Real Estate Q&A with Mary Lu Tuthill

The following interview by Editor Bill Bruns with Mary Lu Tuthill, manager of Previews International Brentwood for Coldwell Banker, continues our series of monthly question-and-answer columns with leading realtors and real estate executives in Pacific Palisades and Brentwood.  

BRUNS: You were born and raised in Wichita, Kansas. Tell us about your parents and their influences on your life course.

TUTHILL: I was the eldest of six children (five girls, one boy), so my childhood was very lively and happy indeed. With so many siblings around we were always entertained. All of us had big personalities, which engendered lots of teasing and mostly friendly competition. To this day we are all extremely close and provide great moral support to each other. My parents were the best parents and finest role models anyone could wish for. They were intelligent, firm yet reasonable (most of the time), and with high moral integrity and high expectations for our success, they were committed to our educations and our well-being. They inspired independent thinking, solid integrity and a desire to achieve. We could not get away with doing less than our best, or with doing anything wrong. Our parents were always there for us and we knew that. They definitely had the biggest influence on my life.

BRUNS: What was your father’s profession? 

TUTHILL: He had a food brokerage firm and was a master salesman. I think I had his salesmanship in my genes, as well as his persistence. My mother had been a teacher before she got married. She is 94 and still going strong, but my dad passed away a couple of years ago.

BRUNS: What kind of jobs did you have as a teenager? Did you show a particular interest in business or entrepreneurship?  

TUTHILL: As a teenager my only job was baby-sitting for neighbors, given that I had such great experience with my own siblings. Although I was extremely analytical with a very curious mind, loved problem-solving and was always questioning, loved learning new subjects, always “had my nose in a book”…I did not take it to the next step of entrepreneurship.

BRUNS: What were some of your highlights in high school?

TUTHILL: I attended a small, private girls school in Wichita, which I believe is so beneficial to young women. It reinforces your self-esteem and your independence. I believed that I could accomplish anything and I achieved success in every undertaking: I was valedictorian of my class, played all the sports (softball, field hockey, tennis and track—I was an exceedingly fast runner), was in school plays and was also homecoming queen for the partnering private boys high school.

BRUNS: How did you decide on what college to attend?  

TUTHIL: I had a scholarship offer from Sacred Heart College, a small private girls college in Wichita, and decided that I would go there for the first two years. I ended up staying there for the full four years because the environment was so conducive to learning. I had a double major in math and English.

BRUNS: What about summer jobs during college? And did you travel to Europe? 

TUTHILL: During college, I twice had a summer job at Boeing Aircraft where I learned computer programming from IBM engineers. After graduation, I went to Europe on a student ship named the Grootebeer. It was a Dutch ship and Heineken’s beer was 19 cents a bottle. I meant to meet up with a friend in Paris, who didn’t show up, so I traveled with some girls I had met on the ship and we rented a car to drive around Europe.

BRUNS: How did you decide to pursue a job with IBM out of college? 

TUTHILL: The IBM job was rather an accident. After returning from Europe, I moved to Denver with some girlfriends, who were teachers. I went to IBM to see if they could direct me to one of their customers who might need a programmer. They suggested that I work for them.  But the only job opening at the time was in San Francisco. So they sent me to San Francisco for the interview and I loved it there and, fortunately, they liked me.

BRUNS: What was your particular job at IBM, this being the mid-‘60s when the computer industry was just getting underway? 

TUTHILL: I worked for IBM for six years in San Francisco, at a job that was fun and extremely satisfying. I was a systems engineer, which meant I assisted the salesmen with their sales pitch, as a technical support. Then after the salesmen made the sale, my job was to help IBM customers design their computer systems, which meant teaching their engineers or other operations people how to adapt their current ‘hand-done’ systems and procedures to the computer. I also worked on the first Bankamericard system.

BRUNS: How did you meet your husband, Gordon?

TUTHILL: He was a salesman, on the finance and insurance team, and we met on a double date, as I was dating his mentor. We married in 1968, and when we had our first child (Brad), I left IBM. Then when my husband was transferred to Los Angeles and I decided to go back to work, I became a software consultant.

