Editorial
Front Page - Monday, November 02, 2009
Cabot Realtor says community service is important
Ethan C. Nobles
By Ethan C. Nobles
Special to the Daily Record ecnobles@att.net
Shirley Miller, a Realtor with Re/Max Real Estate Connection in Cabot, said community service is a very important for anyone and that’s doubly true for real estate agents.
“The community needs to know that we don’t just list and sell houses,” she said. “We’re out there helping and doing things for the community that need to be done.”
Miller has been a Realtor since 2005 and a Cabot resident since 2003. She said helping out here adopted community has been a joy.
“The community is why I’m here. That’s who I service,” she said. “What’s a few hours a month or a week to give back to what’s providing for me and my family?
“And I like to help people. If there’s someone in need I’m going to be there.”
Miller is involved in the Junior Auxiliary of Cabot – a group that serves children in the area through the schools and the community. She said if there’s a need for a child – and there’s always a need – the Junior Auxiliary will be there to buy food, clothes, shoes, Christmas presents for kids and families.
Also, Miller is on the Board of Directors for the North Pulaski Board of Realtors and has been in charge of that group’s Table Top event for the past two years. Money raised through that event goes to Special Olympics Arkansas – a group that helps disabled children in Arkansas compete athletically on local, state and national levels.
Miller stressed that it can be difficult to talk people into volunteering to help their community because they equate volunteerism with writing a check.
“A lot of people don’t have money to donate, but give me an hour or two of your time,” she said.
In 2003, Miller and her husband Mike moved to Cabot after choosing that community as the one in which they wanted to live. The two moved to Cabot from Blytheville after Mike accepted a job as a director at the North Metro Medical Center in Jacksonville.
In 2004, Miller started as a receptionist at the office where she now works. Unlike a lot of Realtors, she didn’t interview firms when looking for a place to set up and office and go to work.
“They could have hired someone else, but they picked me,” she said, adding she passed her real estate exam on Mother’s Day weekend in 2005 and started her real estate career. “I was so excited! I’m lucky to be working for Bill and Linda O’Brien.”
The O’Briens own the office and Linda serves as the broker.
Still, she said the office has built up a good reputation in Cabot and that has helped agents there deal with slowing markets over the past couple of years. Miller said the office is known for customer service and the value of taking care of clients has been passed on to her.
“They need to get the house they want. Not the one I want them to have. I can’t sell the house – it has to sell itself,” Miller said.
Regardless, business has slowed down a bit over the past couple of years. Miller said that’s actually been a bit of a blessing in disguise as she needed to gear down a bit to deal with her son, Kyle, being deployed to Afghanistan.
“I really needed it to slow down a little bit,” she said.
Miller said she has two other children. Brittany is a senior in Cabot High School while Ashley is a teacher’s assistant for the Bryant School District and is working on getting her teaching certificate.
Meanwhile, Miller said she believes a good deal of the passion for her job comes from her enthusiasm for Cabot. In addition to great schools, Miller said Cabot still feels like a small town but is still close to Little Rock.
The fact that it revolves around children and families is something that appeals to a good number of people moving to central Arkansas. That fact, alone, should keep the city growing, Miller said.
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