March 1, 2023 - By Tom Palmer
BOSTON – This is one of a series featuring Advisors Living residential brokers in the Boston area.
Tanya and Chris, what are your titles?
Tanya:
Vice President of Advisors Living.Chris:
Also Vice President.
How long have you been at Advisors Living?
Tanya:
We both have been here since mid-December.
Where is your office?
Tanya:
In Weston, at 439 Boston Post Road.
What communities and neighborhoods do you work in?
Tanya:
Primarily Wayland, but we branch out. We sell in many of the neighboring towns.
Chris:
Sudbury, Weston, Natick, Wellesley, Lincoln, Framingham, Concord.
How long have you been in the real estate business?
Tanya:
Over 20 years.
Chris:
Twenty-three years for me.
How long have you worked together?
Tanya:
We’ve been together since 2015 or 2016. Really seven or eight years. We first started as a team when at Benoit Mizner and Simon. They’re no longer around.
Chris:
We also worked together early in our careers at Coldwell Banker, but not as a team.
And where do you both live?
Tanya:
We both live in Wayland.
What do you like about the real estate game?
Tanya:
You develop a close relationship with people. For the time period you’re working with them and supporting them, it’s an important and sometimes stressful time in their lives. You’re matching the needs of clients to the right property.
Chris:
It’s always kind of different day to day, which is nice. You’re not always sitting in an office. You’re out networking and talking to people all the time. Listening to their stories.
Tanya:
You definitely work very closely with people in that timeframe when they are buying and /or selling.
OK, tell us about the real estate market.
Tanya:
I think it’s still quite strong, stronger than media portrays it. There’s definitely not enough inventory out there. So when something comes on we get a huge amount of people coming to look at the property. And there are usually multiple offers. Maybe not in the super high end, but in the middle market we work in.
Chris:
I don’t think it’s what it was like six months ago, which was crazy. But it’s still a seller’s market. We have four properties in Wayland on the market. All these towns have very low inventory, and that’s what’s keeping prices up. Interest rates have come down a little from their high, and I think buyers are getting used to that. They’re starting to realize that’s the norm. It might not be what it used to be for a while, or ever again.
How do clients find you?
Tanya:
A lot of our clients are either repeat or referrals from repeat clients, or because we have done so much business in town they know our names and they call us.
Chris:
They see our signs. We send out a lot of mailers. We sent out a big mailer at the first of the year, which was pretty powerful. This year I think it went to like 11,000.
What do you do when you are not showing houses?
Tanya:
I like to travel, go to the beach, hiking. Cooking & entertaining. We started playing pickleball like the rest of the world.
Chris:
We kind of on our off time do the same things. Cooking, hanging out with friends, walking. We are both antsy and don’t like to sit too long.
Tanya:
We’ve been friends for as long as we’ve known each other. We met when our kids started kindergarten, through another friend. And our girls work with us in real estate. They’re part of the team. They’re both 28.
Wait a minute - this is a team of four advisors, not just two?
Tanya:
Yes, the team is the two last names. There are two Tanimotos and two Owens. My daughter is Marina Tanimoto.
Chris:
And mine is Courtney Owens. Both the girls went all the way through Wayland schools. Tanya’s from Sudbury originally, and I’m from Weston. We definitely know the area.