Nicolette Pomije | Patterson-Schwartz Blog

Someone to Count On: PSA’s Laura Walls Losco

Meet Laura Walls Losco, Accounting Manager at our corporate headquarters located in the Hockessin office! She has grown with PSA, having started in 2010 as an assistant agent in the Hockessin and Greenville offices before joining our Financial Services department in 2016. We sat down with Laura to learn a little more about her, what she does at Patterson-Schwartz, and when she discovered her love of real estate.

Laura Walls Losco (right) posing with Patterson-Schwartz President & CEO, Joe Pluscht, Jr.

How did you choose your career in real estate?

Since I can remember, I’ve had an inherent interest in real estate and interior design. When I was about ten years old, I recall asking my parents if we could buy the newspaper on Sunday. I would spend hours combing through every real estate listing I could find in the paper, circling the ones I thought my parents might be interested in purchasing. My dad actually drove me to open houses a few times to meet with the agents on duty so they could tell me about their job!

I got my real estate license at 18 years old and worked under an experienced agent for five years, learning invaluable knowledge about the market and this business. During this time, I also got my degrees in Finance and Economics from University of Delaware. Working in the Financial Services department here at Patterson-Schwartz has been a great way to combine my love of real estate with my love of mathematics!

Tell us a little about what you do.

Arguably the most important task I perform every day is processing commission checks. I always try to exceed expectations by having a fast turnaround time while retaining accuracy.

In the words of Charlie Schwartz, I am always “ticking and flicking” while reconciling our accounts

There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes on in the Financial Services department and I learn something new every day! Joe Pluscht has been a wealth of knowledge in my transition to Accounting Manager! I love working with and learning from the best in the business!

Do you have a motto that you follow for your business, real estate, or in general?

Growing up, my tennis coach imparted a lot of wisdom to me for both on and off the court. To this day, I live by two things he taught me:

“No problem is too big or too complicated that I can’t overcome.”

and

“Press the reset button.”

This is a great reminder that I can do anything I put my mind to, whether it be on the tennis court, at work, or in life.

How do you like to spend a relaxing day?

In our spare time, my husband Matt and I love playing and watching tennis, doing yoga, and cooking up specialty gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free meals in the kitchen!

I’m an avid animal lover and can usually be found walking with our dog, Charlotte, around Carousel Park or Lewes Beach!

Ready to grow with us?

As you can tell, Laura believes in the power of partnerships within our PSA family and the benefits our long service legacy bring to the organization. If you’re intrigued by how easy access to experienced mentors and leadership can move your business forward, we’d love to chat with you about a career with Patterson-Schwartz!

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We Speak Your Language at Patterson-Schwartz

At Patterson-Schwartz we are proud to have a diverse team of real estate agents who help buyers and sellers of all backgrounds and cultures. By speaking the same language, our agents’ approach to assisting their clients comes from a place of compassion, understanding, and connection.

National Foreign Language Week (March 5 – 11) serves to highlight and honor all languages across the globe. To celebrate and recognize this week, we invited our agents to share how speaking another language has shaped their life or career.

Language Connects Us

“Because my family is from Mexico, I grew up speaking Spanish. My parents wanted me to continue to embrace our culture and traditions. Growing up multilingual has given me empathy for others who learned English as second language.

“My language skills have given me patience and understanding of cultural differences and the ability to read expressions. I have somehow managed to hold conversations with Brazilians and Italians, even though neither of us knew exactly what was being said.

“Language connects us, even when we don’t speak the same language.”

Diana Vieyra, PSA Hockessin sales team, Spanish speaker

Language Teaches Us How To Listen

“Languages shaped not only my career but also my life in full. I was born in Latvia, which was a bilingual country at the time. From a very young age I learned that not everyone speaks the same language and it is okay… I have to learn how to communicate.

“By the time I moved to the United States, I knew three languages and could ask simple questions in two more. I’ve met people from all backgrounds and ethnicities — Arabs, Israelis, Ukrainians, Romanians — and, so far, I have never had a problem communicating with any of them. And it is not because I know their language. It is because my exposure to foreign languages taught me how to listen, hear different accents, and relay that information to my knowledge. That is why I think it is vital to recognize foreign languages: it will help us to become closer with someone from another part of the world.

“This is truly a priceless experience!”

Karina Pippin, Rehoboth Beach sales team, speaks Latvian and Russian

Language Helps Us Appreciate Different Backgrounds

“I grew up speaking Hungarian in my grandmother’s home. She had come to America in 1956 as a refugee from Hungary. She didn’t pick up English easily so, from a young age, I always made her phone calls and accompanied her on appointments — always happy to be her translator.”

“This gave me respect for the courage and bravery of immigrants coming to this country to start a life here in our land of the free.

