When Marie King became a Realtor after surviving parenthood long enough to see her second child off to kindergarten, she had no idea what she was getting into.
King correctly believed a career in home sales would give her the flexibility and the income she needed to care for and financially support her two children as a single mother, she says.
“I wanted to do real estate during the day and then return home to my kids in the evening,” King recalls of her decision in 2000 to become a Realtor.
However, the vision of the people who ushered King into the profession exceeded hers and, with their guidance, she set off on a journey that took her to a place she’d never imagined being.
A career worth having
The voyage began with a suggestion from King’s first broker, Kathy Tucker, at Crye-Leike in Hixson: “Apply for Leadership TAR” (Tennessee Association of Realtors).
Launched in 2003, Leadership TAR was an annual program that identified emerging leaders in real estate throughout Tennessee and honed their skills through retreats.
“I saw Marie’s desire to be a genuine professional in our industry, and she was an excellent team player,” Tucker explains.
King was accustomed to following career advice. Her foray into real estate, for example, began with a call from a long-distance friend who had recently purchased a home in Pennsylvania and knew she was ready to end her decadelong stay-at-home gig.
“She said, ‘Marie, our agent reminds me of you. You should be a Realtor,’” King recalls. “She’s my best friend; she knows me better than anyone. So, she started me thinking about real estate.”
Although intrigued, King wasn’t convinced she’d be a good fit for the profession, so she asked a Realtor friend at church, Carla Simpson, for her thoughts.
“Carla said, ‘You’d be great,’ and introduced me to Kathy.”
This trend continued after King joined Leadership TAR and met Charles “Pug” Scoville, then the director of communications and education for what is now called Tennessee Realtors. Scoville saw something in King that King didn’t know was there.
“He said, ‘You’re a trainer.’ I said, ‘No, I’m not.’ And then he went, ‘You are. I’d like for you to take our trainer class.’ I didn’t know I was going to be a trainer. I just loved to learn.”
By the time the local Keller Williams franchise ownership group offered King a job as the director of career development in 2006, she also loved to teach. Once the new kid on the block at Crye-Leike, King had acquired the kind of home sales expertise that attracted rookie agents to her for guidance – and she was always pleased to help, she says.
Teaching full-time thrilled King, who in a 2007 interview with the Herald said she loved helping new Realtors achieve their goals. “I’ve told my agents, ‘You’re going to have to help me out because you’re my clients now. You’re the people whose dreams I need to help come true.’”
As King immersed herself in her new role, she saw a phrase from KW’s mission statement manifest in her life: “Our mission is to build careers worth having,” the declaration reads in part.
While the local Keller Williams ownership group expanded its agent count and opened additional offices throughout the Chattanooga area, King trained hundreds of Realtors, she estimates. It was, she says, a career well worth having.
But it was not where King would remain.
A business worth owning
In 2006, King also told the Herald she enjoys working with homebuyers and sellers.
“I love helping them meet their goal, whether it’s a certain kind of house, a certain price range, or a certain monthly payment. When I’ve made that happen, I feel successful.”
King returned to sales in 2014 when she moved from KW’s East Brainerd office to its North Shore office. She says her son, Nathan, was a catalyst for the change.
“He said, ‘Mom, you’ve been teaching agents what do for seven years. Why don’t you go back to doing it?’ So, I did.”
After years of teaching Realtors about KW’s systems and models, King adopted a variation of the plan founder Gary Keller recommends that fit her goals. Instead of starting and growing a team, for example, King chose to fly solo.
“I don’t want to be in charge of anyone,” King laughs. “Also, I like being in the trenches. I like asking people what their dream home looks like, I like listening to their answer, and I like when I can suggest they consider something else that would fit their budget. And I look forward to getting on the MLS every morning to see if any of the new listings match their criteria.”
King keeps her thinking outside of the proverbial box even when she’s following the procedures she taught others to follow. For example, as a minimalist who sees most gifts as dispensable, she came up with a unique closing gift for her buyers.
