During her 10 years as a social worker, Amy MacDonald saw a lot of pain and sorrow, maybe too much. The lifelong Maine resident worked with neglected, abused, and traumatized children. Never did she imagine that the skills she developed on the job would be so helpful in her real estate career.

After MacDonald and her husband Ryan had two children, she decided to change professional direction. She wanted to continue helping people, which always made her feel good, but with less on-the-job stress. That's when MacDonald's thoughts drifted to some fond memories of her own youth: She loved driving around her community with her family, peering at the homes they'd pass.

Those houses never stopped enchanting her. In 2007, MacDonald put that passion into practice and obtained her real estate license. While continuing her day job as a social worker, she signed on part-time at Coldwell Banker Plourde Real Estate in Waterville, Maine. 

Within a few months, she had the confidence to make a full-time commitment to real estate. Although her company's sales were down 25 percent last year compared to 2007, MacDonald has managed to flourish as a first-time buyer specialist. 

Much of her business, she says, comes from referrals and from her Web site, www.centralmainemoves.com. MacDonald expects to close 25 transaction sides totaling about $3 million in 2008, her first full year in the business. (The average home price in her market is $135,000.)

MacDonald attributes much of her success to the skills she acquired as a social worker—listening, communicating, and problem-solving. "I can't think of a single real estate transaction so far in which I haven't used the communicating skills I learned as a social worker," she says.

"She's been able to build consensus with the clients she's worked with," says Don Plourde, who owns Coldwell Banker Plourde Real Estate. "She's very professional in her manner, yet she shows a lot of empathy. She's good at what she does."

MacDonald helped a nervous young first-time buyer, Misty Maroney, navigate the purchase of her recently deceased great-grandmother's home. Maroney was eligible for a countywide home buyer grant but found the paperwork overwhelming. 

MacDonald came to the rescue, taking time to arrange a "team meeting" with Maroney, the grant sponsor, the loan officer, and herself to answer all of Maroney's questions. "She was amazing to work with," says Maroney. "She helped me weigh out the pros and the cons. She's definitely a person I could see having a friendship with."

MacDonald, who began teaching first-time homebuyer courses last fall at the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program, a nonprofit social services organization, characterizes her selling philosophy as "always available, yet hands off." She believes in helping people come to their own decisions.

MacDonald, who hopes to open her own brokerage one day, says she found the perfect time to get into real estate. Despite warnings she received about starting out in a slow market, she says, her attentive service and keen ability to understand client needs has helped to differentiate her from competitors. 

"It's not about the sale. It's about the relationships," says MacDonald. "And that's me as a person; that's not me because of a strategy."