The Alimond Show
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The Alimond Show
Allison Metzger of Green Lawn Realty - From Corporate Marketing to Real Estate Success: Crafting Compelling Listings, Balancing Career and Family, and Giving Back to the Community
Unlock the secrets of achieving a successful career transition and balancing a fulfilling personal life with our conversation featuring Allison Metzger, an inspiring associate broker and co-owner of Green Lawn Realty. Allison takes us through her fascinating journey from a corporate marketing role to dominating the real estate industry, sharing how her marketing prowess gives her an edge in crafting compelling property listings. This episode promises to provide insights into the creative strategies that drive success in real estate and the importance of staying ahead of industry trends through continuous learning and professional networks.
Our discussion delves deep into Allison’s personal life, revealing how she balances her demanding career with family activities, travel, and community involvement. Learn how her role as a cheer mom and her love for trips to her beach house in North Carolina offer a refreshing break from her professional world. Allison's preference for working in a boutique, quality-focused real estate company over a larger model is highlighted, along with her dedication to building meaningful client relationships through personal connections and referrals. Her passionate commitment to Loudoun Habitat for Humanity showcases her drive to give back to the community.
Looking to the future, Allison candidly shares her plans for retirement within the next five to ten years, emphasizing the importance of having an exit strategy in the real estate business. We tackle current challenges in the housing market and underscore the resilience of the industry. Allison emphasizes the critical role of real estate agents in negotiations and the need for clear client expectations. Her client-centric approach, which prioritizes the best interests of clients even over making a sale, is a testament to her integrity and dedication in making the real estate journey smoother and more rewarding for everyone involved. Join us for this insightful and inspiring episode!
My name is Allison Metzger and I'm an associate broker and co-owner of Greenlawn Realty. We are a residential real estate company and we do dabble a little bit in commercial real estate, mostly in Northern Virginia. I would say we're probably more specific to Loudoun County, but we do branch out to other areas of Virginia.
Speaker 2:Very nice. I'd like to know a background story about you how you got started in real estate and what led you to where you are today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's an interesting story. I think Maybe others may not feel the same way, but my background is in marketing and public relations. That was what my degree was in and I worked in corporate marketing for about 16, 17 years and I really, really enjoyed all of the companies that I worked for. I worked my way up in a lot of great industries and then my daughter was born and she was turning five and we had just moved to Leesburg from Falls Church and I was commuting to Rockville and I literally took, if anybody knows, the whites ferry when it was running.
Speaker 1:Um, I used to take the ferry across the Potomac to get to work every day, which was a little nutty, um, but yeah, I would leave, like you know, early morning when it was dark out and I wouldn't get home until, you know, it was late and dark out again and my daughter was going into kindergarten and I was like how am I going to do this? This was back in the time when Lowne County had part-time kindergarten, so it wasn't full day. So I was like struggling to like get home to pick her up from daycare and figure out all of those things and one day I just said I can't do this anymore. This is just really too hard to like work a nine to five job which was never really nine to five, it's always you know more hours than that, where you're checking emails late at night and you know getting up early answering questions from folks, and I said I can't do this. It's just not working for our family. And I quit my job without a plan actually, which was not like me at all.
Speaker 1:I was very much a type A person who, you know, had a. My plan was always to like retire from a company, and so my husband and I kind of looked at each other and said what, what do we do now? And I started looking for new jobs. And every job I saw that was going to be the same situation, just in a different location. And so he said to me why don't you get your real estate license? You've always wanted to. I was always like an HGTV watcher. My mom had dabbled in real estate for a little bit, and so I always thought about that in the back of my head that that was going to be like a side gig or something, and it was my time to make it a full-time gig. So that's what I did, and it's been the best decision I ever made.
Speaker 2:Oh, that is amazing. Did your mom, having some background in real estate, help you transition into that role? Was she your coach or mentor? Did you have somebody?
Speaker 1:else she did not. When I say dabbled, she likes to say that she worked in real estate and never sold a house. Aw, okay, that's fine. But she really just, you know she also dabbled in a lot of different career choices and I think, you know, in her generation they didn't have the flexibility to sort of like become an entrepreneur really easily or start a company. Those types of opportunities were, you know, probably less so in her generation. So, you know, I think she was very proud that I was able to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, amazing. And would you say that your background in marketing has helped you with real estate, and can you talk to me about what strategies you're using currently to help promote yourself, or even listings putting listings online and getting the word out there?
