What Makes a Great Real Estate Professional? Insights from Mary Foerster

What does it mean to move from selling homes to connecting people with the right real estate professionals across the country?

In this special episode of Real Estate Connections, the tables are turned as Julie DeLucca-Collins interviews host Mary Foerster about her journey from full-time realtor to referral-based connector and national podcast creator.

Mary shares:

• Why relocating reshaped her real estate career
• What a referral agent actually does
• The three qualities buyers value most in a real estate professional
• How trust and responsiveness outrank skill in client priorities
• What questions buyers should ask before hiring an agent
• Why collaboration drives long-term success in real estate

Mary entered real estate during the 2009 downturn and built her business by referral, focusing on client-first service. After relocating, she recognized the power of local expertise and leaned into her strength as a connector, helping buyers and sellers find trusted professionals nationwide.

Julie DeLucca-Collins, founder of Go Confidently Services and host of Casa De Confidence with over 370 episodes, guides the conversation. As a podcast strategist and confidence coach for women entrepreneurs, Julie helps leaders build authority and visibility through meaningful conversations.
Learn more: https://goconfidentlycoaching.com/resources-women-empowerment

This episode is a reminder that real estate is not just about transactions. It is about people, trust, and relationships that open doors.

This episode is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.

Transcript

0:00

Hi, everyone, and welcome to Real Estate Connections. Today's episode is a little different because the tables are turned. Usually I'm the one asking the questions, bringing you conversation with experienced professionals from across the country to help you make smarter, more confident real estate decisions. But today I'm the guest, and we're talking about my journey in real estate and how I transitioned from being a traditional full-time realtor to becoming a referral-based connector and why I believe now more than ever that works and matters. Welcome to Real Estate Connections podcast, where relationships open doors. I'm Mary Forrester, and housing is a universal need. We are often thinking about our existing housing, our future housing, that possibly of family members. This is where you're going to hear the issues and the people who are working the issues every day. Please hit subscribe and like if you find this podcast helpful to you. Thank you. Well this is going to be a fun episode, Mary. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to do this. Interviewing individuals is always so fun and delightful for me, especially when I get to talk to people who I admire and who I am a fan of. And of course, you just launched your podcast and today's episode is giving the listeners a little bit of an opportunity to learn more about who you are because to know you is to love you. And you're wearing different hats throughout the years, Mary. I have. How does that let you to shift from being a traditional realtor to becoming a referral based connector? Oh, that's easy. A couple of reasons. When you learn to be a realtor, which I did in Northern Virginia, I was with a company called Weikert at the time. And you learn how to build your business and you're so focused on building a business and connecting with people and then knowing the world that you're serving, right? Knowing the kind of housing, understanding, not so much neighborhoods as communities and all that knowledge is part of who you are. And in 2017, we moved to Boston and we did for family reasons. And I had been active realtor for probably about nine years by then. And to be a realtor in Massachusetts is a very different experience. But primarily I would say because everything is so town focused in Massachusetts, towns, not counties. That means you had to know the towns and the personalities of the communities. And I had to know about something called a boiler. And I know you know, do you know what a boiler is? Oh yeah, I know what a boiler is. Okay. And we don't have those in Northern Virginia. We didn't have those. We had HVAC systems. And to understand what a boiler was, a furnace. My parents would have called it a furnace. And those are the kinds of things that I had no knowledge of. The other thing, there's a lot of antique homes in New England. Whereas in Northern Virginia, there was a big, big, big surge of building from 1979 as it was here. However, there still is a lot of antique housing around here. That provides its own challenges. So I couldn't be as expert as I wanted to be. So I just joined the team and helped do some training and went into referral, which means that when people said to me, Mary, I'm thinking about doing X, Y and Z with my property. I would say, talk to a really strong agent or talk to a lender. If you haven't talked to a lender yet, talk to experts. And so that was easy for me to do. And in full disclosure, when realtors refer people to other realtors and the contract closes, the escrow, as they say in California, closes, then the referring agent receives part of a commission. So that's full disclosure, right? So that's what I do. And I love it because I'm a networker. You are a networker. And I love that about you. It's interesting that you're talking about a furnace. When I moved from New York City to Connecticut, we have a furnace. And in New York City, for those of you who don't know, when you're too hot, because most of the heating buildings, the heating in the buildings is just a furnace too, but it's all preset. There's no way to adjust it in your apartment. Typically what you do is you just open a window without thinking of the cost of oil. And when I moved here, the first time I was too hot, I opened the window and my husband, my new husband at the time said, "How are you doing? Are you crazy?" And I know that there's so many different nuances, right? And I know that having lived in Florida and Northern