“Fast forward to having children of my own: they attend an amazing local public school with people from all backgrounds. After meeting a new classmate-turned-friend who only speaks Spanish, my 8-year old daughter was inspired to learn the language. Our family of four now takes daily Spanish lessons over Duolingo. We’re hoping to learn enough to be helpful to someone, someday. “

Monica Bush, Greenville sales team, speaks Hungarian

Did you know?

Nearly 11% of our agents are bi- or multilingual representing 22 languages and a large number international communities. Find a Patterson-Schwartz sales associate who speaks your language from the list below:

Spanish	Hindi	Polish
Arabic	Hungarian	Portuguese
Chinese	Igbo	Punjabi
Farsi	Korean	Turkish
French	Latvian	Ukrainian
German	Mandarin	Urdu
Greek	Mandarin Chinese
Gujarati	Norwegian

About Us

Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate is Delaware’s largest independent real estate brokerage and offers a full range of services that include residential home sales, purchase and rental, relocation services, and property management. We’ve been guiding home buyers and sellers since 1961, and invite you to connect with us when you’re ready to partner with a local real estate expert.

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Teaming Up for Charity: Giving Back at Patterson-Schwartz

At Patterson-Schwartz, we embrace the philosophy that being a good neighbor is more than just giving money to a worthy cause – it’s about developing and investing in the community in which we live and do business. That’s why our sales associates and employees give countless hours of their time to charitable causes.

In support of this culture of giving back, Patterson-Schwartz donates a portion of the proceeds from every real estate transaction to the PSA Foundation. Since its inception in 2001, the PSA Foundation has donated nearly $1.4 Million to local charities and organizations that are close to the hearts of the PSA family of sales associates and employees.

What does it mean to partner with a company that shares your values on charitable giving?

“‘We Are Local’ is embedded in the core of Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate’s investment in the local community. When I received the call that The Hadley Group was going to be the main event sponsor for the First State Half Marathon, I knew beyond a doubt that [PSA] would support my team, the cause, and the community. Already looking forward to the next race.” – Brian Hadley, PSA Hockessin sales team

Patterson-Schwartz will be back running along side Brian and The Hadley Group for the second annual First State Half Marathon and 10k planned for Saturday, March 25th 2023. Visit the event page for more information.

“The Delmarva Aces North Baseball Team, a local little league program that my grandson is a part of, lived a dream and had the time of their lives in part because of PSA’s support. The parents told me their travel team had so much fun and made so many memories thanks to the donations from their sponsors.” – Kelley Quinn, PSA Brandywine support team

From supporting local little league teams to organizing coat drives, Kelley and her Brandywine office colleagues are making a difference in the community beyond assisting with real estate needs. Follow the Brandywine office Facebook page to learn more.

“I have been working for Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate for 19 years and they have always generously supported causes that I was personally involved with. Their support of events, such as the American Heart Association Golf Outing, shows how much the company cares about local organizations that support worthy causes. Their generosity has incentivized me to be more active in my community!” – Dave Watlington, PSA Middletown management team

Patterson-Schwartz is a proud returning sponsor for the 2023 Swing For Heart Classic benefiting the American Heart Association Delaware. Learn more about the July 10 event by visiting their webpage.

As you can see, giving back at Patterson-Schwartz is a true team effort, and every member of our PSA family plays an important part. We truly love where we live and work, and embrace efforts that make the communities we serve great places to call home.

About Us

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Head of the Class: Q&A with Justin Kierstead

Justin Kierstead knows what it is like to grow with a company that helps you succeed. As someone who joined PSA a little over three years ago, his newest role as the Director of Recruiting & Career Development positions him to lead agents — new and experienced — to the next level. Justin tells us a little bit about himself and what he loves most about being a part of the PSA family.

What do you love about your newest role and why?

I joined PSA as their Director of Marketing in January of 2019 after coming from an office manager role in the industry. I jumped into leading our internal and external marketing efforts right away, educating our agents (and sometimes myself!) on our marketing tools and resources. Getting in front of agents and helping them use these tools and resources to enhance their business was one of my favorite aspects of my job.

When an opportunity opened up to transition into recruiting and career development, I saw it as an expansion of the education efforts I’d already been heavily involved with. I love supporting our agents and educating them to become better today than they were yesterday.

One of our primary goals as an organization is to exceed our clients’ expectations. If I can assist our agents in achieving that level of success with their customers, there’s great satisfaction in that for me!

What sets our training apart?

At Patterson-Schwartz, you don’t have just one person teaching you real estate; you have an entire organization working together to educate you. Whether it’s me, our office managers, our seasoned sales associates, or our administrative staff; there are SO many people invested in doing all we can to create a robust learning environment for our agents.

Our new agent education program includes a Q&A session with productive PSA agents from across the company and at different levels of experience

Best advice for someone new to the industry? Students in pre-licensing classes?

