Editorial
Front Page - Friday, November 27, 2009
Realtor Lore Conway masters art of juggling family, career
Samara Litvack
Juggling a family and a career can be a trying task for anyone, especially when that career is in real estate. Yes, Realtors are notorious for having flexible schedules, but everyone in the industry knows that to be successful, an agent must work more than the traditional 40-hour workweek.
So how then does a single mother of five successfully coordinate each of her children’s schedules with her own thriving real estate career? According to Lore Conway, of Prudential Realty in Hixson, very carefully.
“I’m very detailed,” she says. “I’m very timed. I love time management. For a long time I thought I was a very unorganized person, but I know now I’m not.”
Conway’s day begins between 5 and 5:30 each morning. She gets her children, ages 3 to 15, up, fed and ready for their day and heads out the door for drop-offs at three different schools.
“They are my passion,” she says. “They are my life. I’m with my kids unless I’m doing real estate and my kids have adapted.”
Throughout her day, Conway travels all over town, from Georgia to Signal Mountain to Dunlap and beyond, showing houses to buyers and sellers and helping each of her clients find the home he or she is looking for.
Often, she says, her family’s schedule conflicts with the needs of her clients, but she always finds a way to make the two coincide.
“I will pretty much drop anything that I have for myself to accommodate my customers,” she says. “I think that is huge in real estate. I think that right there is the number one factor on whether or not you’re going to succeed or fail in this industry. You have to be available to your customers, and I make sure. I can’t promise it always, but if there’s a chance, by golly it’s going to happen.”
The only time it won’t, she explains, is if she and her children have a “date.” These are things she puts on her calendar and never, ever misses, like recitals or performances or special family outings.
“We’ll go down to the greenway because it’s right in our backyard,” she says. “We’ll go hiking and we’ll go feed the fish down in the rock quarry. Those are my dates with my children … I don’t cancel those.”
But even when she’s focusing her efforts on simply being a mom, Conway is still a Realtor. One of the most important things she can do as an agent, she says, is return any phone calls she’s missed during dates with her kids.
“That’s one of the number one things I hear when someone tells me they’ve changed Realtors, is because they couldn’t locate them or they couldn’t get them to return their phone call,” she says. “As soon as I see I’ve missed a call … I dial that number.”
Conway gets her kids in bed each night between 8:30 and 9:30, depending on which age they are, but her workday doesn’t stop there. She continues to take calls, answer e-mails and work on broker price opinions until midnight or later. Then, she gets in bed and sleeps a few hours before waking up and doing it all again.
“There is no Lore time,” she says. “I will have Lore time when my children are grown. You know, when you have children, you take on a commitment. I didn’t ever expect to be a single mom, but right before I go to bed, I take a deep breath, and I say this often: I did it. I accomplished another day. I was everywhere I needed to be.”
Thankfully, her children understand and are supportive of her career, which she’s been dedicated to for more than 10 years. They know she may have to whisk off to show a house at a moment’s notice, but they also understand she’s there for them no matter what.
“They’ve learned to adjust that some days I’m going to be here less than others,” she says. “Other days you’re going to see me more than you want to see me. You’re always going to have mommy time, and they get that.”
Likewise, Conway’s clients know she’s always there for them, too, mainly because she shows them every chance she gets.
“If someone calls me and tells me they want to purchase a home, the first question I ask is not, ‘Are you pre-approved.’ It’s, ‘What kind of home are you interested in?’” she says.
From there, she finds out exactly what her client is looking for and immediately begins racking her mental database to find that perfect match. But, as everyone in the industry knows, a client does in fact have to qualify for a loan before he or she can buy a home. And when Conway gets to that part of the process, she says her approach is slightly different than most.
“If for any reason they cannot be qualified right now … I think a lot of people will brush (them) off to the side,” she says. “I will get them to the people they needed to speak to to get into credit repair. It doesn’t bother me if that’s six months down the road. That’s a sale six months down the road and I like knowing I have things down the pipeline.”
Perhaps it’s that attitude that’s earned Conway a nomination for the Chattanooga Times Free Press Best of the Best Residential Real Estate Agent the last couple years. This year, she finished in the top three and last year, she took home the award.
“Several people have asked me how I feel that I got that award,” she says. “I’m a very detailed person. Things that the average person wouldn’t notice, I notice. And I’m not sure if that’s a jinx or not.”
Whatever the reason, or however she decides to interpret it, Conway seems to have mastered the balancing act of raising five children and having a successful career in real estate.
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