Julie Palmaccio
Title: Attorney, Cushing & Dolan, P.C. and president-elect of the Greater Boston Chapter of the Women’s Council of Realtors
Age: 33
Experience: 8 years as an attorney, 7 years on the council
Somehow, while following her lifelong dream of becoming an attorney, Julie Palmaccio got bit by the real estate bug – and she’s managed to combine the two, practicing as a real estate attorney while also helping to lead the Women’s Council of Realtors.
Q: What drew you to law?
A: You know, in elementary or middle school, you’d have a day where you’d dress up like what you wanted to be when you grew up? Kids did baseball players and things like that. I came as Sandra Day O’Connor. An embarrassing story, but it’s the truth. As long as I can remember, it was something I wanted to do. Real estate came later.
Q: What got you into real estate, then?
A: Essentially I worked for attorneys in high school and college. One of the firms I worked for in Lowell, when I was in college and law school, it was two guys, and they did a lot of divorce, and criminal. It was 2003, 2004, when the market was crazy. So they were getting all kinds of real estate work that they didn’t have the time to deal with, and that sort of became my job in the time that I was there. And I just really enjoyed it. So based on that, I took some classes in law school and really began to focus on that direction. I’m a paper person, really focused and detail-oriented. Just kind of was a perfect fit for me.
Q: How did you become involved with the Women’s Council of Realtors?
A: Well, back in ’06, ’07, when things were slow, and I was new, and really trying to figure out the best ways to meet people and get involved, I was invited to a meeting by a broker client of mine. And I just never left. It was really a rebuilding time for that particular chapter, the Greater Boston chapter, and I was asked to be on the board, and I said, ‘Sure. Why not?’ And I never left that either. So I did program coordination for four or five years … about a year ago, they asked me if I wanted to do something more, on the officer-level.
In order to be an officer, you have to be a Realtor. I don’t practice as a Realtor at all, but I went and got my Realtor’s license. The president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer – whatever our top ranks are [you have to be a Realtor]. 2013 is my first year as president elect, and I’ll do that this year and next year and then be president for the next two years.
Q: Real estate is one of the most female-dominated professions. What do you see as the role of the women’s council in the industry?
A: I think we’re still building the Greater Boston chapter. It really encompasses southern Middlesex county out to Bristol, to Tri-County out there, they don’t have any women’s groups. It’s a big group and it can be difficult to find a place where everybody can meet. There were a couple tough years there in the market, and it’s easy for people to drop out. So we’re really working very hard to show people the value of belonging to this group.
Q: What kinds of programs do you have – what are the benefits for people?
A: Well, through our national council, they give us guidelines for topics to hit, things like diversity, how to build your business, educating people about what’s going on in the industry. We’re having two speakers at our next meeting to talk about flood insurance, that was something that [got a lot of attention at MAR’s conference]. But not everybody is able to go down to the Cape for two days. That might not fit in your schedule, so we’re bringing that to our members up here. And we’re also having somebody to speak about the new Dodd-Frank changes that we’re going to see in January. That’s a big thing, compliance-wise, that may be difficult for some of your smaller brokerages.
So we try and provide those kinds of things so that when they’re meeting with a client, they’ll have them on the tip of their tongue. That’s a value add that we can provide. In March, we’re doing a big conference on the generation gap, the aging of the baby boomers and how that will effect the industry as they’re looking to downsize. Really trying to educate our members on what is happening right now, and really trying to appeal to your clients because you know your area a little bit better than the agent next to you.
Q: You’re just starting your term as a board leader. Do you have any goals for the council over the next few years?
A: Really one of our big pushes is trying to bring in younger members. Not only do they have more time, they don’t have as many affiliations [already]. You can only commit yourself to so many things, and those are really the people that can benefit the most from what we’re trying to share. We have people with 30 years of experience in real estate, and a 25-year-old kid can really learn a lot from those people.
[In a way, it’s easier to do that now than when I first started during the boom, because] when you’re doing 20 closings a week, be they attorneys or brokers or mortgage brokers, there’s no time for the personal development, the business development, because you’re just trying to keep yourself together. It’s nice to find a balance … We definitely had a few bad years, and everybody kind of experienced that. We saw a decline in membership really across the board, not just in Boston. But we’re starting to see things building back up again. We’re finding in our meetings right now that we’re picking up two and three members at a time, and that’s probably the quickest rate in the six or seven years that I’ve been doing this.
Top Five Favorite Women’s Council Events:
- National Convention
- Washington, D.C. mid-year meeting
- Sleigh Bus Tours
- Speaking at a panel at NAR’s mid-year meeting this year
- Installation as an officer