BRUNS: So how did you finally enter the real estate business?

TUTHILL: A car accident injury prevented me from continuing in systems design and programming, so my husband suggested that I go into real estate. He was familiar with the business because his father had a large real estate firm in Connecticut when he was growing up. I was skeptical that real estate would be the right place for me, but he encouraged me and here I am.

BRUNS: Where did you start out?

TUTHILL: I joined a little company called Spring Realty in Brentwood because a friend who was a developer recommended it. I was glad that I did because they had a terrific in-depth sales training class and an extremely knowledgeable escrow person, who taught me a great deal about technical contract language.

BRUNS: What do you remember about your very first transaction? 

TUTHILL: I sold a condo in Santa Monica on my very first day in real estate, which shocked my husband, because he had prepared me so well for rejection and disappointment. I was sitting in the office when a young man walked in whom I had known as a software consultant. He said he would like to work with me and so we went out and I sold him a condo for $99,000 that first day. And it was on a land contract!

BRUNS: Who were early career mentors in real estate?  

TUTHILL: Sue Meisel, the manager at Spring Realty, was my first mentor and she was a genius in real estate, especially at determining how to make deals. And then after I was recruited by Jon Douglas, Betty Graham became a mentor because she helped me to not be so intense; she reinforced the importance of being a human being. But the business was very different 30 years ago. People were more civilized and decent to each other.

BRUNS: What were one or two career decisions you made that worked out particularly well? 

TUTHILL: I would say that my decision to go to San Francisco and work for IBM was a great decision because I met my husband there, in addition to receiving great sales training. IBM was a superb company at that time, as they were hiring the cream of the crop from colleges and universities, and we all had a unique camaraderie. I was one of only two women systems engineers, and we all worked very hard, but it was a stimulating and entertaining environment. At IBM, I discovered I had a head for business.

I am still trying to decide if entering real estate was the right decision. (Ha! Ha!) It has enabled me to meet and form wonderful friendships with people, whom I would not have otherwise met. But I sometimes wonder if I had stayed with IBM, what my career path would have been. I really loved that work.

My other great career decision was to invite my daughter, Kathleen, to leave litigation and join me in real estate in 2004.

BRUNS: How did that decision come about? 

TUTHILL: I wanted someone young to work with me. I needed someone with a solid work ethic, who was intelligent and likeable. There were many young agents who wanted the job, but they didn’t seem to want to earn the position. Kathleen is highly educated and highly intelligent—a litigator who specialized in medical and legal malpractice defense—so she was prepared for the challenges of residential real estate. She is very friendly and is extremely well-liked and respected in the business.

Our partnership works very well because we both have similar mindsets and we trust each other.  We don’t specifically divide up the work. We work together on every buyer and seller, so we both always know the status of our client’s transactions and/or search for a home. Of course, we have our moments of disagreement, but they are short, because we both know that our goal is to get the business done in the most beneficial way for our client. Kathleen is also very funny, which means we have a lot of laughs in our office, and it helps keep us sane. This business can be brutal sometimes, but my sense of humor enables me to laugh at the craziness.

BRUNS: Once you got into real estate, what particular skills helped you succeed from the early get-go? And what are several skills you have gained over the years through experience? 

TUTHILL: My analytical talent, my commitment to solving every problem and reaching every goal, and my IBM sales training were definitely the skills that helped me succeed so quickly. Two other important factors are my attitude and my persistence. I remain incurably optimistic and always believe that I can make things happen despite the odds. Being from a large family, I have always had good people skills and always love learning all about the people I meet. I think that people sense that that they can trust me as a realtor and that I am more focused on their best interests rather than my own, because I am very straightforward in my demeanor. I am credible! I am also very good at matching people to homes and vice versa. And I always believe in the value of my listings: I always come from a position of strength for my sellers.

My favorite part of real estate is negotiations. I have developed a keen skill at negotiating. Jon Douglas always said I was the best technical expert and best negotiator in the firm. As I acquired more experience in buying and selling high-end properties, I gained more skill at helping people focus on their objectives, and how to achieve them. I certainly honed my patience.

