Sweet Home Real Estate will close its doors Saturday, March 14, but June Wortman and Mary Maynard have one more mission to complete before they retire.
“We still have one home we need to sell,” Wortman said. She’ll work out of her home until the end of the month to get that done, she added.
Wortman and Maynard started working at Sweet Home Real Estate in 2001, but they were selling real estate before that.
“This office is the oldest real estate office in Sweet Home,” Wortman said. “It’s been active since 1986.”
Wortman said a client once told her she was a walking billboard for Sweet Home.
She appreciates the community as well as the water, mountains and countryside.
So many of her interactions with clients have been special, she can’t pinpoint just one.
“I liked all of them,” Wortman said. “I love working with older people and young people. You build lasting friendships in this job.”
It was easy for Maynard to name one of her more memorable clients.
“I sold my husband a house and that’s how I met him,” Maynard said of her husband Raymond.
She sold Raymond’s best friend a home first, then his friend brought him to Sweet Home Real Estate so he could buy a home too.
They ended up selling Raymond’s house when he and Mary wed. He moved into her home, which is down the street from his best friend’s house.
Maynard and her husband plan to drive to Pennsylvania to visit his sister, making lots of stops along the way. They also plan to take a furry traveling companion – her dog Boo.
She does everything with them, Maynard said. Boo, a schipperke, rides on the four-wheel and goes out on their boat with them.
Visiting kids and grandkids in California, fishing, and watching lots round out Maynard’s retirement plans, so far.
Wortman said she plans to enjoy time with her family, including grandchildren and a great-grandchild and tend to her garden and farm.
“I’m an animal person; we live out on a farm,” Wortman said.
She has six horses, a donkey, goats, a llama, a dog and kittens.
“I have a blind horse (Porsche) and the donkey (Smitty) is her pasture partner,” Wortman said.
Wortman said she also plans to do some volunteering and stay active in the community.
“I love the Sweet Home community,” Wortman said. “People are always willing to help (with whatever needs to get done).”
Nothing formal is planned for their retirement, but people are welcome to stop in, they said.