Betsy Millane Homes

08/14/2025

08/05/2025

Interest Only Payments

At a recent high school reunion back in Michigan, classmates told me a good story about my dad, their family realtor.

Their family’s needed a house. They had the down payment, but could not meet the interest only payments for the next 6 months.

On a handshake, my dad, their realtor, told them he would cover the payments for them. They could get the house. They could repay him later.

Why did my dad do this?

Dad believed in houses. He believed that people who owned their own houses felt secure, and secure people made good decisions. Secure people build wealth. Secure people are good for the community, the country, the world.

I shed a few tears with them at this remembrance, knowing I wasn’t just hearing about what a great realtor Dad was, but that his heart was remembered, every time the owners looked at their house.

A heart for this business is my inheritance from my dad. A client told me recently that I am “realtor with heart.” What an honor!

Every day, I promise to work to be worthy of this distinction.

04/02/2025

"...get in good trouble, necessary trouble. Help redeem the soul of America."

04/02/2025

Look what just hit the market!
234 Lowell Rd Wellesley, in the Cliff Estates.
A cooks kitchen, a architect designed family room with soaring ceilings and light, four spacious bedrooms.

04/01/2025

Inviting Irving Renewal for dinner

My father worked a lot in commercial real estate.

He’d been asked to revive the downtown which was hit hard by the new mall that had opened up 20 miles away.

Dad launched an idea to create a mall in Muskegon. The negotiations and funding were a challenge, but dad believed Urban Renewal would revive Muskegon. Dad was persuasive, but if that didn’t work, he knew what would: Dinner at our house.

Mom was a terrific cook. On any given evening Dad would invite naysayers to join us for dinner and our dining room held not just a family of 8, but these visitors, too. Dad was genuine, real, and the discussions at our dinner table helped people understand his vision for Muskegon.

The of the talk at the table dealt with his work anyway. We heard a lot about Urban Renewal this and Urban Renewal that. Most of went over our heads. Especially one of my sisters.

One evening, while Dad was holding forth, she interrupted him. “Dad, you are always talking about this Irving Renewal. Why don’t you have him for supper?”

The table erupted with laughter. Dad realized that that much of the talk was over our heads. He made it right with her. But we wouldn’t. All someone would have to say is, “Irving Renewal” to send us all in peals of laughter.

The mall was quite the thing for a while. Dad knew what he was doing.

I know what I am doing. Like Dad I go the extra mile to get it done. Interested in Real Estate? Call me.

03/18/2025

Catching up

Dad wore a lot of hats as an investor, and one of them was running a sign company. This company made metal signs that went on buildings.

Nick, Mindy, and I were home from college one Thanksgiving. We were eager to connect with friends, connect with my mother’s always filled refrigerator, tv shows, and each other, the usual holiday pastimes. But at dinner, Dad mentioned that the company had been busy, and they’d fallen behind on their orders. Without question and without consulting each other, we all offered to come in and help.

Dad looked up from his dinner, and his face changed from concern to consideration. He started to smile and said, yes, tomorrow morning, 7:00.

The next morning, we drove over to the company, the three of us and Dad, went in the front door of the office, and Dad walked us into the back.

It was noisy and bright. A steady murmur of machinery. It was dusty and the cement floor was hard. Dad stood by the office door until a foreman came over. He told them: These are my kids, home from college. I told them you had too much work and have fallen behind. They offered to help. Can you show them what has to be done?

He stared at my Dad and the three of us for a minute as if he could not believe it.

Dad shrugged and went into the office. And there we were.

He took us around and set us some tasks. Mine was to trace the outline of what the metal cutter had to follow. I had blueprints and sheets of metal and blue inky pencils and a wide table to stand at. Nick and Mindy went elsewhere. I was told the person I was replacing was out sick. I was showed, by another person, what to do and set about trying to make a dent in the big pile of metal with the blueprints.

I can’t remember lunch – I think Dad brought us something, and I gobbled something down and kept going.