BRUNS: We’ve had two major real estate recessions the past 25 years—in the early ‘90s and just a few years ago. What were the key lessons you learned as a realtor trying to survive and thrive in this environment? What was your mindset? 

TUTHILL: Key lessons: Humility! That the right real estate agent makes a difference. That real estate values could go down as well as up. That ethics, hard work and genuine interest in the client’s well-being were sometimes appreciated. That selling and buying a home is a significant life-changing event and regardless of the circumstances, everyone deserves respect, dignity and the very best representation. That our responsibility to do everything we could to achieve our client’s goals was ever more significant.

My mindset was to go back to the basics. We survived by continuing our expensive, high-level of advertising, despite our diminished income; to continue to follow every lead and to expose our listings through every possible channel. To stay in close touch with our clients as they needed our emotional as well as business support. We worked harder and smarter to accomplish the impossible.

 BRUNS: Where have you lived on the Westside and have you ever worked in an office in the Palisades? 

TUTHILL: When we first moved from San Francisco we bought a home on lower Westridge Road, IN Brentwood, because it had a view. From there we moved to Carmelina and from there to South Bristol. We have not lived in the Palisades, but came very close to buying a home on Alta Mura. I have never officially worked in a Palisades office, but I do a lot of business in the Palisades and some of my closest and dearest friends are Palisades real estate agents. In fact, my very first listing was in the Palisades on Fiske Street.

BRUNS: Do you have grandchildren? 

TUTHILL: My son Brad and his wife Lynn live in San Francisco and have two children, a boy 11 and a girl 9. He works for Goldman Sachs. Kathleen lives in Westwood and is the single mother of an 8-year-old boy.

BRUNS: If you take any time off, what do you prefer to do to unwind or just get your mind off real estate? 

TUTHILL: This is embarrassing to say, but I have not had a vacation in several years. My husband has not been well for several years and a vacation just hasn’t worked out. Real estate is very demanding and I am too compulsive about not “being there.” But I used to be a lot of fun!

BRUNS: When did you become Manager of Previews International Brentwood? What are your responsibilities?  

TUTHILL:  In 1987, Jon Douglas asked me to start a small office of elite agents specializing in higher-end homes, called Jon Douglas Brentwood Court.  It was challenging to recruit and manage new agents, but I enjoyed the experience and learned a great deal. Yet after a few years, I realized that I missed the actual day-to-day process of representing buyers and sellers, helping people’s dreams come true. That was my passion. So I resigned and went back into sales and am very happy making my contribution to peoples’ lives.

Coldwell Banker has a Previews Division. Previews agents are those who specialize in high-end properties and clients. In my current role, as Manager of Brentwood Previews, I work as a consultant to other agents and their clients engaged in high-end transactions. I am on call to assist in helping agents obtain and sell upscale listings and to meet with their clients to address any questions or concerns they may have.  I enjoy this aspect of the business very much.

BRUNS: Tell us about persistence—specifically, having the listing for an expensive, hard-to-sell home that remains on the market month after month, or looking for the “right” house for a particular high-end buyer.

TUTHILL: I was born with persistence. Being in a large family, one must develop persistence, commitment, focus, whatever the term. For homes that take longer to sell for whatever reason, we make a consistent personal pledge to sell the home for the family, whatever it takes. We try to educate our sellers in an effort to manage their expectations, because we don’t want to disappoint them. Often the market disappoints everyone, but we don’t want our clients to be disappointed with us or with our efforts. Most seem to appreciate our sometimes Herculean efforts to sell their homes and stay with us because they realize that no one could do any better.

Working with high-end buyers who are looking for a very specific home is always challenging. In this current market it has become even more daunting, as the inventory is lower than in recent years. As fewer people are selling homes, it is quite difficult to satisfy a buyer’s demands. We are constantly beating the bushes, calling former clients, canvassing all of our agent friends to find the right home for our buyers. But there is no greater feeling than finding the right home for a buyer who has almost given up hope. Their gratitude is edifying.

BRUNS: A few final comments? 

TUTHILL: I want to express that I am grateful for the success I have had in this business. I appreciate the client loyalty and the continued confidence and trust that my clients have in me. I am grateful for their referrals and recommendations.