Children are mirrors who reflect the world around them. Much like they can be the spitting image of their parents, they can also mimic their behavior. This is something for homebuyers and sellers who are thinking about asking Megan Bosinger to be their Realtor to consider.
Bosinger’s 8-year-old son, Wyatt, has been in real estate as long as she has. He was between 1 and 2 years old when she became licensed, and he took his wobbly first steps as a human around the time she took her first uncertain steps as an agent.
Bonsinger exposed Wyatt to the real estate business at this tender age. He accompanied her to open houses, closings and contract signings, and spent time with her at her office. As he grew older, he began to wear an Angry Birds tie over his T-shirt, carry a small briefcase and “work” in a miniature office that was nested within hers.
Wyatt was also quite a professional during home showings, his mother says. “He’d walk up to someone, shake their hand, and tell them, ‘Here’s the bedroom. Here’s the bathroom. Now let’s go upstairs.’”
The young man’s civility and grasp of the core tenets of showing a home could be a selling point for Bosinger, as he clearly learned these traits from her.
Bosinger, 41, is also good at delegating tasks – a skill even the best jugglers in home sales must develop. For example, she often relies on her 17-year-old daughter, Autumn, to update her calendar. Or rather, calendars.
“I have several calendars in case I miss something that’s on one of them,” she laughs. “I have one on a wall, one in my phone, and one in my car, and I’ll send stuff to Autumn and say, ‘Put this on my calendar.’ All of my kids serve as my assistants.”
The roster includes 14-year-old Everly, who more often than not has her nose in a book. “She’s super-intellectual. She reads Shakespeare for fun,” Bosinger says, a blend of pride and disbelief on her face.
Bosinger has another reason for engaging her children in her work, even casually: As a single mother of three who has not just one packed calendar but at least three, she says she wants to claim every moment she possibly can with them, no matter what their time together entails.
Fortunately, life in the Bosinger household is not all work and no play. For starters, the family sets aside Thursday evenings for dinner and games, which often involves a spirited round of Monopoly. (They have several versions, and have officially become collectors of the popular pastime, says Bosinger.)
“We have to be home on Thursday evenings doing things as a family,” Bosinger says. “No one else can have that time. We’d reached the point where there was always work, always singing lessons, always this and that after school, and I said, ‘We need one day when no one can put anything on our calendar. Mom won’t show any houses from five to seven. That will be our time.’”
Family time also includes “Adventure Sundays,” which entails picking a place on a map, piling into the family car and going to explore. “It’s part of the niche we’ve carved out for ourselves,” Bosinger says. “It’s part of how we make this work.”
Bosinger must deliberately set aside this time for her daughters and son because work is always there, whether she’s at her a.m. gig at the North Shore Publix (where she makes sandwiches at the deli) or focusing on real estate during the rest of the day (when she serves the many needs of her clients). If she didn’t, real estate would fill every crack and crevasse, because it’s demanding work, she says.
Then she adds, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Before Bosinger was a mother, Realtor and Tennessean, she lived in Los Angeles and did inside sales for a company that made doors for showers and closets. She says her job was – in a word – boring.
“I was in an office for eight hours a day quoting prices and putting orders together,” Bosinger recalls. “I wanted to be in outside sales; I wanted face-to-face interaction. I like to talk with people and get to know them in person instead of over the phone.”
Bosinger was interested in real estate at the time, but there was no way for her to enter the profession, as the infamous housing market crash of 2007 and 2008 was in full swing and real estate schools in California were temporarily shuttered.
“I wanted to find a career that would let me be with my kids,” Bosinger remembers. “I also thought real estate would allow me to do something different every day. I wouldn’t be stuck in an office doing the same paperwork over and over again.”
Bosinger was also drawn to the possibility of facing new challenges and learning new things every day. In addition, she knew real estate would placate the part of her that becomes antsy when she’s doing nothing.
“I’m a busy body; I don’t like to be idle. There’s so much to see and do in the world, and there’s so much to learn from people. I don’t want to miss any of it.”
Bosinger revisited real estate after she and her husband at the time moved to the Chattanooga area. They’d spent a year hauling two girls and a pair of dogs across the continental U.S. in a camper while searching for a better place to raise their children. After stopping in 27 states and finally returning to California to make a decision, they kept circling back to Tennessee.
“I did a ton of research,” Bosinger says. “As I was looking into this area, I found Signal Mountain, circled it on the calendar, and said, ‘Let’s go. This is where I want to put down roots.’”
Bosinger learned the ropes of her new profession from her peers. She settled in at the Crye-Leike office in Signal Mountain and then took advantage of a welcoming atmosphere and fellow agents who were pleased to help the fledgling learn how to fly.
“I walked in as green as can be,” Bosinger says. “I didn’t know how to get started or what to do, and they took me in with open arms. I learn by doing rather than reading, so I sat in on other agents’ transactions for two years to learn the best ways to write a contract and close a sale.”
Bosinger’s early lessons also involved learning to drum up business. Fortunately, this was easy for the energetic and outgoing (read: highly caffeinated and instantly personable) Bosinger. Whether she was crossing paths with a stranger during a hike, chatting with fellow campers, or handing a ham and Swiss to a customer at the deli counter, she listened for natural openings for mentioning real estate.
“I don’t throw out, ‘Hey, I’m a Realtor. What can I do for you?’” Bosinger says, wrinkling her nose. “I wait until there’s an opening in the conversation. When I’m camping and people start talking about what they like to do in (Chattanooga), I say, ‘I’ve sold houses in that area.’ I try to be as organic as possible.”
Bosinger isn’t just an eager talker, she’s also a good listener, as her stories about buyers she’s helped suggest. She compares a house hunt to shopping for a wedding dress, saying someone might enter a boutique believing they want a specific dress but actually express a desire for something different between the proverbial lines.
“A buyer will say, ‘I want a three-bedroom house with two bathrooms and a fenced-in backyard.’ But as I get to know them, I learn their grandkids are going to visit, so they’re going to need a guest room, too, and I’ll find them a house with five bedrooms.
“I had a couple who wanted to live in North Shore, but I tossed in a showing in St. Elmo at the last minute, and their faces lit up when they walked in. They said, ‘We never would’ve looked here,’ but that house had everything the other houses we’d looked at hadn’t.”
Bosinger felt stagnant at the end of the pandemic. To freshen her work, she left Crye-Leike and joined Zach Taylor Real Estate, a Murfreesboro-based company with nearly 300 agents across Tennessee, including those who staff an office behind Champy’s in East Ridge. She says she likes the commission model (100%) and the wealth of leads and training materials the company provides.
However, no matter how much business Bosinger stirs up, Thursday nights and Sunday afternoons belong to her children, as do every other crack and crevasse into which she can fit them. Her calendars might full, but those moments are sacred.
“From the moment Autumn was born, I knew God’s path for me was to be a mom,” she says. “Not just any mom, but a mom to three amazing people who have filled my life with adventure, chaos, laughter and love.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”