We recently connected with Paige Hewitt and have shared our conversation below.

Paige, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.

I had a young, first-time buyer client a few years ago. She had already been searching for homes with a couple of different agents who wouldn’t give her the time of day. She had also been working with an online lender who she could never get in touch with to ask questions. She came as a referral to my office at the time and a colleague of mine accepted her. Unfortunately, that colleague also decided it was a waste of their time, as my client was looking a little far away and had a lower budget. I immediately swooped her up. Yes, I was hungry for business, but after having just a brief conversation with her on the phone, I knew this was one of those “she needs me more than I need her” situations. This amazing young woman deserved a home more than any client I’ve had so far. She was in her 20s and had already had a rough lot in life. She had spent much of her adulthood taking care of her very sick mom, quadriplegic brother, and two other siblings. By the time she had come to me, she lost her mom the year before. She assumed custody of her three siblings and worked multiple jobs to try to finish raising them. She did everything she could for her quadriplegic brother, but unfortunately, she also lost him just a few months before we met. She wanted to create a safe space for her and her siblings to live a life they so deserved. She was moving them about an hour away from what they knew in order to start fresh. When she began her search, she was discouraged, as the amount the online lender gave her was not quite enough to find anything suitable for them. So when she came to me, I got her in contact with one of my lender partners and we got her approved for more and started the search. It was one of those weird right time, right place situations. We had looked at a handful of houses and nothing was quite right for their needs. Right as we were ending for the day, we had driven by a house that had a for sale sign. I hadn’t shown it to her because it was at the very top of her budget, and this was when the market was still pretty hot. She was going FHA, and I knew it would be tough. But, she wanted to look at it. She ended up loving the home. It was truly perfect for her and her siblings. So we took a shot, put our best offer forward, I spoke with the agent, and to my surprise, it was accepted! Things moved along smoothly, until the appraisal. Several things came back as needing repaired for FHA, including some major basement stuff. I thought for sure it was going to fall through, but the seller agreed to all repairs. We were beyond shocked! So everything gets repaired, and we make it through. We got to about a week before closing, and something came up in underwriting that needed explaining. Again, I think this is going to fall through, and at this point I am completely discouraged for my client. I had really gotten to know her at this point, and this was one I was really attached to. She needed this house more than anyone needed a house that I had worked with up until that point. Between her, the lender, and I, we worked tirelessly to try to sort things out. Ultimately, closing was pushed back, but it closed!!! It was the only closing I’ve ever cried at. She and her siblings needed that house and they got it. They just celebrated two years of living in that home. I am friends with her on FB and I can see how happy the whole family is in that home. I don’t know all the details of their past, but what I do know breaks my heart. And just to see how happy and PROUD she is to have accomplished this for herself and her siblings is why I do this job. To this day, I 100% believe it was on purpose that she came into my life and I into hers. It’s hard to call it a transaction, because it was so much more than that, but that is a “transaction” I will never forget.

Paige, 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?

Hi! I’m Paige and I’ve been working as a REALTOR® in central Indiana for about 3.5 years. For this story, we’ll have to start at the beginning. Growing up I had a huge heart and love for music. I was in band all through school. As I got older I started to find a love for DIY shows and home improvement. When it came time to apply for college, I knew I wanted to be an interior design major. I loved architecture and design. Well as a young adult with her whole future ahead of her, not knowing what it would bring, I listened to the advice of some influential people in my life that I really looked up to. I was successful in music at my school. I was a part of the highly competitive marching band and winter drumline. We placed high in all of our competitions. I was named drum major my senior year, as well as the John Phillip Sousa award winner; a big deal! I did love music and I found that I liked to teach people things, so I decided to major in music education instead. I was successful there too, receiving may scholarships and awards and being named drum major once again. I worked hard to get my music degree and begin teaching right after college. I was a successful high school band director for 9 years, bringing home many top awards for all my ensembles, including a state championship. But the pressure was too much. The pressure from admin and parents to always be on and do better than the last time, not to mention I was being compared to the director before me. My mental and physical health started to take a toll, giving me ulcers in my mid 20s. The pandemic was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Being stuck at home for months on end, trying with all my might to teach band from a computer didn’t exactly work out. Having all that time at home to reflect on my life and what I was doing led me to my decision to leave education. I loved music. I loved teaching music. I truly did have a passion for it at one time, but what I realized was that passion slowly turned into a chore and my love for it was dying away. I realized I had chosen this path to please other people in my life. It wasn’t truly a path that I chose for me. So I began to look for something else, and at first I had no idea what I was going to do. Band and education was all I knew; it’s all I thought I was qualified for. Then it dawned on me. My love for architecture never went away! So now I was thinking of how to get into that space without going back to get another degree. I had bills to pay after all. Real estate was the vehicle. I loved homes. I loved people. I loved helping and educating people. At this point I had already went through the process of purchasing my first home and I knew a little bit about the process, but what I realized while taking my class is that our agent missed a lot of opportunities to educate us. Before I got licensed we purchased our second home with a different agent, who again missed a lot. So that became my mission. So many people want to be home owners but have no idea how to do it. Whether they weren’t taught about it, or they are the first generation in their family to do so. Either way, they deserve to be educated about one of the biggest decisions in they will make in their life. I was able to help one of my closest friends sell their house within just two months of getting my license. I knew then that this was what I am meant to do. So 3.5 years later I absolutely love my job. What stands out about me? I educate and I care. That is something else that I find a lot of agents lack; truly caring for their client’s journey. Real estate is simple. It’s about people and putting their journey at the forefront. I work hard for my people because they matter.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

It’s simple – loving my people. I lean into my sphere because they are the ones who know me best. I also like to make it easy on myself. It’s a lot harder to continue to go find new business with people you’ve never met and you will have to work extra hard to prove yourself to. The people around you, know, like, and trust you already. They are your biggest fans and will shout it from the rooftops. Paying attention to their lives and celebrating their successes has truly been the most effective way to grow my business. It comes down to caring for my people.

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

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Having a background in music education (competitive at that), I was very used to working hard and seeing results for that hard work pretty immediately. I do think I was pretty naive when I first started my career in real estate. I thought I was just going to work really hard and the business would come. It didn’t exactly go as planned. I do work really hard and the business does come, but it takes a lot longer than just a few months of rehearsals that lead to standing on the state finals field. Patience was a new thing that I had to learn, and up until this point in my life, I was very impatient. haha. It takes work and time, but it is always worth it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.atproperties.com/site/PaigeHewitt
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/paigesellsproperty
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100071127350516
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paige-hewitt-78077789/

Image Credits

Kelly Klemmsen Photography