Corinne Fitzgerald

Corinne Fitzgerald
Title: Broker-owner, Fitzgerald Real Estate; 2015 President, Massachusetts Association of Realtors
Age: 57
Experience: 29 years

After moving there to attend art school as a young woman, Corinne Fitzgerald fell in love with the lifestyle and natural beauty of Western Massachusetts, settling there until the self-proclaimed “former hippie” and single mom established her own successful brokerage business.

Q: You grew in Wakefield – what brought you out to Franklin County?
A: I had a guidance counselor in high school who had a second home here. He [knew I was looking at art school, and he told me about Greenfield Community College]. He said, “It’s a community college, it’s small, but it has a really good reputation for its art department.” And I knew when I drove out here on Route 2, that this was going to be home. I just loved it. I still love driving out on Route 2.

Q: Did you end up getting into real estate right away after college?
A: Oh, no. After college I did the craft fair circuit for a while – I used to make feather jewelry; I was a long-haired hippie. Worked in a leather [crafts] shop for a while. Then I had my daughter, and then I got divorced and was raising her myself, and I taught aerobics for a while. I did that for three or four years – and that’s when I decided to move into real estate. I remember I still had my long hair, and nobody would hire me at first because I had long hair.

Q: What inspired you to make the switch?
A: Well, it all goes back to my grandmother, who was a role model for me forever. She was [a seamstress] and the creative person in our family. Worked in a sweatshop in Boston her whole life, raised my mother and uncle on her own. But she used to save all the money she got from doing alterations and put it into [savings] bonds for us grandkids. So when I got married and was starting out – I was 22 or 23 – [I got her permission] to use the bonds for a down payment. And I ended up having $15,000 to put down on a $25,000 house. … I just loved the whole process of buying the house. And so I decided, I wanted to be in a job where I learned something new every day. … I come from a self-employed family, and so I wanted something where no two days would be the same, that was a challenge, and that would allow me the flexibility to raise my daughter, to be able to go to her activities. Not a nine-to-five job.

Q: It must have been tough getting started, being a single mom. Did you know a lot of people in town?
A: Well, I came out here for school in 1977, got my license in 1986, so I had been here about nine years – but that’s nothing out here! How I actually got started was Dick Dills [owner of Massamont Real Estate]. He’d been a mentor to me – he was the one who actually hired me. I would follow him around, doing all the behind the scenes work, and I learned a lot. But I remember many days of having tuna fish and cheese ends, macaroni and cheese. I was lucky that my mortgage was so small – I remember living on an advancement from the bank. I did that a lot – it was scary for a while there. I had to build a business, build a following, and it took years.
Q: Markets out here can be a little different from those near Boston – did you have to diversify what you were doing?
A: No, I’ve always done residential. I’m a firm believer that you focus. Don’t try to spread yourself too thin. … I don’t want to learn commercial, I don’t want to learn industrial. I refer all that out. I live right on the New Hampshire/Vermont border; I don’t sell real estate in New Hampshire or Vermont. I don’t want to know their laws, I don’t want to learn their whole [market]. I want to do what I do here well. I’d rather be a big fish in little pond than a little fish in a big pond.

Q: Having fallen in love with the lifestyle in Western Mass., have you seen Greenfield change much?  
A: Well, my mother says, having visited me here since 1977, is that it’s like there’s been a big paintbrush spread over the town – everything’s a lot more bright. Has it changed much? Well, it went from a town to a city. We have a mayor now, where were had selectmen before. But I’d say the biggest thing that’s changed our lives out here is the Internet. I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing now, being the MAR state president, if it weren’t for electronic communication. I can be anywhere doing anything, I can be in Boston, I can be in Washington, I can be in Saratoga, I can be anywhere that I go and still function. The one thing I can’t do is show property.

Fitzgerald’s Top Five Safety Tips For Agents:

1. Always meet potential new clients at the office or a public place.
2. Always park on the street, and not in the driveway. Don’t be boxed in.
3. When entering a room, always have the client go first.
4. Always let someone else know where you’ll be at all times – where your appointment is, what time you’ll be back.
5. Never show property at night.