Feature Article

REAL ESTATE’S RAE OF SUNSHINE

Written By: Krista Goheen
Published By: Calgary Real Estate News
Article Used with permission of the Calgary Real Estate Board. © Copyright Calgary Real Estate News, 2007
2006-03-23

She was told she couldn’t do it, that she would never cut it, but Doris McRae proved everyone wrong. At the age of 48, in 1967, she enrolled in her first real estate course, and has been a true Legend of Real Estate ever since.

While working with Keith Homes, presenting show homes to prospective buyers, she received a phone call from Arthur Lee. At the time, Lee was the sales manager for Keith Homes and founder of Arthur Lee Real Estate.

“Arthur phoned me and said, ‘Doris, I have eight men working here we want a little glamour in the office - we’d like to have a lady,’ and he invited me to sell real estate with him,” Doris says.

She enrolled in the real estate course but says, “I think I got 60%. I just barely made it because I didn’t know a lot of the rules.”

Nevertheless, her experience with show homes proved to be an invaluable asset.

“I did know the value of houses because I had been working with show homes and it certainly gave me an edge that way,” she says.

Doris worked with Arthur Lee for six years. She sold her first house in Glendale for $30,000 and “I think the people are still living in it,” she says. It was just over 1000 sq. ft., with a garage and developed basement.

After a “sour deal”- her sale was given to someone else- she decided to move on from Arthur Lee.

From there, she began working for Royal Trust, a company that would later become Royal LePage.

In the meantime, however, her husband Don developed cancer of the stomach and colon. Doris was told he had three months to live. Hearing of a clinic in Jamaica that treated cancer patients, “I took a mortgage out on my house for $25,000. At that time, mortgage rates were 14.5% and they gave it to me for 8.5%. I was so grateful to Royal Trust, I stayed for 12 years.”

The gamble would turn out to be priceless. Doris and her husband shared 17 more years together, raising their three children, Collin, Sharen and Dayle.

A profile of Doris’ real estate career would not be complete without some accounts of her experiences, told with great panache and enthusiasm by the 87 year old.

One Saturday morning, Doris received a call from a couple wanting to view one of her houses.

“They looked at the house and immediately they said, ‘We like this house and we want to buy it!’ They wanted to buy it because they wanted the house anyways, but also because they had a St. Bernard dog and they couldn’t find a motel and had no place to sleep. So they gave me a deposit of $8,000 in cash so they could move into the house that night!”

Which they did, complete with a casserole, lamp, toaster and some other small things to help them out, courtesy of Doris. Years later, the couple listed with her when the time came to sell the property.

Although Doris says one of her greatest assets was her ability to hone-in on the preferences of her clients, during one particular instance she was having tremendous difficulty in showing a couple a home they actually liked.

“I couldn’t find them anything they wanted so finally I said, ‘Let me come over some night and sit with you and we’ll talk about what’s wrong with the homes I’ve been showing you, what you don’t like about them,’” she says.

“So, I went in the house and it was so untidy, filthy and just dirty. But then I was out looking at houses one morning and I saw this dirty, dirty house. I phoned the people up and said, ‘You know, I have a couple more houses to show you.’ And they fell in love with it! It was their house; it was comfortable because it wasn’t so tidy.”

After Royal Trust, Doris joined RE/MAX in 1985. Practically in her 70s by then, she was still going strong, balancing her career with trips to clinics in Mexico and the U.S. for continuing treatments for Don, among teaching meditation courses (she was once associated with His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi) and taking continuing education courses.

At RE/MAX for about four years, Doris decided to take some time off to travel with her husband.

“Because of his sickness, he wanted to see this castle in Scotland. And I said, ‘When you get better we’ll see this castle,’” she says.

The couple went to Scotland and took a trip to Spain. Following their return, Doris decided she needed to be closer to her husband, and moved to the office of P.J. Toole and Cote, located closer to her home. On October 18, 1990, she and Don celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. To mark the occasion, they visited the Grand Canyon, Palm Springs, Las Vegas and Mexico.

Back at home following their trip, Don had to have a hernia operation.

“He went in for the hernia operation, and we don’t know what happened to him, his heart stopped. I was in so much shock. He died on November 30, 1990.”

Doris went back to the office just after Christmas time and lost about five deals in a row.

“It was June and I hadn’t made any money and I just said, ‘I’m quitting.’ It was a mistake, I should have taken a leave of absence because I was still hurting.”

She retired from the business at the age of 72. Although her career didn’t end exactly on the positive note she had once envisioned, Doris still looks upon her years in real estate fondly.

“I liked making people happy. Unfortunately, I sold them so well some didn’t even sell again! They never moved. I enjoyed real estate. I liked the people and I liked working with them.”

Doris is a busy retiree, frequenting the Retired REALTORs luncheon at the Calgary Real Estate Board each month and spending time with her four grandchildren and one great granddaughter. She also plays bridge in three groups in the city, ballroom dances and is a frequent participant in the events organized by her condominium complex.

Doris also spent 13 wonderful years with her companion, Dr. Ross Skaken, a Calgary naturopath who passed away last May. Doris was honoured in his eulogy as “the sunshine in his life.”

She also keeps in touch with another Legend of Real Estate, Kitty Noble. The two share a love of cooking and incorporated this passion into their real estate careers.

“Kitty Noble and I used to have open houses and always served food,” she says.

Doris had a listing on an acreage out in Priddis and hardly anybody came to the acreage’s open house the first Sunday. When the second Sunday rolled around, she told the buyer she was going to come out beforehand and make cookies.

“I made some hermit cookie dough and put them in the oven and this couple came in and said, ‘Gosh that smells so lovely!’ They just loved the house and she said they bought it because it smelled so good.”

When it came time for Doris to sell their house in turn, they put a baked apple with cinnamon in the oven.

She exudes patience and an even-keeled nature, which she attributes to meditation. She approaches life in this way, and is a woman whose priorities lie in her relationships with family and friends, rather than material wealth.

“I never did it for money, it just wasn’t that important. I did it to sell people houses that they really liked, that they were comfortable in.”

This article was written for Calgary Real Estate News, a division of the Calgary Real Estate Board, for the series “Legends of Real Estate” showcasing important members of the Calgary Real Estate Board. Please visit the Calgary Real Estate Board online.This article is part of the collection of the Calgary Real Estate News. Please visit them online.