Virginia, there's different things that you as an individual living in a new area adjust, but definitely as a professional in real estate, that definitely has got to be an adjustment. Now, was there a moment for you, Mary, where you realized that this was the lane that you were meant to be in? I think it's... When you're a realtor and you're building your own business, you are working so much and you're always thinking about it. It's like my husband with his PhD, always thinking about it, it's always on your mind. It was an adjustment to not get phone messages. Nobody's calling you. Because I was a pretty ready answer of the phone. Now, text, of course. And so there were losses, there were changes and losses. And then seeing other people, other people in the prime of their career out there doing great things, doing really, really great things. However, I stayed connected to an office and I kept learning. And the most amazing thing happened, which is this young woman in the office whose name was Mary, Mary Elliott. It was the end of COVID and we had had a daily call to how to support our clients, how to support our team, how to support our neighbors during COVID. And so this young woman came to me at the end of COVID and she said, "Would you like to join a podcast?" And I said, "So what's a podcast?" And she said, "Well, it's where we talk about what's really important and in this case, real estate." And she invited another Mary. So Mary Forrester, Mary McCauley, Mary Elliott, and we became married to real estate. And it was fun. It was fun. And we started out just being real estate focused. However, we wanted to be something to everybody and it became more and more local, the podcast. And we have about 50 episodes. Mary Elliott stepped out, but Mary McCauley and I had about, I was told about 50 episodes and we enjoyed talking to people so much. And some of it was about real estate. Right, right. Of course. But we found out it was really about the people, right? It was about the people. Mary was a full-time realtor and so her providers were great resources. We had some terrific episodes. But the other thing, Julie, is it was a very localized podcast. Gotcha. Yeah. And we didn't put in what was needed to make it a wider audience. We were busy. We were doing other things. And so this podcast evolved from people like you because I started going to New England Podcasters, a new group. And there are people in that group whose podcasts are global. Global. Number two in the world. And I thought, well, wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to share real estate information? Like there's exciting stuff going on, accessory dwelling units, all kinds of needs for how do we expand the housing inventory? And so as I was thinking about it, I thought, hmm, Mary didn't want to seem to kind of head that way. And I thought, well, maybe I could start a more national podcast. And the fun part about being a realtor, I was, it became a realtor in 09. It was in the great financial recession, depression, whatever it was called in those days. And I hooked up with a group, group coaching from California, Lufini and company. And I learned how to build a business by referral. And the first and foremost rule is do the best job you can do. And then your clients will refer you to other people and you can ask them indeed. You can keep in touch with them indeed. But first and foremost, so there is a network, a whole lot of people all over this country for whom that is their goal. And that's a tremendous resource all over the place. Do your clients business first and for them. So it's a long answer to kind of get around what was going on. So I have been exposed to other people's podcasts in which they have a really far reach. I've done 50 on my own and there's so much information to share with the public. Not the professional public only, but the average public. The average person. The average, right. Absolutely. I think that the podcast, the real estate connections, right? The real estate connections. For me has a couple of different meanings. I am a connector. I love connecting and I don't know if people can actually see behind me. Actually there's a little, no, you can't because I'm framed differently, but there's a sign and a little rent sign that says connection. Because it's a reminder to me like you, my business is based on referral as well. And I do believe that the greatest gift that we can give someone is not only to provide them with the right support, the service, but also allow them to know that they found the right person and they shouldn't be afraid to let their network, their friends, their family, their colleagues know that they have the right resource for them. And I believe that's important. Exactly. And you and Dan were referred to me. That's right. We refer to you. And I would refer people to you and Dan as well. And it's because you're good. In my opinion, you're very good at what you do and that's what I want to do. Yeah. And that for me, and like I was mentioning, that whole connection, sometimes I wish that I could have learned and that I had the level of education when it comes to real estate much sooner than I did. And because of making these connections of how things work can really be able to influence somebody and what they, the next steps that they take in their own life, whether they're buying property or whether they're looking to sell or whatever, anything in between. And I know that your podcast is a podcast not only to share knowledge, but to educate and to provide support to individuals who may be looking to learn more. Indeed. And then so information is the first and foremost goal, right? And the second is to be inspired. Some of my early guests are so inspiring about what they've done in the real estate world. And the next ones are going to be two. And then the third part is that they're successful because they collaborate. And that's the message I want to say. Nobody gets successful on their own. We keep hearing that. What does that mean? That means, yeah, we find that we find the strong, strong providers or I remember when I first