Shel Toplitt

Shel Toplitt

Title: Realtor, Attorney, Keller Williams

Age: 63

Experience: 1 year (as a Realtor)

After working as a journalist for many years after college, Shel Toplitt left the field to study law, becoming a litigator and university professor. He taught journalism and media law in Greater Boston for two decades before becoming a Realtor last year. He still writes and practices law, and isn’t currently teaching, though he often touches on all three while working in real estate. Toplitt is also a devout jazz fan, which he describes as “an American art form appreciated in Europe.”

Q: What led you to a career in real estate?

A: I graduated from Boston University with a degree in journalism. When I got out, I worked as a reporter with the Manchester [New Hampshire] Union-Leader, where I met my wife, Sandy. Then I went to the Haverhill Gazette for a while. Later, I relocated to Chicago and switched to business publications and worked for Fairchild Publications covering the metal market. From there I went to Kiwanis magazine. They relocated to Indianapolis and my feeling was the best thing that ever came out of Indianapolis was Highway 65, so I stayed [in Chicago] and went to work for the American Bar Association for four years.

That’s what led me to law school. I practiced law for a number of years, but I continued to do some writing. I started teaching journalism and media law when I opened a practice with a colleague to bring in a little extra money. I really enjoyed that. I taught from 1997 to 2016. Now I’m in real estate. My careers haven’t supplanted one another, I just keep adding new skills. You could say I have a short attention span, but these days, that only means I could be elected president. They’re all positions for an extrovert. I love talking to people. I love educating students, juries, readers and now homebuyers and home sellers. And they all involve schmoozing. Those are the threads that run through everything I’ve done.

Q: Does being naturally inquisitive help?

A: Yes. And real estate sales is also like journalism in that it’s all about your reputation. You’re only as good as your last story or deal. Also, journalists are nosy. We want to know what’s going on. As a Realtor we have these caravans where we preview houses that are going on the market. I love that. They’re remarkable. Sometimes I’ll see something really nice, but I also marvel at the number of bathrooms in some of these places. Unless you have a medical condition, I don’t see why you need a bathroom every 20 feet, but people seem to want that.

Q: What is it like switching to another career at this point in your life?

A: Initially, it’s like drinking from a fire hose. I was certainly familiar with the process as an attorney who did a lot of closings, but there are things about sales I didn’t know about. It’s a lot to absorb at first. If I were starting this as someone who was younger, I would probably be doing it differently, but most of what I’m relying on is having a broad network of people I’ve worked with over the years.

Most of my friends are at the same stage of life I’m at, looking to downsize and have kids approaching the stage where they’ll be looking for homes. I’m in the Massachusetts Bar Association Real Estate Council, so I’m hopeful that’ll also be a source of work. You have to call an awful lot of people and let everyone know you’re a Realtor. Then you really have to stay in their good graces and stay on their mind.

Q: You advertise the fact that you’re an attorney and a realtor. How will you avoid clients mistakenly assuming you’re representing them as both their attorney and their Realtor?

A: It’s all about communication. There are times that you can potentially go into conflict, but certain things are permissible. If someone signs an exclusive listing agreement with me, I’m their agent. I’m not their attorney. It’s just knowledge that I have – in the same way a veteran Realtor would know to look for certain things in a house, I know there are certain things the law allows and certain things it doesn’t. So, there may be circumstances where my clients benefit from my experience in the law, even though I’m not their lawyer. I look at it as an asset in the same way that a prospective buyer in Needham would benefit from my having lived there for 27 years and raised a family there. My legal background will inform my real estate practice.

Q: Do you have any war stories from covering the presidential primaries in New Hampshire?

A: The Union-Leader one year endorsed [L.A. mayor] Sam Yorty. I’m sure your readers will all remember the Yorty administration. I remember all the national news clips had reporters standing in front of these beautiful, rocky waterfalls. I couldn’t believe how perfect they looked. I wanted to know where it was. I wanted to hike up there and see it – until I discovered it was a fountain behind a hotel in Bedford. Reporters were drinking at the bar, going out to do their remote live shots and then going back to the bar.

Q: Did you cover any real estate stories as a reporter?

A: I covered housing court in Boston for a while. You want to emulate the writers you love the most and I loved Mike Rokyo and Jimmy Breslin. You go to housing court and there’s a lot of painful stories. You learn that landlords and tenants both have tough lives. There’s a lot of human interest there. I always found the judges very empathetic. They were human. In the land court, the judges were very technical. Those issues are very technical. You’re dealing with issues like easements from 1790 or something. In housing court, you’re dealing with the issues of humanity.

Editor’s Note: Reporter Jim Morrison was a student in Toplitt’s media law and ethics class at Boston University in 2011.

Toplitt’s Five Favorite Jazz Artists:

• Ahmad Jamal
• Buddy Rich
• Keiko Matsui
• Ramsey Lewis
• Wes Montgomery