Editorial
Front Page - Friday, August 13, 2010
Realtor helps clients find a ‘home’ rather than a ‘house’
David Laprad
Realtor Melanie Riddle works with the Keller Williams Downtown team. She began her career in real estate two-and-a-half years ago, as the bottom was falling out of the market. However, she’s pleased with how she’s done, and says she enjoys helping clients find the right home.
- David Laprad
Many professionals take work home. Realtor Melanie Riddle takes the experience of being home to work.
To Riddle, “home” is a place that looks lived in, a place where pictures of children and the artwork they created cover the walls, a place where a family cooks and eats together, a place where dad and mom entertain friends, and a place where the kids play basketball games in the driveway and then come crashing through the door, screaming for a snack.
Those are the things that have made Riddle’s house on Lookout Mountain a home for ten years. Her home is more than a building made of wood and nails, and packed with appliances and furniture, it’s a place where she, her husband and her children are spending their lives and making memories.
As much as Riddle loves her idea of what a home is, there are people in her family, such as her mother, who have different needs and wants, and therefore different ideas about what makes a house a home. When working, Riddle draws on her experiences, as well as those of her family and other people she knows, so she can help her clients work out what they need. She also listens closely to what they want, and asks a lot of questions.
“Are they planning to start a family? How old are their kids? Are their children about to move out? Are they downsizing, but have grandchildren on the way? If you sell them a house without knowing these things, you haven’t done your job,” Riddle says.
Riddle’s philosophy has changed since she became a Realtor in 2008. She got into the business because she loved houses and was good at selling things, but over time, her work became about helping people rather than pleasing herself.
She can trace the shift in her thinking back to her first sale, in which she helped a client purchase a condominium near Black Creek Golf Course. When she found precisely what the man wanted, and he bought it, she was thrilled. She says this client-sensitive approach has made each transaction satisfying.
“Being a Realtor isn’t always about making a sale. Sometimes, the right house for my client isn’t out there, and I’ll tell them to wait until it is,” she says.
Riddle knows a thing or two about patience, as she put off becoming a Realtor until the time was right. A classically trained opera singer, she taught music at the elementary school level for several years before quitting to become a full-time mother. When her youngest of three children had reached the age at which he could attend pre-school, Riddle obtained her license and joined the team at Keller Williams Downtown.
“I’d always wanted to be a Realtor. I even sold our first house, long before I got into real estate. It felt natural,” she says.
Although Riddle knew becoming a Realtor was the right thing for her, other people in her life felt differently, as the bottom was falling out of the industry.
“Whenever someone would say I was crazy, I’d say I wasn’t worried because I knew the market was going to bounce back,” she says.
Riddle took advantage of the down time to learn as much as she could about her new career.
“Keller Williams does a great job of educating its agents, and since I didn’t have a lot of business at first, I went to classes,” she says.
Riddle also called the superstar agents in her office whenever she had a question, and since things were also slow for them, they had time to provide answers.
Although the real estate market has not yet fully recovered, Riddle says she’s had steady sales since becoming an agent, and is therefore pleased with her vocation. In the future, she hopes to learn even more about real estate and take advantage of the many growth opportunities available to Realtors.
“I want to be one of the names you hear all the time. In a few years, if someone wants to sell their house, I want my name to pop into their head,” she says.
Riddle says her plans include becoming an active member of the Chattanooga Association of Realtors and doing more work in her community. For now, her volunteer efforts are centered on the school her two youngest children attend.
“Because of where I am in life, I’m busy at their school, but as they grow older, I’ll branch out,” she says.
Riddle makes the most of every moment with her family. Just like she cherishes the memories they’re making in their home, she enjoys the time they spend out and about, too, whether they’re stirring up the waters of two nearby lakes on their jet skis, participating in a variety of league sports, or hitting the fairway at Black Creek Golf Course, which Riddle’s husband, Rob, manages.
The family also attends Lookout Presbyterian Church, where Riddle sings in the choir and does solo work.
Riddle says she’s always wanted to be a Realtor, but perhaps she was actually born to build homes, at least metaphorically.
Whether she’s helping a couple find the house that addresses their needs and wants, or hanging more artwork on an already overstuffed wall, she’s laying brick upon brick, and in the process, turning buildings made of wood and nails into spaces in which people spend their lives and make memories.
“People always told me I’d be good at sales, and I love beautiful homes, so becoming
a Realtor made sense. But now, those things feel like a cliché. My career has become about more than selling pretty houses and earning a commission.
I want to help others,” Riddle says.
Even if it involves taking work home at night.
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