Finding Joy in Leadership

How Loredana Ghete Found Her Calling in Creating Millionaire Real Estate Agents

Loredana Ghete was eight years old when her home country of Romania became a democracy. The 1991 political transition from communism was accompanied by an economic recession and skyrocketing inflation. When her parents decided to start a business under the new system, Loredana recalled that they took out a business loan, only to see the interest rate balloon from an already high 35 percent to 120 percent – within six months.

Given the fluctuating economy, the way forward wasn’t easy. When her parents asked her to help them sell produce at a local market near her school, Loredana was at first embarrassed to be seen at work selling vegetables – until she had a realization: Earning her own money gave her a freedom her classmates didn’t have, and she began to take pride in her job. Looking back, she said seeing her parents find a way through seemingly insurmountable challenges taught her to take risks – and to never settle.

Starting From Zero as a Real Estate Agent 

Today, Loredana is the general manager of the KW® Georgia Legacy Group, a family of KW® market centers in Alpharetta, Peachtree Corners, and Roswell, Ga. From 2016 to 2020, Loredana worked as an assistant team leader at Keller Williams® North Atlanta, the top producing market center in the Southeast Region, where she helped the market center grow from 137 to 400 agents. As team leader from 2020 to 2024, she and her leadership team added another 300 associates, finishing out the year at a total agent count of 700.

Like all four of her siblings, she had followed her parents’ entrepreneurial path. After marrying her high school sweetheart, Mircea, at the age of 21, the couple opened an Orange Romania cell phone franchise, where Loredana guided her team in achieving their sales goals. The two also began investing in residential real estate, starting with flipping their first home. Loredana and Mircea grew their Orange franchise to 14 stores strong before deciding to sell and relocate to the U.S., a move motivated by a desire to provide their young daughter with more opportunities.

Their decision to emigrate came with major compromises. With her real estate experience and business skills, Loredana knew she wanted to become a licensed real estate agent in the States. When Keller Williams’ culture and values proved a natural fit, she signed on with KW® North Atlanta and never looked back. But with no local contacts in Atlanta, she had to start from zero.

Shifting From Entrepreneurship to Leadership at KW® North Atlanta

Loredana set herself a goal to make 20 contacts a day just from door-knocking, and the experience left her feeling humbled. “It taught me a lot,” she said. Yet, while many new agents leave the industry within their first year, Loredana said her background gave her a different perspective. In contrast to Romania, the systems for building a business in the U.S. felt like a well-oiled machine. “When you come from encountering a lot of difficulties in everything that you want to do in a business environment, and you come into an easier environment, I think that that gives you a head start,” she said. With her parents as her example and her husband by her side, Loredana was determined to build her business.

Her dedication paid off, leading to her first listing – and it wasn’t long before her energy and work ethic garnered recognition in her market center. In 2015, less than a year into building her client base, Loredana was invited to serve as KW® North Atlanta’s director of agent services. But instead of leaping at the chance, she countered the offer with resistance. While the position would put her on a path to leadership, she’d always owned her own business, and she’d have to put aside what she’d begun building as an agent. It also meant starting off with a pay cut and working her way up in the market center.

Loredana took the offer home to her husband for discussion. “We talked about what made us successful in Romania,” she said, “and we realized that, honestly, success is not about how much money you make. It’s about the relationships you build and the influence that you build,” Loredana recalled. “So we said, how do we build influence faster? Is it through selling real estate and building a business, or through a leadership path?” As they assessed their options, Mircea asked Loredana one simple question: “What brings you joy?” The answer was clear to them both. While it would take longer to build up her income, Loredana felt she could make a greater impact in a leadership role than as an independent agent. The role would play to her experience and build on her inherent strengths. Loredana took the job.

Traveling the Path to Team Leader

Melba Franklin, who was then serving as KW® North Atlanta’s interim team leader, was immediately impressed with Loredana’s performance. “Loredana exceeded the expectations of the job within a short period of time. She was just amazing,” she recalled. Melba saw how Loredana’s strengths as an entrepreneur translated to her new role. “I think that mindset of understanding how business works … was one of the biggest assets that she brought to real estate,” Melba said. Melba helped Loredana set a vision for the next 10 years of her career, and she continues to serve as her mentor today.

The new role allowed Loredana to learn KW’s technology, models, and systems at a deep level. In 2017, she was appointed assistant team leader, and two years later, she took up the team leader post. But since she’d never herself sold $1 million in real estate, Loredana questioned if she really had the credentials to coach, train, and consult high-performing agents. That’s when she decided to make The Millionaire Real Estate Agent her guidebook and adopt “Millionaire Maker” as her personal tagline.”The MREA became my accessory,” Loredana said. When she held her first ALC meeting, she remembers saying, “I’m not going to teach you how to go on a listing appointment. You guys are experts in that. I’m going to bring my business background and we’re going to combine that with the MREA systems and models, and we’re going to help you build businesses bigger than you ever thought possible.” Rather than serving as the source of truth, she saw her role as a facilitator of knowledge and creator of a community in which agents could learn from one another.

Creating Millionaire Real Estate Agents

In her new position as team leader, Loredana set herself a new goal to have 10 Millionaire Real Estate Agents in their market center within two years. In typical fashion, she exceeded expectations, helping 12 agents reach MREA status before the end of 2024. In the process, Loredana has observed the significance wealth building has in the life of her agents, and how it cascades out into the community.

She says most people have a sense that they’ve arrived when they hit earnings of $500,000 a year – a point at which they have their pick of homes, cars, schools for their kids, and other comforts. For those who decide to take their business further and attain MREA status, however, she’s noticed their goals change dramatically. “When I have conversations with these people, it is not about them and what they want for the immediate family,” Loredana said. “It’s about the impact that they have on the community – on the people around them … And it is so beautiful to watch and see what people can do,” she said.As a team leader, Loredana has held more than 4,000 recruiting appointments and brought on more than 1,6200 agents to Keller Williams® North Atlanta. She said she loves her job because she believes in the power of the company’s culture, models, and systems to change lives – for entrepreneurs and leaders, both. For her part, she said, “When people ask me ‘Why KW?’, I think I’m always, forever, going to be loyal to this company because I have never seen an organization that focuses on helping you as a whole – as a human being – become a better version of yourself. Because [then] everything else falls into place.”

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