Mara sold her first house to her own piano teacher. The commission paid for a desk, a phone line and a sign she painted herself.
She’d spent six years at a big brokerage watching agents juggle forty clients at once. Calls went to voicemail. Buyers found out about price drops from the internet. She thought people deserved better on the biggest check they’d ever write.
So she kept the office small. Marlowe & Co. still sells about forty homes a year, and every client has Mara’s cell number from the first call to the last box.