At one point, a person wandered over and asked me what I was doing. I told him. Dad had said they’d fallen behind and needed some help. Another person wandered over and, laughing, said I was probably getting paid pretty well. I said no, I wasn’t getting paid. My Dad said they needed some help so I was helping. He walked away, shaking his head.

A whistle blew, indicating the end of the work day. Nick and Mindy, their tasks concluded, came over to where I worked and began to help out. The foreman came over and told us it was quitting time. We looked up from our work. I gestured toward the pile I’d been working on and said, “Yes, it might be quitting time, but if we can get all of this done, you’ll be caught up. We can stay, right?” He said, “sure” and walked away.

When we finished, maybe an hour or so later, we hunted up Dad and he drove us home. We were tired. My eyes burned, my throat felt scratchy, it was very nice to sit in the car for a while. We didn’t talk much. Dad said they could not believe his college kids came to help them, and not just help them, but we were willing to stay past quitting time to get the job done. He was very happy. It marked him as more than just a boss, and the three of us as more than just college kids. The workers were impressed. He was grateful.

Nick, Mindy, and I knew it was the right thing to do. We were a little amused by their reaction when we refused to leave at quitting time, that we were more interested in completing the job than the hours we worked.

They say the foot of the farmer is the best fertilizer and I think that saying applies here.

Like a farmer who ventures into his field to see what the soil looks and smells like, to see how the corn is growing instead of staying the barn figuring out how much he’ll make, I am not afraid to get real when I go to sell a house.

If I tell a client they need to declutter, chances are I have some empty boxes in the back of the car to bring in so the work can start. If a client needs some work done and aren’t in town, I am there to coordinate and supervise it. I’ve been known to shovel walks and driveways for showings, to check on water heaters and drain radiators of steam.

You’d be surprised by the difference it makes.

If you want a realtor who makes a difference, call me.

03/11/2025

I Care.
I’ve always liked sales. As a teen, I was a “Gantos Fashionable” in the Muskegon Mall, selling upscale women’s clothing. They paid me minimum wage plus commission. One day, I was the highest selling salesperson in the company – and they had dozens of stores. It was a good moment. I would work there for the holidays- they always took me back – and made a lot in commission.
Out of college, after a brief stint at Jordan Marsh, I sold text books for John Wiley.
I loved that job, driving to college campuses, locating the professors, talking to them about their classes, about what books they used, why ours was good. There was a lot to know, a lot of ground to cover, you had to figure out what your best chances were with a particular text book, where people were unhappy with what they used. You had to be strategic.
You had to be persistent. You had to do the legwork.
Plan your work and work your plan was a mantra of mine.
Also: The 6 “P’s” of sales: Perfect Planning Prevents P**s Poor Performance.
It was that job that helped me to figure out what it takes to be a good salesperson.
It was actually their application.
They asked: Why do you feel you will be successful in sales?
I wrote: I care.
That’s all I could think of. You have to care. After that, everything else is duck soup.
My ex-Marine manager loved it for the brevity and sincerity and hired me immediately.
An old real estate agency I worked for said: “Everyone is paid on their ability to sell.”
I guess, but I would counter that the best Realtors, the really successful ones, are not afraid to care.
Some agents are surprised by how much I do – The flowers, the rugs, the photos, the write up, the follow up. The constant study of the market to price the house well, the study of the industry so everything is done according to the rules. Ethically. I will show you houses all day long because you need to see everything before you plunk down thousands. You have to be sure.
Why? Because I care. That’s where it starts.
I care about each and every one of my buyers and sellers.
Call me and experience the difference caring makes.

10/31/2024

I brought the buyer! 40 Seaver St #8 Wellesley MA

10/24/2024

Book Talk at the Weston COA! Fantastic! Thank you, all who came!

10/22/2024

More spooky stuff.

10/22/2024

Spooky stuff in Needham. And a leaf - because it's beautiful.

10/21/2024

I am pleased to be talking about Sixty Blades of Grass at the Weston COA on Tuesday, at 11:00. Please join us!