became a realtor in Northern Virginia, it was the recession. Loans were like you had to give your first born, right? And you had to put 20% down and the underwriters were like really, really coming down hard. And they had to because they had taken so much loss over the prior years with sub primes and whatever else was going on. As my friend, Maureen would say shenanigans, whatever else was going on. So lenders had to be extremely cautious. I remember the joy, the joy of the day when I found somebody could do an 80, 10, 10, which meant they could put down, they could borrow 80%, they could borrow another 10% and they just had to put down 10%. That's great. And I found a strong provider, a bank, and I just spread the word. And you get an 80, 10, 10 at this bank and it helped our clients so much and it helped them realize their real estate dreams. That's so good. I love that. And I think that one of the examples that I've had in my life is my ex-husband's parents who when again, were in friendly terms and his parents were such a great inspiration to me. But they started in when they first got married, they bought a property and it was a duplex and they lived downstairs. They had a tenant upstairs and everything that she earned as a teacher would go to pay off more into that and it would save within the first two years. Not only was their mortgage being paid by their tenant, but they had saved enough to be able to get some equity and then they bought the next duplex. Wonderful. They had a second duplex and then the tenants were paying for their mortgage. And soon enough, I think within five, seven years, by the time my ex-husband was born, they moved to a house and now they had a house and the four- Oh, four multis. Oh, four multis. Yeah. Four units. We call them doors, right? Four doors. Right, right, doors. So they had five doors total is what they had. And then over the course of the years, again, they paid off, I think, each of the units in 15 years and then they bought an apartment building. Wow. And this is a way in which here are two hardworking individuals, right? And that was the one thing that they really instilled in us that you can never go wrong with the investment of real estate. And again, that's their opinion and their experience, you see. But it was such a great lesson. And of course, when my former husband and I married, we bought an apartment in Manhattan. And I will tell you, I saw firsthand how the market can actually shift. And when we first moved into the building, we were renting and we should have bought then, but we didn't. And within a couple of years, that had doubled in price. And within a couple of years, and we bought then, but within the couple of years, it had again doubled. Doubled. And now it's astronomical, but I think that people don't understand the power that they can have. And I think that there's more individuals who are becoming savvy with the information that's available to them now than maybe when I, 20 years ago, didn't necessarily have access to and much other people didn't have access to. Right. The challenge right now, of course, is being able to afford the initial property. And that's the challenge. Average age of home buyer, first time home buyer in Massachusetts is 40, 40 years old. And what does that tell you? People are postponing, but also, I'm asking the money in a very difficult kind of high cost area. But we know so many high cost areas. It's just not here, right? It's many areas. And so I love your story about leverage and that's what your former in-laws did. They leveraged and they leveraged, it sounds carefully. And the important thing is to take a look at that, but to also temper it with your own circumstances. And that's the beauty of finding people out there who are doing this. I tell you, I've seen so many shiny objects that I've pursued and in some cases losses, in some cases, very nice wins. So it's important to do your research, right? And to find people out there doing it and who will caution you? And who will caution you at the same time inspire you, right? Exactly. Exactly. I'm curious, because you've been in the industry for a while, you get to connect with these incredible professionals around the country and you're providing these great resources where people can learn more. What makes a great real estate professional other than that person that is always above and beyond servicing their clients? What are other things people should look for? Well, years ago when I started, I remember a National Association of Realtors Survey because when you're brand new, and I had been salaried my whole life. I was 59 when I started as a realtor. I was nervous because how was I going to start a business? I never had a business before. So as a nervous new realtor, again, not knowing very much, right? I remember the survey from NAR and it said, "What are the three things people look for in a realtor?" And the very first one is trust. The second one is responsiveness. And the third one, the one that I was most nervous about was skill and experience. Third, right? Third. And all these places where you hang your license to learn, they have all kinds of ways of supporting you as you're learning. And we all have our stories. We all have our very first contracts, et cetera, et cetera. So those three, if I had brain cancer, I might look for expertise as the number one, right? But I would want to trust and I would like responsiveness. But those are the ones for people who are wanting to buy or sell a property. I want to trust you. And Julie, don't you think for most businesses we want to be able to trust first? 