After 26 years in the business, Suzanne Mabe has no trouble recalling her first real estate sale.
The office was so new, saw horses served as some of the furniture, and a good thing it wasn’t too fancy, because the guy who walked in looking to buy a piece of Paradise was wearing a wet bathing suit.
He may have dripped on the floor, but he was true to his word. He asked for a plot of land at a given price. Mabe found it, she said, “and he bought it.” The post script: He never did build his dream home on the property, “and I sold it for him many years later.”
In the time between, Mabe had worked her way from novice to one of St. Thomas’ most respected Realtors.
She started with Stout Realty, worked many years with RE/Max, and now has her own firm. She earned the designations certified residential specialist and graduate of the Realtors Institute, both of which require advanced training and testing.
Mabe and her husband, retired U.S. Attorney Hugh “Peter” Mabe, moved to St. Thomas 36 years ago. Mabe had worked for a consulting firm in the states and she made an easy transition to running a charter boat business.
She said she was reluctant when her friend, Jan Stout, first suggested she try real estate.
“I said, ‘I’m not a sales person.’ She said, ‘It isn’t sales,’ and she was right,” Mabe recalled.
“It’s an analytical business. It’s an information business,” Mabe said. A Realtor needs to assess the buyer’s and the seller’s needs, assess the market, and shape a good fit. He or she also has to have a thorough grounding in local real estate laws and local and federal regulations and more than a passing knowledge of finances. A basic grasp of construction doesn’t hurt either.
“You’re guiding people,” she said. “It’s a huge investment” for them. “You’re helping them navigate the process.”
You don’t need to be an extrovert, although “you do have to like people,” Mabe said. “There’s all different kinds of personalities in real estate.”
As with most everything, technological advances have meant significant changes in the real estate business over the last 20 years or so. Gone are the days of rush delivery of photos; just email them.
With so many Internet sites displaying listings, Mabe said buyers are generally better informed about the market these days, including those from off-island.
“People may do a lot of homework before they get here, but they’re still looking to you to sort out the rest of it,” she said. “They’re looking to you for knowledge.”
Mabe estimated that 80 percent to 90 percent of her business is by referral; some is repeat.
“A lot of it is on-island (buyers) or relocation,” she said. But there are customers from off-island too. “Resort properties, warm climates, are still popular.”
Real estate seems a good fit for Mabe.
“I like the marketing part of it quite a lot,” she said. “There’s a creative side to me” that enjoys describing a property and presenting it. With a new app that layers up to three shots, she does a lot of her own photography these days, but still calls in a professional when she thinks the picture requires it.
“View is always important,” and it’s tricky to take a photo that shows both the interior and exterior at the same time, she explained.
She maintains several Internet sites and while she enjoys creating material for them, she said
, “I’m not crazy about sitting and doing the loading.”
Nor is she happy about the red tape that has been layered up on real estate transactions since the mortgage failures in the states a few years ago.
Protected by generally more conservative lending practices, the territory pretty much escaped the bust itself. But it’s still feeling the regulatory fall-out.
“In one sense loans have become more difficult” to obtain, Mabe said. A commitment for a standard mortgage that used to take 30 days, now takes 45 to 60 days. And an FHA approval will take at least 90 days.
The regulations dealing with financing “are changing, like, constantly,” she said. One thing you can count on is that they make transactions “bureaucratic, cumbersome, and much, much slower.”
It’s frustrating for the agent, for the seller and for the buyer. But it’s not enough to dissuade Mabe. She said she still enjoys the profession and especially likes dealing with people.
The hours can be irregular, but that’s no problem for her.
“You’re in a service business,” she observed, so “you do have to work with the (client’s) schedule, whatever that is.” But, she said, “I try to carve out Sundays” as a day off.
She and her husband owed a boat for 18 years and still enjoy sailing, swimming and long-distance walking. They’re active in causes and community events, and Mabe is a founding member of a grassroots charity, Dinner and a Cause. She’s also a member of the St. Thomas Board of Realtors.
