We were lucky to catch up with Shiloh Therrien recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shiloh, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear your thoughts about family businesses.

My mother & I have been partners in Real Estate for the past 9 years, but working with family didn’t start there. When I was 12 years old my parents started their own business. A family owned and operated Auto Repair Shop. So began the start of working with family, and learning about being an entrepreneur. After school I would walk to the garage and spend my afternoon doing school work and helping in the office. I learned at that very young age how to be helpful and respectful to the customers. I helped clean and care for our business. Over time I learned the ins and outs of running a business. Working with family can be challenging because you don’t always agree. One challenge that my mother & I faced was that we both worked very differently in the office so whoever was there next had to rearrange the desk to accommodate our working style. That is something we still struggle with! After many years my parents decided to sell the business, and try another family business. Flipping houses! We had so much fun working together and learning new skills. But unfortunately, we got into that right before the market crashed. we all went on to different jobs. Eventually this all lead to me getting my real estate license and starting a new career. I then encouraged my mother to get her license, which she did less than a year later. We have had so much support from my father, sister, and brother-in-law. They have been willing to help us out with all sorts of interesting projects, helping clean, paint, even clean out houses, to help out our buyers & sellers. So we are still loving working together as a family!

Shiloh, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started out in the Real Estate industry in April 2013. It wasn’t something I planned on doing but that’s the way life went. About 4 years earlier I had started my own house cleaning business. Which I was enjoying. I loved the freedom & flexibility in my schedule. But it was challenging when I didn’t have enough clients, so I started do house painting as well. So I was working hard, and was tired! One of my cleaning jobs was for a Realtor that had sold my parents house. She had encouraged me to get my real estate license and give it a try. So I did! My first year was hard. It was a big learning curve for me. Now almost 10 years later, I am successfully guiding sellers & buyers through one of the biggest decisions in their lives! Working along with my partner aka Mom we have established effective systems to help guide our clients through the process. We love to take things one step at a time so as not to overwhelm. Each individual situation is unique, so we like to take our time and get to know those who we are working with. A person may think they want to sell their home, but don’t think they can get the price they would like for their house. We can make some suggestion on practical and affordable things they can do to increase the value of their house, to help them get that price! Or a person looking to buy a home may feel that they want to live in a certain town, but can’t get the house they want there. After finding out what they are really looking for, we may be able to guide them to a town that they can have everything they want and keep in their budget! We love helping our clients get the best out of their sale or purchase!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A hard lesson I had to learn was not to be a “secret” agent. For a long time I was afraid to talk about being a Realtor. I didn’t want my friends, family, or even new people I meet to think I was trying to sell them something. I felt that real estate agents had a bad reputation and I let that stop me from talking to people about it. I was struggling in my business. I was finding it hard to find clients, but I still didn’t want to promote myself. The turning point for me was when I heard about someone who had a very bad experience with an agent and did not get direction in buying their home and now was facing all sorts of problems. All I could think was I wish I worked with them I could have helped to protect them. It finally dawned on me, I had something important that I needed to share with others. I work very hard to protect my clients and help them not to get taken advantage of. I needed to put myself out there and let the people I care about know that I am there for them to help them through a challenging process. So I took to learning about social media doing my best to get our little team in front of the people we know. Also talking with whoever wants to talk real estate, I am here for you!!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Moving to our agency 1 Worcester Homes really was the boost we needed to grow in our good reputation. We always strived to work hard for our clients and work well with fellow agents, but we were a bit under the radar. Within a short time of being a 1 Worcester Homes we connected with amazing lenders, attorneys, home inspectors, and supportive agents. We love the connections we have made and that we have built a team that we know will take good care of our clients. We also love when a transaction goes well and the co-broke agent says, I can’t wait to work with you again! It’s great to know that other agents see how hard we work and they know that we do our best to help the deal go as smoothly as possible.

Contact Info:

• Website: shilohtherrien.1worcesterhomes.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/therrienrealty
• Facebook: facebook.com/therrienrealty

Image Credits
Shiloh Therrien