Maureen Green
In this weekly column, real estate agents across the nation share stories of the lessons they’ve learned during their time in the industry.
When you’re first starting out in real estate, there’s a steep learning curve. For award-winning TV anchor and newspaper writer Maureen Green, the way to add value in her new real estate career was to draw on her past experience.
Find out how she became the trusted voice of Cape Cod real estate by creating great content and built a community of fans, followers and clients.
How long have you been in the business?
I have been in the real estate business since January 2013. After my four children grew up and moved away from Syracuse, New York, I relocated to my Cape Cod vacation home.
I interviewed at the brokerages with the most for-sale signs in my market: Kinlin Grover Real Estate. I have been with them ever since.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
In five years, I expect to be a little better at everything than I am today.
What’s one big lesson you’ve learned in real estate? How did you learn it?
That real estate agents send out a ton of useful information, if only you’re willing to notice. Wouldn’t we all like to be one-on-one mentored by the top producer in any brokerage? Well, those agents are too busy and perhaps too territorial, so you’ve got to observe them quietly from a distance.
See how they comport themselves, how they treat other agents, how they never jump into the gossip or say a negative word about their clients or their deals, even though you know that in sheer numbers, they get plenty of clunkers, too.
There is an agent in my office who is tremendously successful, professional and kind, who has been a model for me, and someday I intend to tell her so (although if she reads Inman, she may figure it out for herself when she sees this).
What advice would you give to new agents?
My advice for new agents is what I read from Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and what worked for me early on. He said, if you focus on what you’re good at, you’ll actually make a lot of progress.
The law, the software, the office protocol — it’s all overwhelming at first. So in the early days of my new real estate career, I started a real estate blog. It was therapeutic from my old days as a TV news anchor and reporter, and I built up a solid library of real estate topics.
In short order, people who were searching for information — about Cape Cod flood zones, things to do, etc. — came upon my blog and contacted me for help. I didn’t have much confidence in my real estate abilities back then, but I was comfortable in my ability to research things, so the latter fed the former.
Even if you’re new to real estate, you’re “old” at something. Use it to your full advantage. Chances are, you might be better than the most experienced agents at that one thing.
Are you an agent with a story everyone can learn something from? Reach out to us (contributors@Inman.com). We look forward to featuring more of our best agents and brokers in a future edition of “Lesson learned.”
Christy Murdock Edgar is a Realtor, freelance writer, coach, and consultant with Writing Real Estate. Follow Writing Real Estate on Facebook, Twitter or Instag
