George Holler

Growing up my mom was a teacher and Dad delivered bread for a living. At 14, I started working as a dishwasher at the Bar-B-Q Restaurant in Milford. While the owners were very gruff people, their son Howard managed the kitchen. He taught me that a manager leads by example; that if you worked hard and respected your team, they would give you their very best. I soon learned to cook and moved on to Scribner’s Restaurant where the owner taught me an incredible lesson: “Sure, we can do it!” That was Scribner’s motto. At 9 p.m. on a Tuesday night in January when we hadn’t served a dinner in an hour and a couple called to say they’d be there in 15 minutes to eat, he said: “Sure we can do it, come on down.” He’d keep three people on staff just to serve dinner to two customers. He loved to make customers happy.

My mother went to law school later in life, and when I was admitted to the Connecticut Bar. I joined her firm. Her words to me: “Real estate is boring but it pays the bills; it’s yours.” Fortunately for me, I never found it boring. Closings are like puzzles that need to be put together. Lots of moving pieces: buyers, sellers, realtors, lenders, the other attorney, a title company, the water company, the tax collector, and the list goes on. Somehow, someone needs to get them all to cooperate to make the closing go smoothly. I loved the challenge then, and almost 20 years later, I still do.

Today I rely on the hard-working team Howard taught me to build, and I live by the can-do attitude that Scribner taught me. Our office is a great place to be—I love the people, I love what we do for our clients, and I love the challenge of getting it right, day-in and day-out.