Speaker 1:Sure, I would say it definitely has helped. I think marketing always comes naturally to me. I think you know writing, just even the simplest writing of the description of the house, you know some people struggle with that, like writing may not be their, their forte, and so having that marketing background and having a little bit of a creative background always lets me take good photos of properties. Make sure I have the right folks involved. You know the good news is, in our area houses do generally sell themselves. Right, if you do the right marketing they will sell themselves. But it's the nuance that I think not every person knows about when it comes to how you present a property or how you even just respond to your clients in the right, appropriate way.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely yeah. And then I've got another question for you how do you stay up to date on the latest trends and developments in the real estate market, and what resources do you rely on?
Speaker 1:There's so many resources these days it's actually almost impossible to not stay up to date. I mean, our email boxes are just bombarded from, you know, the National Association of Realtors, the Virginia Association of Realtors, and then we have, like, the Northern Virginia Association. So, you know, those are three sources that are just bombarding us with, you know, great trainings, great information. And then we have a lot of partners that we work with, whether it's a title company or a home inspector. You know all of those folks. It's great just to have good relationships with them so that if there is an issue that pops up, you can pick up the phone and ask them directly for some assistance or advice.
Speaker 2:Absolutely In your free time. What do you like to do when you're not like selling houses, informing people, answering emails Like what do you do to unwind and keep yourself grounded and refreshed for your clients?
Speaker 1:I mean, I love spending time with my family. My daughter is now in high school, and so we're wrapped up in high school football games and I am a cheer mom, so I'm traveling with her to cheer competitions.
Speaker 1:So that is like a great. You know I never saw that coming right, that that was going to be my lifestyle of like traveling and following my daughter's activities, and it just brings me so much joy to spend that quality time with my family and also my friends. I have a village of friends that are super supportive of my wacky career, which is sometimes, you know, I'm working on a beach trip or, you know, taking phone calls at a dinner, so they've been super supportive. So I do love spending time with my family and I do really love traveling. You know, when I have spare time I love to just sort of like browse the internet for flights and hotel rooms.
Speaker 1:You know use points to go somewhere wonderful. You know I was fortunate enough to invest in a beach house, a vacation property, in North Carolina a few years ago, and so I take advantage of getting to the beach pretty often, and so that was a nice benefit of having a real estate background was like keeping an eye on when vacation properties became available.
Speaker 2:Yeah, nice, I love it. I love that. That's a great hobby looking at flights and be like where should I spend these points at Love it. Do you currently have a team and like are they in-house or is it maybe outsourced? Talk to me a little bit about your team.
Speaker 1:Sure. So we don't really consider ourselves a team per se. We are a small boutique company. In fact, we have an office down in Wilmington, north Carolina, and our office here in Loudoun County, but we really have maybe five or six active agents. Some of our other agents are more referral agents that might do some business once a year or something like that. We consider ourselves like we will reach out and help each other. If someone's on vacation, we'll jump in and help them with a client or answer any questions for them. But as far as we used to have a much larger company and I found it really really hard to manage so many people and really quickly determined that wasn't the lifestyle that I was looking for I thought I wanted this big, you know ambitious company with, like, lots of people and, you know, making lots of money, and I quickly realized that really just having a core group of quality over quantity was way better for both our business and everyone's mental state.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know Absolutely. I love the self-awareness. Like you know what. I'm going to step back. That's not actually what I want. This is what I want. This is what makes me happy and what it's all about. So that's great, yes. What are some creative ways sellers can stage their homes to attract buyers?
Speaker 1:oh, creative ways. I mean, I really have to look at every house individually. It's it's not a one-stop shop in terms of staging a house. Every house is different, whether you. You know, I have houses that were like mid-century modern and you really just have to like love the bones of the house and stage it to look like what it's meant to be. Or if you have an older farmhouse, you know, sometimes you can glam it up a little bit, but you really have to like work with, with the bones and and you know the structure of the house. So it's a very individualized approach in terms of staging a house and sometimes, you know, sometimes clients prefer not to stage their property. You know, it's really. I do think personally that staged homes look better in general, but sometimes people want a blank slate, sometimes just they don't want to see anything else in the house because their style could be completely different and they want to like, envision themselves and what could go there, right, and sometimes that can be like, oh well, the TV's there, but I want a picture.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's very true.
Speaker 1:People sometimes like why did they put the TV over there? And so it's a personal, so it's a judgment call like each house, I would say.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that makes sense. How do you build and maintain relationships with clients and other professionals in the real estate industry?
