Today we’d like to introduce you to Mary Gillach.
Mary, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
At age 40, and globe-trotting for a decade out of business school, I decided to start a family and live more locally. Always interested in real estate, I got my license and thought I would “dabble” for a few years before heading back to management consulting or corporate America. But I saw an opportunity for an analytic, professional, consultative approach to selling real estate here as the Boston market is expensive. And buyers and sellers are highly educated, save consumers. I have been in real estate now for 16 years and have never looked back. My first 6 years were with Caldwell Banker, my last 10 with Willam Raveis where I have had the opportunity to build a real business. The Gillach Group offers full-time professional administrative and marketing staff and exceptional technology to market our homes and to manage transactions seamlessly. We are ranked in the top 20 in the state, and at the top in our core markets year after year.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s never easy coming into professions that are highly competitive and doing well quickly. Real estate sales is no exception. Not all are welcoming. I learned early on to focus on my clients and not worry about the competition in the realtor ranks. It ruffled feathers, for sure. And while I understand the “fixed pie” mentality, I have always felt there is enough business for everyone, and that collaboration was more productive than building walls. It’s one of many reasons I started my own team, an environment where we all help one another. It’s more fun and certainly better off for the client. The other major challenge of course has been ups and downs in the real estate cycle.
The go-go days of 2001 to 2005 were just a blast, just crazy busy and everyone was happy. But the rest of the decade was tough, tough. Neither buyers nor sellers were happy, the economy had everyone on edge, and it thinned out the realtor ranks pretty dramatically. My business was established and survived, in fact thrived, as clients were more invested and took time to interview agents. The more established agents had a solid history of success to lean on, and knew how to adjust strategies with the change in times. But even in those tougher days there were things to be excited about – trying out new marketing strategies, learning to stage homes ourselves, and having a bit more predictable (and reasonable!) work life.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Gillach Group at William Raveis Real Estate story. Tell us more about the business.
The Gillach Group is based out of Chestnut Hill and focuses primarily on residential sales in Brookline, Newton and the western suburbs plus parts of Boston and Cambridge. Many of our clients work with us on two transactions simultaneously, often in downsizing situations and in those with younger families moving from towns with less desirable public schools to those with exceptional public schools. Hence a little broader service area than most realtors. But we also have deep market knowledge in all these areas, with team members living in Brookline, Newton, Needham, Winchester, Arlington, JP and Atlanta (ok that one does not really help!) We typically sell 75-100 homes in any given year, and have sold well over $600,000,000 over the years.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Huge – being in the right place at right time has always been my luck, and being flexible enough to make a change when bad luck hit has also turned out well for me.
My spouse had a good job so I had freedom to quit a world-wide marketing job that had me all over the country and just have children. I would never have gotten out of corporate America and into the entrepreneurial world of real estate had I not had that fortunate circumstance.
I realized that the dream jobs had in the 80s as an exercise physiologist with a business undergrad and a master’s degree in physiology were to be short-lived, as an industry was dramatically undervalued, I saw I could not make a solid living for long. So I was sort of pushed to make a change, and got an MBA from the Wharton School so I could expand my industry focus to health care more broadly, and could also go more broadly in what I was able to do with it. And luckily applied to a fabulous school that I really did not know was so fabulous…. I was from Colorado and had never even heard of the Ivy League till I was there. Good luck!
It was a good luck that being a Wharton Grad gives me access I would not have otherwise had. And a name brand that helps me in my field today as well.
Contact Info:
- Address: Mary Gillach MBA, MA
The Gillach Group at William Raveis Real Estate
191 Grove Street, Chestnut Hill MA 02467 - Website: www.thegillachgroup.com
- Phone: 6179359290
- Email: mary.gillach.wg93@wharton.upenn.edu
- Instagram: the.gillach.group
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gillach-Group-Real-Estate-Brookline-Newton-Jamaica-Plain-Needham-Boston/146154035557874
- Twitter: @thegillachgroup
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-gillach-group-brookline-2
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thegillachgroup
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
