Happy New Year!

Thank goodness 2020 is over, amiright?! While I’ve never been more ready to move on to a new calendar year, I have to say that I’m blown away at how much good fortune I found in 2020, both personally and professionally. Despite all the daily hardships of the pandemic, I feel very grateful to have my good health, a safe home, and a job I love. I know not everyone can say the same and for that I’m deeply humbled.

I will always remember 2020 as the year I started my real estate career (two weeks before the pandemic hit — perfect timing!) and the year that I married the love of my life. If you follow me on social media, you may have noticed my new last name! Wish me luck as I navigate the harrowing process of making it legal. At home, I call myself the Queen of Administration because I’m pretty damn good at getting tasks like that taken care of and completed. This level of paperwork, however, is daunting even for me.

Although I’m still new to real estate, I feel that I’ve truly found my footing in a career that motivates me, challenges me, and fulfills me in all the right ways. There is so much more for me to learn and experience, and there always will be, but that’s part of what makes this business so much fun.

2020: Year in Review

This is the time of year when you see lots of Realtors sharing their sales volume on social media. That’s just fine — I plan to do the same when I’ve had a full calendar year of selling under my belt — but the problem with hard numbers is that they don’t always tell the full story.

Part of what makes being a real estate agent so rewarding, for me at least, are the unique journeys of every single buyer and seller I get to help. It’s the social and human aspects of the job that keep me inspired and hungry for more.

So, all that to say, here are some of my more unique highlights from this past year as a Realtor®:

• Working with multiple families to relocate to Indianapolis from out of state. I helped one family from California buy a home completely virtually — we did all of our showings via Zoom! It was very 2020. Welcoming newcomers to Indy is quickly becoming one of my favorite aspects of the job.

• Selling my dear friends their dream home — a one-of-a-kind Craftsman on the National Historic Register. We beat out multiple offers from other serious buyers and winning this one felt so special and serendipitous.

• Winning out multiple offer situations for many of my buyers … why yes, I am competitive (thanks for asking :)) and once my clients decide they’ve found “the one,” I take pride in working hard to get them what they want.

• Introducing buyers to neighborhoods they didn’t originally consider but ended up falling in love with — like Irvington, Meridian-Kessler, and Fall Creek Highlands.

• Helping my sellers accept an above-asking price offer for their beautiful, 100-year-old Dutch-Colonial. After 40+ showings, a busy-but-safe open house, and 7 solid offers, it was a wild weekend on the market.

• Helping Fall Creek Place sellers get more than they thought they could for their home. They trusted me by taking my advice on staging and some other minor updates + repairs, and it all paid off.

• Negotiating a record sale in Fletcher Place — all for a seller who trusted me with my very first listing.

• Being recognized as one of the Top 20 Indianapolis Real Estate Agents on Social Media by PropertySpark.

• Working with other agents I enjoy being around, learning from, and collaborating with every single day.

• Guiding all my clients through the buying and selling process. And helping them achieve their goals and make their house dreams come true along the way. There’s truly no better feeling.

While I can’t wait for this pandemic to be over, building a real estate business in 2020 taught me that humans are incredibly resilient, adaptable, and creative. I think we all developed a new relationship with the idea of “home” this year (whether we wanted to or not) and that made my job pretty fun and exciting.

2021: Introducing Maywright Property Co.

My name isn’t the only thing changing this year. The other big announcement is that I joined a brand new brokerage! Introducing, Maywright Property Co.

The founders and leadership at Maywright consist of three incredibly talented women I admire and respect. They are my mentor and former team leader, Natalie Clayton; my former managing broker, Jess Martin; and top-producing Indianapolis agent, Chanda Johnson.

As my team leader last year, Natalie was easily my number-one resource for all things real estate. She taught me so much (in a very short period of time) and I attribute much of my early success to the fact that she was never further than a phone call away. When she invited me to join her new brokerage, saying yes was an easy decision.

It’s alongside these women I know I’ll be well-equipped to not only achieve my own business goals, but to continue to serve my clients with an exceptional level of knowledge, expertise, and care.

What about the name Maywright? The brokerage name is a nod to May Wright Sewall, a historic woman and leader with ties to Indianapolis who made a deep impact through her work around equality, education and peace. She is known for helping to establish the Indianapolis Museum of Art (Newfields), Herron School of Arts, the Propylaeum, and the Indianapolis Women’s Club.

What to Expect and How to Stay in Touch

As a past, current, or future client, the way we’ll work together to buy or a sell a home won’t change. The biggest change you’ll experience is my new email address [ally@indyhomeguide.com] and the gorgeous new Maywright branding I’ll use to market your listing (which I can’t wait for you to see!).

If you’re not already, please follow me on Instagram where I share a healthy mix of real estate content, beautiful listings, and photos of my dog and husband :)

Please also subscribe to the Indy Home Guide newsletter, which I plan to publish more often this year. From tips for buying and selling, market reports, and fun things like home tours and design ideas, I’m excited to put more focus on making Indy Home Guide a one-stop shop for all things Indianapolis real estate.

And as always, please feel free to reach out to me directly if you want to talk about any of these big changes or come up with a plan together to buy and/or sell a home this year (or a few years down the road). I’m happy to chat and help you any way I can.

Wishing you and your loved ones nothing but peace, happiness, and good health in 2021!

Happy New Year,

Ally