When she was four years old, Schmuhl-Koller would pretend she was in real estate, complete with a pink phone to make cold calls. To this day, she likes looking at houses, especially old ones. She specializes in what she calls “homes with a past,” those built before 1945. She also volunteers for the Bedford Historic Preservation Committee and is renovating a circa 1860 Greek Revival home with her husband. Her twin passions for history and real estate melded to produce $7.5 million in sales in 2006.
Thoroughly modern marketing: Schmuhl-Koller’s love of the old doesn’t extend to her marketing, which revolves around two custom Web sites, complete with links to other historic homes resources. She hired a consultant to improve her site’s usability and help optimize traffic to her site using Google AdWords and keyword metatags. She tracks the success of her Web site and other advertising by using special codes on her 800 number.
Target small investors: Schmuhl-Koller has a new Web site, investorsrealestateresource.com, launched with another practitioner to target investors, who now account for 10 percent of her business. “This is a way to connect and empower people to change their lives,” she says.