Pam Merriman

By Chris Menezes

Photos by Jacob Harr with harr Creative LLC

Real estate was inevitable for Pam Merriman. Every part of her professional history involved the industry in some way, which initially began when she took a banking job in high school. The skills and experiences that she gleaned from each position — combined with her natural care and compassion for people — proved that Pam had the tools to be successful as an agent as well.

Originally from Rockford, Pam was inspired by how hard her father worked to provide a good life for his family, which, after finding herself as a single mother, drove her to do the same. She had climbed her way up as a high-school bank teller to management before jumping into title work. Eventually segueing into mortgage origination, she continued to learn the ancillary components of real estate as she began to also buy, rehabilitate and sell her own homes.

The more time Pam spent working on the rehabs and being involved with titles and mortgages, her love for homes, interior design and working with people only grew. Eventually, she decided that it made sense to become a real estate agent — especially when she considered the type of life she could provide for her daughters.

“I wanted to make sure that even though I was a single mom, life could be good,” Pam explained. “I wanted to make sure that they knew the value of work and family. I wanted them to see that hard work pays off.”

Fully grown with careers and families of their own now, Pam’s daughters definitely saw their mother work hard. Pam obtained her real estate license in 2014 and worked part time for two years, building her business to the point where she could transition full time in 2016. Fully committing herself to real estate and to serving her clients, Pam went on to earn her Pricing Strategy Advisor (PSA) certificate and Graduate REALTOR® Institute (GRI) designation as well as interior decorating and staging certifications while growing her business more and more each year. She is also an Independent Real Estate Professional (IREP) and a Diversity Equity Fair Housing Inclusion (DEFI) advocate.

With her experience in title, mortgage origination, interior design and staging, Pam is known as a “quadruple threat” to her clients. She prides herself on her “old school” approach to service and relationship building as well as her “modern approach” to marketing. Pam has a whole storage unit filled with staging materials, and she is always keeping up with design trends. “If I could flip houses all day, I would,” she said. Instead, Pam directs all that passion into assisting her clients with their homes.

While Pam has done extremely well thus far in real estate, she admits that one of her biggest challenges is her need to control every part of her client’s experience, which in many ways is a double-edged sword. Her clients love how she makes them feel like they are her only client — 90% of her business comes from past clients and referrals — but Pam is also only one person, and her business is growing!

“I would love to have an assistant one of these days, but I have a hard time letting go,” Pam said. “I have started to let go a little by having another agent help with buyer showings, but only after I have made them feel comfortable with me.”

“I run my business as if my clients are family,” she continued. “I want to be able to see them at any function, store and restaurant, and have them greet me like we are family. I set high standards for myself — my goal is to keep increasing my business while maintaining the same care and dedication to my clients’ individual needs, to keep meeting new people and to sell until I’m 100 years old.”

When Pam can step away from her business, she enjoys being with her partner of 22 years, Bob, and spending time at their lake home in Newaygo, where their whole family can come together to relax. Pam and Bob have a large blended family of 19, including eight grandkids, which she loves spending as much time with as possible, whether that’s watching them play sports or just by being a fun grandmother to them. Pam also loves boating, crafting and playing golf.

To this day, Pam is grateful for the life real estate has provided for her and her family, and she will never stop doing her best to help others achieve their dreams in real estate as well — whether that is for clients or for agents whom she mentors at 616 Realty.

“To me, success is not measured by the amount of money or the number of houses sold: Success is doing right by your clients and that they are grateful for all the effort you put into finding them the right home,” she said. “That is what will keep me going.”

AGENT SPOTLIGHT on Pam Merriman from 616 Realty