Gail Roberts
Title: Vice President, Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate
Experience: 34 Years
Gail Robert fell into real estate on a lark, but she’s since taken after it with a passion, carving out a niche in the Cambridge-Somerville area that led her to become not only one of Coldwell’s top agents in Massachusetts, but in 2012, one of their top 10 agents for the whole company.
Q: Did you start your career in real estate?
A: Actually, I was working at Harvard, with the director of fiscal services. My brother-in-law was teaching at the law school, my sister was associate director of the MBA program, and I was right in the middle. So it actually led to a good social life. One of my old roommates called me up one day and said, “Let’s go get our brokers’ licenses.” I said, “Sure, why not?” I went to the class and ran into a friend of mine from Woodstock, Vermont. His parents had a real estate company in Chestnut Hill. So he said, “Why don’t you go work for my parents part-time?” Which of course they don’t do today. I’m a product of a part-time. So I’d work at Harvard, nine to four, wouldn’t take lunch, and then I’d leave at four and in weather like this I’d start showing property. Did my first sale my first month – first house I showed her, first buyer – it was to a cousin of mine in Brookline Village. It must have been $60,000 at the time. She sold it a few years ago for [$800,000]-something.
Q: What prompted you to make the leap into real estate full time?
A: It was just one of those things – I had a big sale. I sold a house – it was a big house off Brattle Street [to an economics professor from Harvard]. At the time, they were revamping [my department] at Harvard [and] my job was being phased out … I’d had it pretty good, and that wasn’t going to happen again. So now that I had this money, I figured, why not go into real estate? So I left my job at Harvard, went in to work for the Thorndykes, doing Chestnut, Brookline, Newton … It was really by accident. [A few years later] I went over to Hunneman, which became Coldwell Banker. It was really hard to leave, because you build up a loyalty. Now I’ve been [with Coldwell] for 30 years. Of course, I was 12 when I started!
Q: It feels like you’re the kind of person who knows everybody. Is that fair to say?
A: Well, you know, I’m involved … when you list a lot of properties, you’re meeting lots of people. I’m on several nonprofit [boards] … Being in Cambridge has allowed me to have a really good life, and [I want to] sort of participate, and really give back. And then you get to know people. It’s hard to go anywhere – I have to be nice, because I might know somebody! You can’t just run around the corner with your grocery cart – you might run up someone’s heel, and you might know them. I went to the theater the other night, and I knew the person sitting in front of me. Then two women came in, sat next to me – [Just then, a woman walking by on the sidewalk spies Roberts through the window and taps on the glass, waving. Roberts waves back.] Sorry. So anyway, these two women sat down next to me, and said, “You don’t know me, but I know you.” That’s the life of a real estate broker.
But the thing that’s nice for me is that you get active in things, and I can put people together. Just now I’m arranging to rent out the Museum of Natural History [in Cambridge]. It’s annual thing we do. For example, we just sold several houses in Lakeview [to young families], but if that kid goes to Shady Hill, and this kid goes to BBN, and maybe one of them might go to a Cambridge school, they don’t necessarily really know each other. Or one’s on this street and one’s on a back street. So my thing is to try to get people together. So at the end of October, I take over the museum and have a catered party, where people can see people, get introduced. Sometimes I have a big map where people can see where you live and where people live around you. And then I also bring in – because I’m on the board of UNICEF, and think kids should learn about philanthropy – we bring the boxes for kids to take on Halloween … We can get close to 200 at the museum, and it’s a fun venue.
Top Five Restaurants In Cambridge/Somerville:
- Toscana
- Legal Seafood
- La Brasa
- The Abbey
- Rialto
