We were lucky to catch up with Meghan Pelley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Meghan, thanks for joining us today. One deeply underappreciated facet of being a service provider is the kind of crazy stuff that happens from time to time. It could be anything from a disgruntled client attacking an employee or waking up to find out a celebrity gave you a shoutout on TikTok – the sudden, unexpected hits (both positive and negative) make the profession both exhilarating and exhausting. Can you share one of your craziest stories?

Several years ago I was hired to assist a woman in her late 80’s with the sale of her home. This particular home owner had a 3rd grade education and was a widow with two adult children. Her plan was to move in with her son and spend the remainder of her days with him and the sale of her home would be her only financial nest egg to live on. Upon listing the property I received a call from a gentleman that claimed to have ownership rights to the property, he said he was the son of her late husband. I asked him to provide proof of his claims which he was able to produce. I called my client’s son to confirm if he had any half siblings and he said that he did but that his father had been clear that the house should only go to his wife in the event of his passing. I asked him if his father had a will and he said that he did not. Given the circumstances of the situation based on that information my client would loose over half of her equity in the home. I then asked my client’s son if his father had ever written down his wishes in his own handwriting, he said that he had done so. I requested copies of that documentation and took it to my estate attorney. The estate attorney confirmed that those documents were sufficient holographic wills and that they could be used to open probate on behalf of deceased husband. These documents were received just two weeks before the cut off of eligibility to open probate which we immediately did. We were successful in completing the probate process and in the end my client received her entire proceeds from the sale of her home.

Meghan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been a Realtor for 20 years, previous to being a Realtor I served in the military, and worked in office management and operations roles for various organizations in the private sector ranging from IT, TeleCom, environmental engineering and manufactured housing. My administrative role translated well into real estate as it gave me the perspective of being a consultant rather than a “sale person” mindset. Over the years I’ve learned to listen to my clients to refine and simplify the process. I’ve broken down my dialogue with my clients to encompass the whole process of buying or selling a home into easy to understand terms. I listen for areas of “pain” my clients maybe experiencing and offer real tactical solutions for them which can look like me making house payments on their behalf while they maybe in possession of more than one property at at time, or bank rolling and remodeling their home for them so that they can extract more equity from their sale than they would if they were selling it in it’s present condition. I’ve assisted buyers with remodeling projects so that they can get exactly what they want and move right in to a home that meets their particular tastes and style. No matter what the obstacle in front of us we can always figure out a way to work with it as an opportunity rather than a problem. We seek to meet the client’s needs as they would do for themselves which removes any self interest and keeps the end result clear, exceeding the client’s expectations.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

The residential real estate market is saturated with agents. In our immediate board alone there are over 13,000 members of active Realtors. I’ve spent the last 20 years honing my reputation with intention to do the following: – lead by the platinum rule – “do on to others as they would do for themselves”
– listen first, seek to be curious
– do what I say I’m going to do within the timeframe I said I would
– set clear expectations & realistic goals
– adherence to a standard of service and never deliver anything remotely less than that
– seek collaboration between parties and always be professional
– respond within a timely manor, and if there is nothing to respond with update that things are still in process – a void in communication creates a negative narrative in most cases so communication is key.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

The 2008 recession was particularly difficult for me. I had started my career 4 years prior to that and was just starting to gain some traction in my field only to be side swiped by the largest economic decline since the 1930’s great depression. To say those were unprecedented times would have been an understatement. Each day there would be announcements of FDIC take overs of banks we were in escrow with, title companies abruptly shutting their doors, short sales, foreclosures, just a full seizure in the market place, it was crippling. I came so close to taking a regular job which didn’t seem very secure at the time as people were loosing their jobs in mass quantities by the day. I figured out a way to earn money by helping another business owner in an unrelated field during non-business hours so that I could continue to pay my bills which allowed me to barely stay afloat during those difficult times. I knew that if I could hang in there long enough there would be a lot of opportunity for growth when the market rebounded which was exactly what happened. I learned so much from that experience that I’ve carried with me all these years. I learned that everything is seasonal and to pretend like the unthinkable can’t happen is living in denial. I learned that no matter how great things seem to be going it’s better to defer your gratification in exchange for saving and making wise decisions, that dopamine burst only lasts for so long anyway. I learned that helping others when you feel helpless is the best medication out there. I learned that no matter how bad you think things are someone is going through more than you so be nice even when it’s hard because you’re in pain.

Contact Info:

• Website: texashillcountryhomes.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meghanjpelley/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pelleyproperties/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghan-j-pelley-broker-associate-3431659/