ROOTS

Tasha Locks was born into Nevada County. Her family has called this corner of California home for three generations, and that depth of place — the land, the history, the particular character of Gold Country — is not background color. It is the foundation everything else is built on.

At 19 Tasha became a Realtor and was voted Rookie of the Year by her peers. By 20 years old, Tasha began investing in real estate on her own and, that same year, was recognized as a Top 10 Realtor among over 100 Realtors and Masters Club member by the Nevada County Association of Realtors. That early credibility was not beginner’s luck — it was the start of a career now spanning 25 years, backed deep expertise across the full range of Gold Country real estate.

Tasha holds both a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in Community Development — fields of study that treat land, housing, and place as instruments of human well-being. That academic grounding is not incidental to her real estate practice; it is the lens through which she reads a neighborhood, evaluates a property’s potential, and advises clients on decisions that will shape their financial lives for decades.

Tasha founded a youth-led nonprofit that grew into a nationally recognized organization serving youth and young adults across multiple states. Over 15 years of leadership, she built major institutional partnerships and personally secured millions in funding and support from U.S. Senators to sustain programs at scale. That chapter was not a detour from real estate — it was an extension of the same core belief: that stable housing, strong communities, and access to opportunity are inseparable from one another.

Tasha’s real estate practice is relationship-based, not transaction-based. She takes time to understand where a client is in their life — not just what they are buying or selling — because real estate done well is one of the most powerful wealth-building tools a family can access, and it deserves to be treated that way. Long before she applied that thinking to real estate, she was building marketing from the ground up — first as a young Realtor, for her nonprofit, then for other businesses and agencies — learning early that the way you present something shapes how people understand its value. That instinct now drives how she approaches every listing: each home gets a custom marketing and design strategy built around what makes it singular, because no two properties tell the same story and no template does a home justice. Her new Built on Gold brand being developed reflects that same conviction — that Gold Country living, with its historic homes, wide-open land, and deep local roots, deserves to be shown, not just sold.

The 99 Foundation is Tasha’s new community philanthropic initiative, with operations funded directly by her real estate business. She commits 10 percent of her revenue to sustaining its operations and fundraising initiatives — supporting donor-directed community impact at the grassroots level. This is not a marketing gesture. It is a structural commitment that means every transaction Tasha closes puts money back into the community where her clients live and where she was raised.

• Nevada County and Gold Country real estate
• Historic and character homes
• Relocation and lifestyle moves
• Land, acreage, and rural properties
• First-time and local move-up buyers
• Downsizing and life transitions
• Relationship-based real estate strategy
• Community connection and local expertise

Because who you move with matters.