Change is Good!

As of July 1, 2019, I am the Director of Lodging and Hospitality Brokerage for The Swan Agency Sotheby’s International Realty.

I started my lodging brokerage career with Kim Swan in early 2008 when I obtained my Maine real estate license and listed my own inn for sale. Kim’s “Lodging Specialists” team were a small group of lodging brokers who had previously owned and operated their own inns. We walked through a buyer and seller’s shoes and truly understood the nuances of an inn deal.

Around the same time, the country began to go through a recession. We sold our inn in March 2009 when the Dow hit a recession low. We were fortunate.

For the next few years I sold 1, 2, maybe 3 inns. The economy was slow to bounce back. It was in 2012 I decided to join The B&B Team. I was excited about the idea of working with buyers and sellers nationwide as an inn consultant. The B&B Team is very strong in that regard. And the idea to work for a company that focuses 100% on what I sell was appealing. The Swan Agency Sotheby’s International Realty sells both inns and residential. The decision for me wasn’t easy because I really liked the people I worked with at Swan.

Fast forward to today and dozens of sales later. I have had a great run with The B&B Team. But I didn’t end up working outside of Maine, because Maine kept me busy. And I realized that I truly didn’t want to cover anywhere outside of Maine. The innkeeping world brought me to Maine in 2004 to buy an inn and my love of Maine has only grown since.

So after giving serious consideration of my career, I decided for the very opposite reason that I went to work with The B&B Team was going to bring me back to The Swan Agency. I wanted to work with an agency who devotes 100% of its efforts to the state I love so much. To the tourism and hospitality industry I know so well. To the state I love to call home. And Like The Swan Agency says “we work Maine, we play Maine, we are Maine’.

The opportunity for me to share my lodging brokerage expertise with other Swan Agency lodging brokers is appealing. To be the one to help others gain confidence and give them tools they might need. I guess it’s why I like teaching at Stonewall Kitchen, to share what I know that has worked for me. I never saw myself as the teaching type, but I guess it was just in me and showed up at my doorstep one day. And we will be offering a variety of current innkeeper workshops as well as aspiring innkeeper seminars, but only in Maine, for those looking to buy in Maine. Stay tuned for announcements.

So I hope to continue to work deals with my former B&B Team colleagues and look forward to my new role at Swan Agency Real Estate.

Thank you all for your support!