Norfolk & Wrentham July 2017

July 2017 Norfolk & Wrentham Local Town Pages www.localtownpages.com Page 31
Lisa Shestack, Realtor:
Making Real Estate About People, Not Just Property
By Jane Lebak
When a Bellingham widow
reluctantly decided to sell her
home, she worried no one would
buy it. The house was what realtors
call “quirky,” needing some
work, and with the washing machine
under the kitchen counter.
“I’m afraid it will never sell,” she
said to her real estate agent.
“I sold it in twenty-four
hours,” says Lisa Shestack, realtor
with Berkshire Hathaway.
Just another day in the career
of Lisa Shestack, who since 2001
has developed a reputation for
people-oriented, detail-specific
work in the MetroWest real estate
market.
“People do business with people,”
she says. “It’s not about the
product but about the person:
that’s my philosophy. Pay attention
to details. Listen. Multitask.
And above all, be reachable and
responsible for your clients.”
Lisa has been in sales for
twenty-five years, beginning parttime
during college and moving
into full-time telecom system
sales afterward. “We had some
amazing overnights, transferring
switchboards with a thousand
phones and voicemail in the Boston
hospitals, where that system
absolutely had to be working the
following morning,” she says.
“But those days taught me about
the necessity of multitasking and
being hands-on with your clients.
Plus, I got very comfortable with
learning new technology and
being available however my clients
needed me.”
Lisa’s shift to real estate came
When she’s not selling homes, Lisa Shestack loves spending time with
her horse, Dutch.
when her mentor in sales, a close
friend, learned she was dying. “As
one of her last wishes,” Lisa says,
“she wanted to help me buy my
dream home.”
While undergoing chemo,
Lisa’s mentor (also named Lisa)
guided her into the world of real
estate. “I was a New York City
girl who craved horses since age
five,” Lisa says, “so I wanted
a property where I could have
a barn and a horse in the back
yard.”
Lisa’s mentor showed her
how to go toe-to-toe with builders,
how to handle snags in the
mortgage system, how to deal
with real estate attorneys, and
all the areas where a buyer can
negotiate. She combined hard
work with an ardent advocacy
that Lisa took to heart.
“I was so thrilled the day I
signed the purchase and sale
agreement for that house,” Lisa
says. “My dream came true only
because of her hard work.” Six
months later, her mentor died,
but Lisa had absorbed all her
lessons: listen, analyze, and advocate.
In the case of the widow’s
“quirky” home, Lisa spent a lot
of time considering how best to
position it. She analyzed how
comparable homes were selling,
then listened to the woman talk
about what made her home special,
Lisa posted the listing with
a number of unusual pictures
and a write-up telling the individual
story of how this house
had grown around the needs of
a multigenerational family. “We
had fourteen families come to the
open house the next day,” Lisa
says, “and without underpricing
the home, we got three bids.”
For this reason, she’s become
a specialist in quirky, unique
properties. “Anyone can sell
new construction in a new subdivision,”
she says. “I love the
challenging opportunities with
unique stipulations, such as finding
a buyer when no one can
know the property is for sale, or a
situation where the horses living
on the property have to stay with
the property.”
Matching the perfect buyer
with the perfect property is a joy.
Lisa can rattle off the address of
every one of these homes, and
she smiles as she tells their stories.
She remembers another tricky
sale, again involving horses, with
a property already on the market
for ten years when the sellers contacted
her. “I networked it,” she
said. “Real estate is about people,
not just about selling something,
so I got creative about going
to the places where the buyers
might be.”
Working through her network
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FOR SALE - 142 Village Street, Millis
of horse lovers, she discovered a
couple that wanted a property
where they could start investing
in horses even though they
couldn’t afford a million-dollar
home. “I took them through the
house and showed them what
work would need to be done, but
also all the potential. I recommended
contractors who could
restore the building while retaining
the charm. They bought it,
and they were able to start up
their horse-life without becoming
house-poor.”
This kind of success is the
result of Lisa Shestack’s philosophy
that people do business with
people. “It takes a long time to
develop this kind of referral system,”
Lisa adds. “You build it
one sale at a time.”
Anyone looking to buy their
dream home or sell the one
they’re in can visit Lisa Shestack
at her website, http://www.
LisaIsRealEstate.com, or call at
(617) 828-6466.
Lisa Shestack
REALTOR ®
cell (617) 828-6466
Lisa@LisaIsRealEstate.com
www.LisaIsRealEstate.com
26 Franklin Street, Wrentham, MA 02093
FOR SALE - 35 Arlene Drive, Wrentham
More choice. More reason to call us.
Call 617-828-6466