by Audra Anders for The Aha! Connection
Sitting down with my friend Kerry Arias is always a joy. You may remember last year when I made the connection: From Cutie Pies to Residential Real Estate with a stop or two in between – Audra’s chat with Kerry Arias.
Last week I had the pleasure of dropping by her office right in the middle of Dunwoody Village (think walking distance to NFA, Fresh Market, Bar{n} and more!) and so obviously we eventually detoured from real estate to food. Before we jump into some of Kerry’s favorite recipes, let me tell you about the rest of our conversation.
So many people I know, including Kerry, are dropping their first kids off at college. Her daughter just began her collegiate career and her son is a junior at Blessed Trinity. Empty nesting is close at hand for Kerry and she’s about to celebrate her 60th birthday. She doesn’t look a day older than 41! Last year when we chatted she was just starting her real estate career. Now, a little more than a year later the first thing she said to me was “I should have done this ages ago!”
I can see how much she loves her job all over her face and in her body language. She’s a people person in the people business. She loves helping people! Whether it is investing, buying, selling or renting that her clients are looking for she’s all in. Actually, Kerry is the first realtor with whom I’ve discussed renting. Over the past two years she’s helped several executives relocating to Atlanta and they often want to rent first to get a feel for Atlanta before purchasing.
In fact, just this month she held a two-hour open house for a rental property in Alpharetta near Avalon. After the open house she received 12 applications! The current tenants are paying $1,650/month but the new lease negotiated by Kerry is for $1,950/month!
Kerry is constantly finding ways to learn and improve. In fact, she told me every morning while getting dressed and ready for the day she listens to podcasts. Some of her favorites are Ninja Selling, Institute for Luxury, and Sherri Johnson. I can just see Kerry walking around getting ready, brushing her teeth and stopping to write notes on her note pad as she hears things that pique her interest.
She told me a funny story about clients recently relocating from Savannah. They were touring a townhouse in Buckhead but had their two big dogs with them. It was a hot day so they decided to leave the car running with the dogs in the car while they toured the home. They were inside the gated community so not worried about car theft. The humans all went inside and Kerry left the couple to tour on their own. Kerry looked out the window of the home and the dogs were having a big time playing and running around in the yard! They had rolled down the electric windows and escaped the car! Kerry quietly opened the front door and ushered the dogs inside. As the couple descended the stairs from touring the top floors, they were greeted happily by their sneaky doggies…It’s a good thing Kerry “met” the dogs on this tour date because she was able to quickly realize that her new canine friends were a bit over the HOA’s weight limit for dogs. Kerry proactively worked out a dog meeting with the HOA president to get a special stipulation approved for her clients and they are now happily residing there!
Kerry does a few things for her clients that I’ve never heard of….If they have pets, she brings a goody bag for the pets on move in day. She also purchases all the moving boxes for her clients and includes a moving kit with a box cutter, tape, markers, etc. How cool is that? She says it just helps take one more thing off her client’s to do lists and she loves to help.
Kerry recently sold a beautiful home in the Branches. Side note…Kerry told me this house has a paper towel drawer and now both Kerry and I covet one. Kerry looked so sad when she told me how much she was going to miss these particular clients. Apparently they’ve moved to Amelia Island. But Kerry won’t have to wait long to see them because she and her husband plan to visit them this fall. I wonder if they have a paper towel drawer there?
Kerry told me she is having fun working everywhere…not just in Dunwoody/Sandy Springs. She’s recently sold 4 houses in Cumming, discovered a neighborhood on a “beach” in Villa Rica, and she’s helping a friend’s cousin connect with a realtor to sell an estate in Notasulga, Alabama! I believe that finding her dream job later in life helps Kerry have a fresh and new perspective. She realizes that buying and selling homes is typically a large and emotional transaction. She treats every client experience as a luxury experience…hence providing the moving kits and pet goody bags I mentioned before. Her goal is to always provide a seamless experience while protecting her clients’ best interests.
Finally, she loves to cook! This of course got my attention so I asked what she had cooked recently. As promised, below are three of Kerry’s must make recipes. I think I need to head to the grocery store now 🙂
Kosher salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 ounces white truffle butter (see note)
Freshly ground black pepper
1 (8.82-ounce) package Cipriani tagliarelle dried pasta or other egg fettuccine
3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
3 ounces Parmesan, shaved thin with a vegetable peeler
Add 1 tablespoon salt to a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, in a large (12-inch) sauté pan, heat the cream over medium heat until it comes to a simmer. Add the truffle butter, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper, lower the heat to very low, and swirl the butter until it melts. Keep warm over very low heat.
Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook for 3 minutes, exactly. (If you’re not using Cipriani pasta, follow the directions on the package.) When the pasta is cooked, reserve ½ cup of the cooking water, then drain the pasta. Add the drained pasta to the sauté pan and toss it with the truffle-cream mixture. As the pasta absorbs the sauce, add as much of the reserved cooking water as necessary to keep the pasta very creamy.
Serve the pasta in shallow bowls and garnish each serving with a generous sprinkling of chives and shaved Parmesan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve at once.
Panzella – Adapted from the Barefoot Contessa Recipe
Pork Tenderloin (from Shirley O. Corriher’s CookWise cookbook)
I love this cookbook! You can tell how often I make this dish from the stains on the recipe page!
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup hoisin sauce (this is a Chinese barbecue sauce, you can find it in most grocery stores)
2 tablespoons vegetable or peanut oil
3 tablespoons sugar
2 pork tenderloins, 3/4 to 1 pound each
1/2 cup water
4 tablespoons butter
6 cups cooked rice, long grain or brown
6 green onions sliced thinly
In a plastic freezer bag, mix your soy, hoisin, oil and sugar. Add the pork tenderloins and marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour and overnight is better. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Line a small roasting pan with foil, spray a roasting rack with nonstick spray, set the rack on the pan and lay the tenderloins on the rack. Place in the oven and roast for 10 to 12 minutes. Turn the tenderloins over and roast 10 to 12 minutes more. Check the temperature in the thickest portion. The center internal temperature should be above 148 degrees.
Pour the marinade from the plastic bag into a small sauce pan, add the water and bring to boil over low heat. Boil gently for several minutes, then add the butter and bring back to a boil. Let the cooked tenderloins stand for at least eight minutes before slicing. Slice thinly at a angle across the grain. Arrange slices overlapping on a bed of rice. Pour the marinade — butter mixture over the slices and sprinkle on the chopped scallions.
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Kerry Arias, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties
kerry.arias@bhhsgeorgia.com
770•605•7545 (cell)
770•393•3200 (office)
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