with Eric Peaden, are part of the foundation that Legacy Realty Advisors is built on. You do not need a membership card to belong somewhere. You just need to keep showing up.
3-2-1 Takeaway
As one of my favorite real estate leaders Brian Buffini, says, "Education without implementation is only entertainment."
3 Things You Learned
The Home Builders Association of Greater Tulsa produces four major annual events every Tulsa real estate professional and home buyer should know: the Home and Garden Show each March, the Designer Showcase each May, the Parade of Homes each June, and the Home Remodeling Showcase each September. HBA builder members construct nearly 70 percent of the new homes built in the Tulsa metro each year. Across the full calendar, these events are the best ongoing education in the Tulsa new construction and home improvement market available to any real estate professional.
You do not have to be a member of the HBA to benefit from its events. Showing up consistently, volunteering when possible, and treating every person in those rooms as a potential lifelong connection is the strategy that builds the kind of network that produces a 25-year career. I built relationships at HBA events for years before I ever considered a membership, and those relationships shaped Legacy Realty Advisors.
The people you meet in rooms you almost did not walk into are sometimes the most important connections of your life. Gary Fears, Stacy Pennington, Mary Pearce, and Eric Peaden are names that represent friendships built in volunteer shifts and event hallways that lasted years and decades. Eric Peaden, builder and friend, fought cancer with extraordinary spirit and was lost in 2016, and his memory lives in every room I walk into.
2 Things to Share
Share this with a new real estate agent in Tulsa who is trying to figure out where to start building their network. The HBA events are the answer, free or low cost, open to anyone, and full of the builders, designers, contractors, and community professionals who refer business to the agents they know and trust.
Share this with someone who has ever felt like an outsider in a room they walked into anyway. That feeling does not mean you do not belong. It means you are growing, so keep showing up.
1 Thing to Do Right Now
Visit https://www.tulsahba.com and bookmark the events calendar, then look ahead to the full year of events, starting with the Home Remodeling Showcase on September 12 and 13, 2026. Show up. Volunteer if you can. Talk to everyone. And if you are a real estate agent in Tulsa who wants to be part of a brokerage that builds with this kind of intentionality and community connection, book a conversation with me at Legacy Realty Advisors today. Book here: https://link.cncsdirect.com/widget/booking/2BPftOW1aYttaxdttERz