100%. And one of the things that I teach my clients is be seen, be known, be understood. It really allows you to be able to gain the trust of the person and ultimately, right? The one thing that I think people forget is that it's really key that if you're going to grow a business that is a... We're not selling, you're selling houses, but a lot of times that's also a way in which this is more than just a house where people are going to dwell. They're going to create memories and grow some equity and so many different things. I think that people want to find, not just because anybody can look online now and find a house to buy. Yes, or a realtor. You want to connect with the person that gets you. Right. You want to connect with the person that knows nuances that you don't know. I remember before we moved to Manhattan, we looked for houses and we lived in Rockland County, New York, outside of New York City. We had a wonderful realtor. She knew the area so well. And you little nuances that we didn't know. And I remember I fell in love with this house and I was just so,"This is the house for us." Right. And then she talked about,"You may not want to be here. This is an area where there's a lot of traffic from the highway." And I thought, "Oh, I never thought of that." Exactly. And professionals can give you an insight that you didn't even understand or consider or it didn't even come into your thinking. Now, when you are interviewing and you're launching the show and I hope the listeners get a sense of not only your show, but who you are, Mary. What conversations, I'm curious, do you feel the industry needs to hear more of? That's a great question. I love that. I love that segue. That's a great question. What is the restated, please again, Julie? So when it comes to real estate and connections and making great networks and finding the right people to have in your life as a referral or to refer people to, what makes someone a great professional in the industry that we need more of that you don't see a lot of that maybe is a dying art? You know, we watch a lot of British TV and let me tell you estate agents is what the real estate calls. They get a bad rep, let me just tell you. And they do because they're quirky or you need to own this house or something like that. And I think the answer to your question is, like most things, it is what is in the best interest of my client? Maybe there's a way for you to interview prospective real estate professionals or any professionals and ask the question, what if I change my mind? What if I don't follow your advice? What if I ask you to make a bid that's lower? What would your answer be? These are really important questions to ask. And like your realtor, your realtor is not allowed to steer you, by the way. She or he is not allowed to say, well, this is the high school that does X, Y, and Z. You should go to this one and things like that. However, things like highway noise. So Julie, are you and Dan, are you or Dan sensitive to sound? Do you mind hearing sound that might come off of a highway? One thing that I would do early on, because even though we were in a very difficult market in 2009, the market changed quickly and we got up to a hot market again. And so people were willing to put offers on pretty much anything. And so we would have to say, I'd have to try to assess their esteem needs. And this is my question that I would ask. If you found the perfect house that you liked, but you had to turn, the previous turn was a gas station onto your street, would that bother you in any way? Now people with higher esteem needs, that would bother them. You would want that their guests and family enter and see their property from a very pleasant, maybe non-commercial, non-retail world. And so realtors, they hold these questions to kind of get a sense of who you are and what your preferences would be. But I really like that house. Well, look at the high tension wire. High tension wire, I have no idea about whether or not they emit this or that or anything. But what I can tell you about is when you go to resale in a non-hot market, this is what the cost difference might be. How much money you might get back in return. And that's validated, right? Those numbers are around. And during these hot markets, we've seen these buyers just take just about anything. And I've read, The Wall Street Journal was a third of the buyers that happen in a hot market really have remorse. They, "Oh, I'm sorry I bought this house." So anybody, just keep in mind the long-term, not just the short-term, but I have a question for you. Oh, sure. I'm turning the table. I am. I'm going to turn the table on you. And I always tell my guests, "Don't hesitate to ask a question." So Julie, you're very connected to podcasting. And so what I found when I, even though I was on another podcast for 50 episodes, I haven't been very nervous about this podcast, right? Very nervous about getting it started and having guests and things like that. And so I don't know if you have an answer to this question, but how long does it take for a podcast, a fairly new podcast, and I'm going to say I'm new because it's a national audience, right? How long does it take a podcaster to get comfortable with his or her role? I think that it depends on the person themselves, right? I think that it depends on the level of perfectionism to an extent. Because I know for myself, I am a perfectionist in some ways, but I've also learned that waiting for things to be perfect sometimes is detrimental. And in podcasting, there's so many different lessons that you won't learn unless you start, unless you're starting perfectly, unless you're willing to learn through the process. And that's one of the biggest things that I reiterate to everyone, right? And also, I think that the other thing to get comfortable, a lot of podcasters have an idea of what success looks like. But I want to kind of reiterate that success, right? Is not necessarily the numbers or how many downloads work, but the success is the listener being able to be a loyal listener and come back because they enjoy not only the host, they enjoy the conversations, and they are getting something of value from the conversation that is meaningful to them. I think that that's one of the things that if as a podcaster, you keep that in mind, right? And you keep in mind that it's about that person on the other side in what they're hearing and how comfortable they are and willing to come back they are, then that reminds you that you can be comfortable and that maybe you don't have the perfection yet, but you're getting better and you are a work