For Zach Richmond, The Woodlands has always been home. You could even go as far to say the community is in his blood, as his father was one of the first employees of The Woodlands in 1972, two years before the official township gates opened.

This love for The Woodlands drove Richmond to obtain his real estate license in 2016. Richmond encouraged his mother-in-law, Marlys Mulkey, to leave behind her real estate business in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and to join him in founding the Richmond Realty Group.

Despite being a DFW native, the draw of a successful family business—plus the idea of living near her future grandkids—was enough to draw her to The Woodlands.

“I actually couldn't imagine loving this place more than the DFW area, but I do,” Mulkey said. “I wouldn't move back even if I had the choice because I love being here. The people are just so wonderful. It’s such a tight knit community.”

Richmond and Mulkey knew from the start they wanted their real estate team to feel different than the others.

“The citizens and the residents here are really the lifeblood of The Woodlands,” Richmond said. “We've worked with over 525 families, and we've just been so blessed to just meet so many amazing people along the way that have become our friends.”

Along with close family ties, another large part of the business clearly sticks out: their core values. Together, Richmond and Mulkey sat down for about a month just hashing out who they are as a business and what they wanted to present to the community.

“What does integrity in business look like? What do we believe? For us, we spent a lot of time on our foundation,” Richmond said. “That foundation is the key to any successful business. As we grew, we knew we needed to have core values that meant something to not only the community, but to us.”

For that reason, Richmond and his team base everything they do around three core values: to serve to the best of their God-given ability, exceed expectations always, and to give time and resources back to the community.

“A big part of that too, was that we felt like our job was more than just real estate,” Richmond said. “We are community servants, and we wanted to be community leaders.”

The hard work has paid off, as Richmond Realty Group won Best of the Woodlands, an annual online survey only The Woodlands residents can vote on, three years in a row. This year, the team won first place for Best Real Estate Agent/Realtor.

“We're fortunate to win [other awards] but this one is really one that is voted on by the residents of The Woodlands. If you're not in The Woodlands area, you can't actually vote,” Richmond said. “It is something that is such an incredible blessing for the community to take personal time out of their day [to vote on].”

In addition to winning Best of The Woodlands, Richmond Realty Group became its own independent brokerage last summer.

Along with their five other team members, Richmond and Mulkey pride themselves on being the homegrown brokerage that reflects the values of the community. Understanding that a home purchase is most people’s largest investment, they work hard to serve their clients in every price range---from starter homes to luxury estates.

What also helps them stand out is the team’s ability to relate to clients at every age and stage in life. From people of all ages, both women and men, including Spanish-speaking home

buyers and sellers, the team has a realtor for every buyer or seller.

The team focuses on taking care of their clients every step of the way whether it’s their first time buying a house or the fifteenth time. Additionally, their concierge service--from the beginning of the home selling and buying process through closing and beyond closing--sets them apart.

“We really do everything we possibly can to take the weight and stress off of our clients,” Mulkey said.

Richmond Realty Group goes above and beyond to try and treat each client like a VIP and have them feel like family after the process is complete.

“I hope that we did such a good job that we never have to sell them a home ever again,” Richmond said.

The above story was produced by Community Impact's Storytelling Multi-Platform Journalist Sierra Rozen with information solely provided by the local business as part of their "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team. Our integrity promise to our readers is to clearly identify all CI Storytelling posts so they are separate from the content decided upon, researched and written by our journalism department.