Speaker 1:So I would say 90% of my clients these days are somebody that I've either worked with before a friend or family or a direct referral. And that's the beauty of like once you get to a certain stage in your career in real estate, like the business sort of just comes naturally. If you've provided great service and stayed in touch with your clients, they will come back to you. And it's funny, sometimes I'm not great at like having a plan in terms of like here's when I'm going to send you know postcards or I don't. I'm not very structured in that way. It's funny.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I'm just driving by, like somebody's house that I sold and I'll think about them and like the next week they'll call me right, like it's like, cause we were on the same page, like throughout our experience. Like it's just funny how those things sort of naturally start to happen when you're like I was thinking about, literally thinking about you last week, and then you called the same wavelength. That's what that is. I think it is. It's the same, it's just you know, if they have a good experience and we are connected personally, I think it just comes back to you.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yes, and I wanted to talk, and I may just butcher this, but you are on the board of Help Me Out.
Speaker 1:Here Loud and Habitat for Humanity.
Speaker 2:Yes, talk to me about that and why helping the community out is so important to you, and talk to me about why you decided to do this.
Speaker 1:I love talking about Habitat. It's what really really brings me joy and it just is a different role in my life and it's a bucket that I get to fill, that I didn't know needed to be filled. But when I was in college I actually had volunteered for Habitat for Humanity and they were building a house in Arlington at the time and I did some manual labor there and I just thought it was like a really amazing group of people and it wasn't so much about what we were doing, it was just how they made me feel during the experience. And so when I moved to Loudoun County completely coincidental, I just got my real estate license and I opened up the local newspaper and there was an ad for they were looking for board members for the local Habitat affiliate and I immediately applied and was like this is a sign. And so I've been involved with the board ever since and that was over 10 years ago in some capacity and so I volunteer on a lot of their committees, sitting on the board in an advisory way, helping them actually purchase properties.
Speaker 1:So a lot of people don't know that. You know the typical Habitat for Humanity. They're like finding a piece of land and they're building a house from scratch on the property. Here we don't have a lot of land to purchase on it's a bit oversaturated, a little bit, exactly. We don't have a lot of land to purchase on it's a bit oversaturated, a little bit, exactly. And if we do find land, it's very, very expensive and we're competing with investors and other builders and construction and users.
Speaker 1:So what we end up doing here is buying, like an existing townhouse that might need a rehab, and so I will help advise Habitat, help them through the purchase, and then Habitat takes it from there in terms of finding the families and getting them through the process, and so that is just one piece of what they do. But I'm very passionate about affordable housing in the county, or attainable housing or workforce housing there's a lot of different terms that we use to describe it. It's a slow process to make big change, especially in a county as expensive as ours. So I've sat on the ADWA, which is the Affordable Dwelling Unit Advisory Board, which is a county board. I've done some work with the Community Foundation.
Speaker 1:They have a workforce housing campaign that I've been running, and then, obviously, my Habitat hat that I wear in the community as much as I can. So there's a lot more work that needs to be done, and it's not just a local problem. It's really a nationwide problem, and advocating for a variety of housing is what I try to do.
Speaker 2:Wow, that is awesome. You're already so busy and you're just like. You know what I want to do this? I want to spread awareness and I want to see where else I can help in the community, so I think that's so great. I always find that so inspiring when people are like juggling stuff and finding time to do that, like that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it always feels I'm surprised on days when I'm like not you know happy or frustrated with something else going on. The minute I make a phone call to somebody in my affordable housing world, I am like everything goes to the wayside.
Speaker 2:I just realized there's like bigger fish to fry. Yes, bigger fish to fry, that's right. And then what are some? And I'm going to change the subject here a little bit, but what are some of the most important factors that buyers and sellers should consider when choosing a real estate agent to work with, in your opinion?
Speaker 1:Yeah, in my opinion, I think it's really important for you to just really trust and feel comfortable with your realtor. You're going to be spending a lot of time with that person over the course of potentially many months to, you know, go through some potentially stressful encounters, and you want to make sure whoever you're working with that you really know, trust them in terms of like their expertise, and you should really like them. You should really enjoy their company as well, because you know it's like a marriage. It's like a short-term marriage, right, like a very intense timeline that you're spending with folks, and so it's really important that you just have a good working relationship.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, Especially because you're going to be either purchasing maybe your first home or selling your first home and they're going to be in your house a lot. You're going to be seeing them, they're going to see your family. All that it's going to be very intimate. So you want to just make sure that you mesh well and you just you guys are on the same page with things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's so many times I've been buying clients who are like don't want me to come see their house before they list. They like want to clean the house, you know, and I'm like, no, no, no, like I live in a house too, like I know what it's like to have kids and a mess and like you know, so there's, we know what to do before we get the house listed. I'm not worried about it, but you know you want someone who's not going to come in and start critiquing the way you live Like oh, you might want to get rid of that.