in progress, a podcaster in progress that has nothing to do but to improve. One of the things that I did today earlier, I've been on a kick, I have over 370 episodes of my flagship podcast, Casa de Confidence, and I was a terrible podcaster when I started, not because I didn't have the gun ho and didn't have a great guest and great banter and sound. I had all of this, but when it came to my titles, my titles didn't do justice to some of my first episodes. So I am in the process of going back and changing some of my titles to be more found, SEO friendly, and to really be able to, because again, I had great conversations with some incredible individuals, but I didn't get them. And again, my podcast does very well, by default, I don't know how that happened, but now I want to bring these conversations to new people and I want to have more people discover them. And I've been, the perfectionist in me has been cringing and going back. Oh, sorry. I don't like seeing that imperfection stuff, right? And at the end of the day, in order to be able to, if you take your eyes off of yourself and put your eyes on your listener, then you're able to get better at what you do. Sounds like if you want to be a strong realtor, you focus on your clients, right? Same thing. A lot of these parallels are true. I saw a discussion recently, and I think somebody posted on social media. If you've been podcasting for three months, what do you know? And two or three of the answers said, I know myself better. And that is like anything else, I know myself better. And that's definitely a personal goal as we're pursuing Real Estate Connections podcast, where people, where relationships open doors, people and relationships open doors. Absolutely. So now, Mary, as we're starting to wind down, there is one thing that I feel that it's very important that we touch upon because the name of your show is Real Estate Connections. And what is your, I guess, legacy or what is the thought process from your part that, why connections? Why is that important in the making of a podcast, in the professional world, or even in our communities? Well, I feel like that's a cultural question, right? It's a cultural question. In the 80s and 90s, we started to kind of shrink. We started to take porches off of houses, right? We put a big window on upstairs, but that was remote as well. And there were no big back porches or anything like that. And there was a woman, she was a futurist, her name was Faith Popcorn. And she was talking about how we were going to cocoon. And I think when we take a look at things like that, our technology has been guiding us to cocoon. And something like 96% of people who begin looking for a home look online. It's a great place to look, by the way, a great place to kind of do that learning that happens when you're trying to figure out, "Oh, the house across the street sold for what?" And why was that when something smaller sold for a different price or the same price or whatever the comparison was? And so we have been shrinking. We have been shrinking. And I have to tell you, in the last year or two, particularly, I've been hearing about the critical nature of connecting. We found that during COVID, right? We found that isolating, we were isolated. All of us were so isolated. There was no aircraft flying over this house. Everything was just isolated. And I think we realized, "Okay, Faith Popcorn, maybe your days are over now." It's a lot. And we do want to connect, but we're still firmly entrenched in the technology that keeps us kind of apart. Thank goodness for Zoom. Thank goodness that the technologies have also gone the other way. So I do know that we can't live in this world by ourselves. If we did, we would be up in the mountains somewhere, off grid. And so I need you. You need me. 100%. And it's how this world gets maybe a little easier or a little softer. Yeah. It does. It does. And one of the things that, in case people haven't heard this yet, and this is one of the things that I believe is so important and why connections really enrich our lives, that there's actually a study that found that loneliness has such an adverse impact in our health. And that can cause an early death. Just as having a medical condition can. So the fact that we can connect, and there's so many different ways in which, again, technology can help us, but can be detrimental. I want to encourage the listeners that this is a great place to come in and Mary having gotten to know her. It's like coming into this beautiful porch where you can sit and have a lemonade and have a great conversation. And meet other great people as well. And I think that this is why your show is going to be set apart from others because you are bringing experience, you're bringing know-how, but you're also bringing the human touch and that's going to be, oh, so fun. I can't wait. Thank you. Thank you so much, Julie, and thank you for your support. Well, always, I am a supporter of women in their dreams. This is something that I can't wait to see and have you continue to inspire others through the work that you do, Mary. It is an honor and a pleasure to know you, and I'm so glad you are a part of our lives. Now I'm going to tell the listeners that you have a couple of things to share with them before we go. So you'll see in show notes my contact information and I'm happy to help you in any way that I can. And you can just drop a line at info@realestateconnectionspodcast.com. It's a lot. It's a long name, but drop me a line. I'm curious to get your feedback and thoughts you have for programming. And the programming is going to be fun and expansive, but I love your input. And please do reach out if I can be helpful in any way. Thank you so much for joining us today. And I hope you found this conversation useful to you and your real estate goals. You'll find the contact information for our guests in any links they recommend you have in the show notes. And should we be able to help you identify some strong real estate professionals in your area? Drop us a note at info@realestateconnectionspodcast.com. Thanks again and bye for now.