I was working at Avalon Bay in Quincy. I loved my job. The company’s mission statement was “deliver customer service so extraordinary that they tell stories about us.” Pretty amazing mission statement and Avalon Bay backed it up by empowering their team to be creative in delivering that extraordinary service.

I live just over the Bourne Bridge so it was quite a commute accompanied by lots of wonderful books on tape. When I learned that Avalon Bay would be building in The Pinehills, I wanted that job! How to do so. I don’t even remember whether the interview was in Plymouth or in Quincy, but I do remember that I showed up with a small blue and white igloo cooler. I also showed up with a small can of air freshener and sprayed the room with the scent of pine trees to set the mood for the interview. Clever questions were asked, and clever answers were provided. All the while, the small blue and white igloo cooler was set off to the side. Talked about this and expectations about that with enthusiasm running high on both sides. Finally, the interview team couldn’t stand it any longer and asked “what is inside the cooler?” I replied “what would you do for a Klondike bar?”

I got the job.

Next step was to build a team. Met Lauren and took her on a community tour that included the different amenities that the community offered and different apartment styles. Lauren was warm, engaging, and easy to talk to. At the end of the tour, I asked her “This is the job. You tour people through and rent apartments. Could you do this same tour all day, every day, day after day?” She enthusiastically said “yes!” Next step was to get familiar with the leasing paperwork. Asked Lauren to make 10 copies of the leasing agreement – approximately 4 pages long and went to grab additional information to add to the leasing packet. When I came back in, Lauren had taken page one, put in the copier - made 10 copies and set 10 copies of page one on a nearby table. Did the same thing for page 2 of the lease agreement and page 3 and page 4 of the lease agreement. She then grabbed the stapler and grabbed page 1 through 4 and stapled them together 10 times. We had 10 copies of the lease agreement ready to go. I walked over to the copier hit this button and that button added a quantity and asked for staples in the top left-hand corner. Two minutes later we had an additional 10 copies. Lauren looked at me and said “You must think I am some kind of idiot.” “Not even close” I replied. “What I just learned is that you are not accustomed to working with office equipment. I can teach you how to operate office equipment. What I can’t teach you is how to be nice to people.” I just love that story.

A lease up is a very interesting animal in that people are moving in in the middle of construction. We had an amazing team. The construction team, the leasing team and the maintenance team worked seamlessly together. It was like a dance. We were all living through it together and slowly added residents to the mix as the building was completed. We started hosting dinners at the clubhouse on the first day of every month. There were many great layers that came out of that one idea. We had so much fun doing it and even earned “Lease Up of the Year.”

From there I went to work with the Dell Webb, Great Island sales team and learned that there really is such a thing as a zero-punch list delivery. And what a feeling to drive up to your brand-new home, pull into your driveway to find a huge red bow tied to your garage doors. Welcome to the neighborhood and the amazing lifestyle that awaits. We had a gentleman actually tell us that he bought the lifestyle, the house was free.

From there I went to Seton Highlands where the office was the model home. I had the honor of working with 3 Diana’s and an amazing team leader, Ed. To make it easier on all the Diana’s everyone just answered to Diva. Here we did Sundays at Seton and invited the homeowners and future homeowners to meet. The Seton Clubhouse is beautiful and has a Scottish vibe as does the name of the street in this neighborhood. Golf, after all, originated in Scotland. If you haven’t yet seen the short video by Robin Williams as to how the Scottish invented golf – you are in for a treat and more than few chuckles.

Then for a short time – I left The Pinehills and followed the amazing mentor Ed to Oak Point. Another community that was all about lifestyle including Saturday night dances. It was there I met Barbara Brown. An extraordinary woman. No matter what happened Barbara was always the epitome of grace. She taught me everything I needed to know regarding new construction and resales at Oak Point.

After a couple of years an opportunity to return to The Pinehills and work with the Custom and Cottage Home team selling a different kind of new construction. I love learning and so was ecstatic as I didn’t know a thing. Thank goodness Barbara also took advantage of an opportunity that opened at The Pinehills. Where I knew nothing, she knew everything. We worked with an amazing sales team including Andrea, who brings grace added with humor to the mix. Andrea also knows everything. We were part of team that brought Cottage Homes and Custom Homes to life.

This was a job where you find the perfect piece of land first and either create the home that matches the flow of your life or find the floor plan that fits the flow of your life. My job was now all about walking land which sometimes meant a bit of bushwacking. High heels would not be the appropriate footwear, but cowboy boots were. Over the years of walking land and selling faith that you are going to love your home at the end, has brought me quite the collection of cowboy boots. That was the land piece of it. The next step was working with the builders. Again, an amazing team.

Glenn with MacKenzie Brother’s taught me that not only does the buyer have a voice, the land has a voice. Glenn is very good at listening.

Bart, who is the architect at Whitman Homes showed me the magic of tissue paper bringing the house and subsequent changes to life right before your eyes.

Bill Wennerberg’s creativity at Barefoot Cottage builds very distinctive neighborhoods. They live in his head until they come to life in the physical world – each distinctly wonderful.

It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of building single family homes with these builders leaving time to learn about the resale piece.

Here we have the honor of working with homeowners to sell their homes so that they can get on to their next destination and chapter.

While the homeowners love living here, we love working here. – Stacy Gerry

Celebrating 25 Years

I get to wear cowboy boots to work!

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