We recently connected with Maggie Fast and have shared our conversation below.

Maggie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My entire passion for dog rescue started with my personal dog Kodee. I adopted Kodee and found myself going through trainers in an attempt to fix all of his behavior issues. I eventually ended up being a dog trainer and spent 10 years in that industry. Emotionally, I could not hack it in dog training. People often come to a trainer expecting a quick fix, and after putting in little to no effort – would blame the dog trainer for their failure and reason for surrendering the dog to a shelter. This was an all too common scenario that I would beat myself up over. Kodee after multiple dog trainers and years of practice became the best dog I could have ever imagined. He was one of those dogs that everyone loved. He had a smile that just melted your heart and he loved every human he met. Unfortunately we lost Kodee in 2020 and carry on his legacy by fostering dog and helping dogs with behavior issues.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

In 2015 I wanted to figure out a way to have a successful business that could fund rescue efforts, and along came real estate. I spent 4 years working for other agents learning the ins and outs of the business and then in Dec of 2018 I got my real estate license and decided that was going to be the vehicle to fund my passion. Since 2019 I have been a licensed Realtor and I’m able to support dog rescue via fostering, in state and out of state dog transports, fundraising events, adoption events, and donations. This year my passion project is to fund-raise $10,000 for Taysia Blue Husky Rescue (you can help by donating through the donation tracker on my Facebook page).

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

Building a business with a purpose is one thing, figuring out how to market it is another. I spent two years really struggling with this. I couldn’t quite get “sell homes – save dogs” to stick, I felt like my marketing was all over the place, and my message was not delivered the way I wanted it to be. I wanted to be known as a good and successful Realtor, but I also wanted people to trust that I would uphold my promises to take care of the dogs. It’s a very difficult balancing act of not looking too busy with rescue that people think I don’t have time to be a great Realtor for them vs. being involved enough to where I’m making an impact in the dog rescue world. Then at the end of 2020, I interviewed with West + Main Homes and my life was changed. They loved and supported “Sell Homes – Save Dogs” and really helped me streamline all my marketing. The marketing efforts that my brokerage puts in is more than I could have ever imagined even existed. When I get a Real Estate client I know that the marketing for that property will be beautiful and exactly as I promised. The training that the brokerage offers allows me to be laser focused on my clients, giving them the absolute best service possible all while still having the time to give back to rescues.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The last Sunday of every month we host an adoption/fundraising event at a local brewery with a few of our favorite rescues. These events have been a great way to meet new people passionate about rescue and a great way to drum up some new business. I think it’s easy for people to trust us to give back when they meet us at an event that is set up to do just that. Our events are set up so we can adopt out dogs, all while fundraising money based off beer sales. It’s a win-win for the local brewery, rescue, and myself!

Contact Info:

• Website: sellhomes-savedogs.com
• Instagram: sellhomes.savedogs
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaggieFastRealtor