“Don’t be afraid to ask a client for a contract.”
Stacey Oberan was an accountant who couldn’t sit still. “I liked the numbers, but I’m not good at sitting behind a desk,” she says.
So in 1998 she left her desk job for a career in real estate sales. She specializes in horse and ranch properties in rural Arizona.
“There’s a large roping community here, and everyone needs acreage,” she says. “I found this niche after I came across a couple of investors looking for large pieces to divide and sell.”
In a town where 4-H is a mainstay for recreation, and parents want to make sure their kids have a couple of acres for their pet projects, Oberan had no trouble finding buyers.
“Every customer I’ve had has sent me more referrals than I could handle,” she says.
But those referrals don’t come by happenstance. “I’m good about calling people back. I stop by to see how their house is,” she says. “I still get people who call me from the first mailing I ever did.”