“My closing gift is a six-pack of air filters,” she smiles. “And then I send my buyer a reminder once a month to change their filter for a healthy home.”
King says she likes giving her clients something practical. Sending air filters to her clients also allows her to honor her late father, a lifelong HVAC man.
“Each reminder says, ‘This is in honor of my dad, who spent his time in the heating and cooling industry.’ I get goosebumps talking about it.”
The monthly reminder also gives King an opportunity to remind her clients to tell anyone who’s in the market to buy or sell a house to pass along her name. This, combined with other marketing efforts (sending birthday and anniversary cards and hosting client appreciation events), has allowed King to expand her operation to the point where she can rely fully on repeat business and referrals.
“It’s been three years since I sold something from a sign,” she says. “Two of my closings last month were the parents of friends. I sold houses to the friends, and now their parents are moving here to be closer to their grandchildren.”
King took another page from Keller’s book when she purchased several short-term rental properties. This endeavor has paid a handsome dividend.
“Gary Keller says to invest in what you know. Since I don’t have the stock market behind me, I chose to buy and sell personal investment properties. I recently sold them, bought a condo on the North Shore and built a home near Monteagle – debt free.”
King refers to her Monteagle home as her “getaway.” Surrounded by more than an acre of woodland, it’s where she allows herself to set aside her business for a few moments and sit and watch birds.
She also gardens, with tomatoes, green beans, banana peppers, beets, lettuce, garlic and snap peas making it into the soil of her raised bed this season. She pronounces tomato “toe-MAH-toe,” with a soft “a.”
“I was raised by a British woman,” she laughs. “Mom was from England.”
King’s retreat is one of the fruits of another component of KW’s mission statement: to build a business worth owning. But that’s not its only purpose. It will also contribute to the legacy King hopes to leave.
A legacy worth leaving
If the Monteagle is King’s getaway, being in the midst of her children and grandchildren is her “happy place,” she says. After picking up her phone and scrolling through its photos, she taps on a picture of her with her immediate family, including Nathan, a teacher at Harrison Elementary, and her daughter, a nurse. Both are flanked by their spouses, while King is holding Nathan and his wife’s son, Carter.
“I make time for my little guy,” King says, all but beaming at her phone. “I’m not with him every day, but I do see him maybe twice a week.”
The real estate work King does is not just for her, she says, but is also for her family. She wants, as Keller advises, to build a legacy worth leaving.
“I’m proud – hopefully in the humble, appropriate way – because I do want to leave a legacy for my kids,” King says.
King’s legacy could extend outside her family to the people she trained after stepping down as KW’s director of career development in 2014. In addition to facilitating Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University classes at Keller Williams and Calvary Chapel, a local church, she taught a foundational class at KW called Ignite via Zoom during the pandemic.
Not only that, but King says some of her fellow agents are now taking a page from her book by investing in rental properties.
“A lot of the people here have said, ‘Marie, I saw what you’ve been doing, and now I want to do it.”
King’s journey began long before she became a Realtor. Born and raised in Rhode Island, she attended business college in Allentown, Pennsylvania, worked in restaurant management for several years and then moved to Chattanooga in 1989 to help with a family business.
Her voyage is also not yet over, nor is it confined to work and family, as her board service with The Chattery and South Side Council of the Chamber of Commerce attest.
Rather, it continues with each client she helps, with each hour spent on community service, with her days watching birds at her retreat, with her afternoons with Carter, and with the ongoing example she strives to provide for her children – both of whom are homeowners.
“Someone once said, ‘Marie, you’re leaving a legacy.’ That brought tears to my eyes because that’s what I want to do – not so I’ll be remembered but so others can live a good life. My daughter recently said, ‘Mom, we wouldn’t be homeowners if it weren’t for you.’ I didn’t buy their homes for them, but maybe I helped to make that happen in other ways.”