Don’t try to become a real estate expert overnight, and don’t reinvent the wheel. There’s already a proven method for success, just lean into that process, and leverage your past experiences to complement your journey.

Also, don’t be a “secret agent” — share your journey with your network. Don’t be afraid to get in front of people while you’re still learning. There’s always someone here to assist you when opportunity arises!

For those in pre-licensing, there’s no doubt you’ll be given a LOT of information. My advice is to stay dialed in during your classes, review the content on a regular basis, leverage exam prep materials, and take your exams as soon as possible once class is done!

Do you have a motto that you follow for education/real estate or in general?

Your level of success is in direct proportion to the number of positive daily habits you create.

And always be a consumer of information. No matter how long you’ve been doing something, you can always get better, and there’s always more to learn!

Ready to grow with us?

Justin Kierstead has been a REALTOR® since 2006 and is licensed in DE & PA. Throughout his career, Justin developed an extremely successful marketing plan and action guides for buyers and sellers in all market conditions. He is also deeply rooted in training and education from his years as an office manager. His professional style combined with his integrity and knowledge of the real estate business allows new and seasoned agents to learn first-hand from a “true professional”.

Justin has a passion for life and helping others achieve success through learning. If you’re just as passionate about your real estate career, he’d love to chat! You can reach Justin at 302-239-3466, JKierstead@psre.com, or by clicking the button below.

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What our agents & staff are saying #lovewhereyouwork

You might be curious — and may have even asked one of our agents — about what it’s really like at Patterson-Schwartz. With such remarkable retention of highly tenured agents at PSA, what makes an agent choose us on day one, day 7,300, and every day in between? We recently spoke with three agents and employees based in our Hockessin office. Here is what they had to say.

Why did you choose PSA?

Dan Logan joined PSA Hockessin in 2004 and is the leader of the Dan Logan Group. Voted Best Real Estate Agent in Delaware by News Journal readers every year since 2014, Dan and his team assist clients across DE, PA, and MD. His dog, Isabelle, is his constant companion and honorary team member, accompanying him on settlement & listing appointments

This is a company that redefines integrity. If they say it, it happens.

“My quest to find the right broker took some time. I was new, dressed in a suit, with a resume in hand. The first broker spent a fair amount of time telling me how great they were. The second broker cared nothing about what I might say or offer and tried to get me to sign a paper to join within the first five minutes. Feeling somewhat dejected, I tried the third broker: Patterson-Schwartz. Talk about day and night. I met with Joe Pluscht, the Sales Manager at the time, and he spent over two hours with me. He showed me all the numbers that I later learned he is so famous for, but, more importantly, I felt at home and at ease. Questions were asked of me, something I never experienced before.”

“Joe is now the CEO and what I have seen is that his leadership style, ease of accessibility, and genuineness has clearly flowed throughout the organization. Joining this family was the best decision I ever made. This is a company that redefines integrity. If they say it, it happens.”

What sets PSA apart as a company?

Gail Sawdon recently celebrated 15 years with PSA as a property manager and the assistant to the Director of Property Management. In addition to her portfolio of residential properties, Gail has managed properties for the National Park Service, Brandywine Conservancy, Winterthur, and Salesianum School.

The company’s strong leadership has guided us through market downturns and we came out better and stronger.

“What I appreciate about working for Patterson Schwartz is the strong leadership and support. Even though Patterson Schwartz is a large company the owners are always accessible. If you see them in the hallway they always stop and ask about you and your family. The company’s strong leadership has guided us through market downturns and we came out better and stronger.”

What keeps you here?

MaryBeth Tribbitt hit her milestone 25-year anniversary this year. She is the team leader for The Tribbitt Group and has handled virtually every type of home from small condos to large estates. MaryBeth is based in New Castle County, but grew up in Lewes and has extensive knowledge of the coastal areas of southern Delaware.

The Patterson-Schwartz leadership never waivers in its support of its agents -whether it’s dealing with a difficult transaction, making career choices, or sharing personal situations, they are there for us!

“I am often asked why I – and many other agents and staff – have stayed with the Patterson-Schwartz organization for so long. Simply put, Patterson-Schwartz exceeds expectations on all levels. First of all, Patterson-Schwartz provides its agents with the finest tools and resources that enable them to grow their practices and hone their skills. The knowledgeable technical staff, the innovative marketing department, and the administrative and support personnel all work together to ensure agents are receiving on-going guidance and tutelage. The Patterson-Schwartz leadership never waivers in its support of its agents -whether it’s dealing with a difficult transaction, making career choices, or sharing personal situations, they are there for us! They acknowledge that we are all in this together and that our combined efforts make for a strong company with a well-respected presence in the industry and in the community. I cherish the many personal and business relationships I have formed at Patterson-Schwartz over the past 25 years, and I am looking forward to many more productive years with this preeminent company. Thank you, Patterson-Schwartz… it has been my pleasure to be associated with you!”