Speaker 1:That's going to devalue like ouch, I've heard stories where agents have done that before and it just, you know, there's a sometimes, it's true, but there's a tactful way of presenting the information.
Speaker 2:I feel like I would feel very like oh gosh, like just in my own environment, like embarrassed, and be like oh man, I shouldn't you know what. It's okay, right, I don't want to do this anymore.
Speaker 1:And I know it's important to buyers too, right, like I remember, when I sold my house in Falls Church, I was like scrubbing my baseboards and like touching up the paint on the baseboards because they had scuffs on them. But you know, if I ever walked into someone's house, I'd be like you can't buy this house because there's scuffs on the face Like there's some common sense that has to.
Speaker 2:That's right, exactly that part, what you just said right there. And let's see. Sorry, I've got like so many questions here that I want to ask you. I'm trying to pick the best ones. How do you build and maintain relationships with clients? Oh, I already asked you this one. I'm probably embarrassing, oh, my goodness. Oh, this is a good one. How do you stay motivated and inspired in your work as a real estate agent and what keeps you passionate about the industry?
Speaker 1:oh my gosh, I mean it's not. It's been a tough few years in real estate, right. So I do know some folks that have had a rough time staying motivated. I think my clients just motivate me. I really enjoy just watching them go through the journey of home buying or selling, because it just means that they're making some big change in their life, and so it's really about them and their experience. And when I complete a sale one way or the other, I'm always just it's not just a relief that I sold the house or helped them buy a house, it's really just that they completed the journey and that they're happy at the end of it. That's really the most important piece of it for me, that it was as stress-free as possible, and then again the fact that they may refer me to somebody else just is the biggest piece of gratitude I could get. I mean, there's nothing better than, you know, not spending a ton of money on marketing and mass producing.
Speaker 2:You put that work in so that way you get to like receive that energy and all that back, the dedication and love and friendship that you put into it.
Speaker 1:Exactly, exactly. I just think that you know I get calls from clients that you know have moved on to different states and then you know they, they call me for some piece of advice about their house and I'm like you don't even live here anymore. Like how is it that I'm the first person you thought of to call?
Speaker 2:Right Like.
Speaker 1:I just those phone calls mean the most to me and really, really do motivate me to stay in touch with clients as much as possible and just be a resource for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Love it. Where do you see yourself in the next five years with your business and yourself as a person?
Speaker 1:Good question, right, I would say, you know, as far as my business is concerned, it's really interesting because I think a lot of realtors don't have like an exit plan per se, like a lot of realtors just kind of keep working because it's not that hard to like just do a couple sales a year.
Speaker 1:Like I just always said, I didn't want to be one of those like old lady realtors who are, like you know, struggling to open a door. Like I do see myself retiring, you know, in, in, you know the next five to 10 years would be lovely. Um, I think realtors really need to do a better job of like treating it like a business and a career where you have a start and an end date. Um, if you don't, if you want to keep working, you know, later into life, there's nothing wrong with that. But I do see myself spending more time with my family and friends and not working weekends and nights and random schedules for the rest of my life. So I do, I'm looking forward to that timeframe when I can travel more and spend more time with friends and family.
Speaker 2:Oh absolutely yeah, and everybody's journey is different. Everybody has different goals at the end, but it's always just so inspiring and awesome to hear what people have in store for themselves and what they plan on doing so yeah, I mean I worked really hard to like.
Speaker 1:I mean at some point, like, how much money is enough money? It's not about the money anymore, you just need to like create. I think there's something. There's another chapter for me. Real estate may be part of it and maybe it's like in a nonprofit capacity or volunteer capacity of some sort. But you know, so I cause I do have the expertise I want to be able to, you know, use later on. I just think it's going to be. There's something different on the horizon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm sure once it needs to happen, it'll happen and you'll get your sign.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly, life will just tell you and let you know Life will tell me it's hard to plan too much.
Speaker 2:Exactly, is there anything that I have not?
Speaker 1:touched on that. Maybe you would like to share with our listeners either about yourself or your business. I would love to take this moment to give you the stage. Oh, thank you very much. Um, yeah, I just I I do encourage buyers and sellers to to hang on for the next few months, if not year. So we've We've had a really big change in the industry recently.
