Liz Ross started off in retail sales in Manhattan right after college. She loved being around people and helping them choose the right thing, which wasn’t that difficult when she was working for Ralph Lauren and St. John.
By Robin Jovanovich
Liz Ross started off in retail sales in Manhattan right after college. She loved being around people and helping them choose the right thing, which wasn’t that difficult when she was working for Ralph Lauren and St. John.
When she and her husband George decided to move back to Rye, where they both grew up, they built a house on Stuyvesant Avenue. Their next move was to a Tudor, which needed restoration, on the Westchester Country Club grounds. The Rosses and their four boys, ages 4-13, are now happily situated on Rockridge Road.
For the last seven years, Ms. Ross, has been a realtor. She started at Merritt Associates, moved to Houlihan Lawrence, and settled at Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s. “I like the fact that our office is located in right on the main street, a center of activity,” she says perkily.
She thrives on activity. Her work philosophy is, “If you’re not on it, you’ll miss it.”
As the spring real estate market in Rye has burst of its winter dormancy the last few weeks, she’s in her element.
The excitement tumbles out of this petite powerhouse: “It’s a great time to buy. A lot of people are moving back from London. New construction is going as fast as it’s finished.”
When does she relax? “When I run.” And she runs with her iPhone. When she needs a place to think, she goes to her living room, “where the boys rarely end up.”
The thing a realtor needs most, other than good clients, luck, and people skills, is time management. “With four boys needed to be taken to different schools, hockey, lacrosse, and football, there can be no procrastination!”
A self-described “advocate” for her family and her clients, many of who have become extended family members, Ms. Ross says she goes out of her way to be both flexible and prepared. “Buyers out of New York have already checked out the neighborhood on Google Earth when they arrive at your office, so you better be as knowledgeable as they are.”
She advises both sellers and buyers to have everything in order before they proceed. “If I’m the listing agent, the home must be at the stage that I can confidently say, ‘I could live here.’”
Currently, Liz Ross has four listings on the market in Rye and Rye P.O. They run the gamut from a Milton Point cottage to a whitewashed brick Colonial near Westchester Country Club to a stately home on Upper Dogwood Lane to a new custom-built Colonial by Georgio Builders across the street from her house. Coming soon to the market is another listing of hers in the Sunnyridge section of Harrison.
We wanted to talk longer with Liz Ross, but she was off to teach religion to fourth graders at Resurrection. “It’s gratifying work. We’re all learning.”
