My Biz: Realtor emulates her mother’s work ethic

Marian Arens happened to mention to a friend that she thought it might be “fun” to show and sell houses.

As it turned out, that friend's husband was a Realtor, and the very next day Arens was called in for an interview.

“That was with Tommy Tucker Realty,” she recalled. “I was with them for two and a half years before moving over to Gibson Partners.”

She later went to work for Skogman Realty, where she taught that agency's pre-license school for two and a half years. In 1985 she and a few friends started their own agency.

Her penchant for being a business owner came from her mother who had been a dairy farmer in Minnesota, Arens said.

“She had a small milk route, and when pasteurization came along she went into the restaurant business - Inga's Cafes. She was a good cook, and she had two others in St. Cloud at the time,” Arens said.

Arens, who graduated with a bachelor's in education degree from St. Cloud Teachers College, believed her mother did a lot with her life and she wanted to emulate that.

Arens and her associates are located in a circa-1900s two-story house that still has the original oak woodworking and detailing. Her office used to be a dining room, and they've been at the location for the past 27 years.

“When I started looking for office space, I came across this property that was being fixed up by its owners at the time, but they didn't want to live here. So I put an offer on this place, as well as a small house that was next door because we were going to need parking lot space,” she explained.

She put a sign on the little house: “FREE HOUSE - YOU MOVE IT.” The sign worked, the house was hoisted and moved to another location, and she had the parking lot she needed.

Marian Arens and Associates employs seven full-time agents in addition to herself and one full-time office support person.

“I recently received some statistics from the Board of Realtors and they showed that overall there has been about an 18 percent increase in business this year over last year, so things are looking up a little bit.”

Owner: Marian Arens

Company: Marian Arens and Associates Realtors

Address: 2616 First Ave. NE, Cedar Rapids

Phone: (319) 362-9111

Website:

www.marianarens.com