Speaker 1:When it comes to commission structures, interest rates have been really difficult. I think the future will be very bright for those that are struggling to buy a house right now, which I recognize, I feel, for buyers very much so, and for sellers too, because it's not that they're not necessarily going to be able to sell their house, but like, where are they going to go, is the big sort of question I hear Well, where am I going to go? So I think, in terms of the industry, we're in a little bit of a shift right now. I think we're going to come out of it fine. We always have.
Speaker 1:I think this area is just a wonderful place to live and raise your family. So you know, I am a supporter of the industry in the Northern Virginia area and in North Carolina as well, which I think I'm seeing a lot of people who are moving from Virginia to North Carolina. I'm seeing a lot of people who are moving from Virginia to North Carolina. So my business partner in North Carolina and I work together a lot to work with clients both here and there, so that's kind of fun. So, yeah, I think there's just a lot of good things on the horizon for everybody.
Speaker 2:That's good to hear and reassuring, because sometimes it can be a little bit doom and gloom, like, oh, we don't know what's coming, ooh, it's going to be real bad. I would not purchase right now. And where? The inventory and I just you just hear a lot of like the scary.
Speaker 1:Exactly. That's exactly how I feel. I hear a lot of doom and gloom and there's some negativity going on, but I think that there's. I think sometimes we have to see the negative or hear the negative to appreciate the positive. So I think it's it's, it's there. We just have to just to open our eyes and wait for it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, that's right. And then, um, what is the role of a real estate agent in the negotiation process and how can you maximize value for your client?
Speaker 1:Well, the real estate agent really is the best, the biggest negotiator you'll work with pretty much your entire life. I mean, how often are you negotiating? I mean, there are people who do it, but maybe not all of us are that privileged to experience it. So, yeah, your real estate agent really does need to set expectations first as to where the negotiation could go.
Speaker 1:Like is this completely unreasonable to ask this price for a house Because you may set off the seller, for instance, if you're representing the buyer. So it's important for the realtor to set the expectation for the client first, but it's also their job at the end. I always say my job is to sell your house quick and get the most amount of money for you, and if I'm representing the buyer, it's to get the best deal for you and have as little stress throughout the process. So sometimes we will have to compromise on one of those things, right? Like, if you want the most amount of money, maybe it won't be the smoothest transaction for you, right? Because sometimes it causes some antagonism. So, again, just setting those expectations for folks is really important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think that is important going in it with expectations, because if you're just and having that communication with your real estate agent, because I feel like if you maybe are just like oh, she's definitely going to do this and it's definitely going to go this way, and you just don't communicate that, it's definitely going to cost some time. You're going to be like wait a minute, but I thought just like I know that you thought, but we need to like sit down, talk about it and be realistic with something.
Speaker 1:And sometimes we as the realtors, we don't know someone's like what their breaking point is Right. So we have to be, we have to communicate that clearly, like are you going to be really upset if you don't get this house? Like what is more important, you know this is the house you want, or is it getting this price Right? So we have to make sure we're communicating that properly, because sometimes they're not going to tell you like I'm willing to pay more, but they don't want to tell you that yeah, no.
Speaker 1:That's okay, I completely understand. They're part of the negotiation process. Yes, and you know I get direction from my clients. Yes, how this works.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, no. Thank you for sharing that insight. I love it. That perspective that you give, it's great. So my final question is going to be do you have a saying or a mantra that maybe has inspired you throughout life that you would like to share with our listeners so they could use it as inspiration as well?
Speaker 1:So it's funny, I'm going to use literally my senior quote from my yearbook. I love it. Give it to us, literally my senior quote from my yearbook. I love it. Give it to us, which I only recently just remembered. But it's perfect, it's live simply so others may simply live, and I do think that is.
Speaker 1:It's funny how I just recently remembered that's what it was Right I do feel like it's sort of how I've lived my life Really it's not. It's not all about me, really it's not, it's not all about me. And sometimes really simplifying things is the best solution. And in my business I do try to put my clients first, always. You know, and sometimes I'll tell folks like you can't buy this house Like this is, I cannot let you buy this house, right? So it's like giving them the honor of, like making the decisions and putting them first. But yeah, I do believe you know we get wrapped up in the technology and social media hustle and bustle of everything and sometimes just simplifying things is a lot easier way to live.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, amen to that sister. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast. We really appreciate you coming in here and sharing your perspective, your journey, all that good stuff. So thank you, thank you.