Realtor profile: Shane Cronenweth
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6/7/2009 - 6/7/09
This interview series focuses on Realtors in the Santa Fe area. Shane Cronenweth is a broker, in partnership with Caroline Russell, at the Santa Fe office of Sotheby's International Realty.
How long have you lived here?
More than 20 years. I have a great South Capitol-type house on Garcia Street. I believe it started out as a little adobe in the 1800s and now it's a bungalow. My husband and I came here on vacation and a week later we made an offer on a house.
The first time I ever came to Santa Fe was to visit a cousin. It was so charming. Zozobra was a real family thing. It was such a different time. There was no graffiti. The first time I saw graffiti here — we had bought a second home in Los Miradores in 1986, I think, and I used to run and I saw graffiti on a wall in front of what's now Downtown Subscription. And it was like a political message, not the gang stuff.
Where did you grow up?
In LA. We're all from Los Angeles. My grandmother went there with her family from Ohio when she was little. I graduated from USC and I was a social worker in Watts, of all places. What happened was whoever placed me thought I was a man — the name, Shane, you know. I was OK with it. I was young and brainlessly fearless. My boyfriend was convinced I was going to be attacked and he would follow me there. I was visiting clients in flophouses, this chirpy girl in a miniskirt. I wasn't going to compromise my fashion sense for safety!
I worked exclusively with the blind for five years. I loved it, because you could make a difference. But eventually I felt I wasn't being challenged and I went into children's services. I worked in foster care for just shy of a year but there are so many horrors and you didn't feel you were making a difference. The success rate, other than simply recording a downward spiral, was like nothing. Then I got into real estate.
Were you married by then?
No. Well, I was married for one year while I was a social worker. Caroline, my fantastic real-estate partner, says it was my "dress rehearsal marriage."
I didn't know what to do for a while, then I went in with Harleigh Sandler Realtors in LA. While I was there, I met my husband, Jordan Cronenweth. He was a cinematographer. He shot Blade Runner and lots of other films. He was diagnosed with MS in his 30s and I took care of him. We tried all kinds of things, including going to Florida for snake-venom injections. We finally found a wonderful doctor and he said it was Parkinson's disease. Maybe seven weeks later, because of the medication Jordan got then, he was playing racquetball and winning.
Is Jordan still with us?
Oh, no. He died in 1996. It was a time of my life I look back and wonder how I got through it, but at the time it was just a day-to-day thing.
So you were at Harleigh Sandler in LA?
I partnered with a woman named Barbara Gardner.
Partnering makes sense, huh?
You can actually go on vacation. Not that we do. I've had one real vacation in three years. That was for six days, a cycling, hiking, and kayaking trip in the San Juan Islands [in Washington State].
My mom passed away eight months ago but I would go see her for 2- or 3-day trips every couple of months. I still visit my two sisters. One lives and works in LA and the other breeds Peruvian paso horses in Santa Ynez, California.
Did you do real estate as soon as you came to Santa Fe?
No. I took a break from it. I worked for a couple of galleries, but there was nowhere to go with that. It wasn't challenging me. Pat French, who had sold us our first place, had heard about my work in LA, so eventually, 10 or 11 years ago, I joined French & French Fine Properties, which of course became Sotheby's.
You and Caroline are teamed up.
I'd always wanted a partner here, but it never seemed to happen until I found Caroline. We have the same work ethic. We would lie down and die for the client. We're very protective of them; we are their advocates.
When we're representing buyers, we let them know as much as possible about the properties. I try to educate people about the beautiful, hand-troweled wall plaster and about the architecture and that not all Pueblo-style homes are adobe, and about the difference between a beam and a viga — which is actually just Spanish for "beam," but they're different things. It's hysterical but that's how it is.
How have you been faring in the down market?
Last year was my third best year ever, although many people had horrible years. We never had the roller-coaster, double-digit increases here. I believe southern California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Michigan are the hardest-hit.
There are many who really want to be here but they have trouble selling their other homes. I have potential clients in that situation in San Clemente, California, and in Longboat Key, Florida.
What's your prognosis on the market's returning?
People may be waiting to put their homes on the market next year when they think prices will be up, but this is maybe a 50- or a 70-year event. The good thing is that because we didn't have the very steep increase, we didn't have people buying and flipping, buying and flipping, and there still are people wanting to be here for our lifestyle and our cultural activities, which are so spectacular.
I really believe that we will see a leveling off — we may be seeing it now — but I don't believe everything will be wonderful next year. I am hopeful and I do enjoy doing what I'm doing. I can't imagine being anywhere else. Tuscany, maybe, but I don't speak the language.
Do you do any volunteering?
I was involved in the Buckaroo Ball since the year after it began and I'm on the gala committee for NDI [National Dance Institute of New Mexico]. NDI isn't just about dance. It teaches the kids self-discipline and teamwork, and that they can be the best. It just blows me away what they do for this community.
I also support the Santa Fe Symphony. I do believe in giving back and I will give up something else, not my contributions, because these organizations' needs don't go down. People need to realize what is really important and contribute to those things.
