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Former Model Rules Real Estate

Melanie Smith could have been a major movie star if she chose that route. Instead she decided to try her hand at real estate. Either way, she ended up a star.

“I was a model. At first I was a fashion model, runways, and then in print. Then I did commercials and short films,” Smith says while sitting in her Southport office. Always working, she answered questions while looking over photos for a new listing. She notes that the skills from that earlier life of glamour weren’t wasted when she moved to real estate.

“That’s selling, too,” she says. “It’s delivery and making a presentation. You have to be persuasive.” She said those skills weren’t something she learned, they just came naturally to her.

Ysabel Ingram noticed that inherent talent 32 years ago. She persuaded Smith to give real estate a shot. The former model has been dominating the field ever since. Smith sold Fairfield’s highest priced property, $25 million, back in 2001. Listings for $4 million aren’t uncommon for her. This past year, 2010, she was named a 10 year Legend with being a Chairmans Circle Winner, in the top 1% of all Prudential North America agents for 10 years in a row, since her company was acquired by Prudential, and was named 7th of all 1600 Prudential CT agents for Gross Commission Income.

Smith also earned acclaim with her leadership role with Near and Far Aid. The group started as a sort of grassroots Red Cross, offering aid and comfort to the widows of officers. Now, it works mostly domestically, raising an estimated $1 million every year to help end poverty in Fairfield County. Every penny Near and Far Aid raises goes to families in need because the organization is entirely run by volunteers with no overhead, according to Smith.

She cares passionately about helping people and says that responding to each client's call and request with patience, sensitivity and confidentiality is, to her, the most important part of the business.

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