Lindsay Pettinelli is a Realtor, property manager and general contractor based in Providence, working since 2021 as a real estate associate for Churchill & Banks Cos. LLC. She has been the owner of contracting company Abatis LLC in Providence since 2015.
In addition to that experience, Pettinelli has a background in banking, spending four years working in mortgage loan origination and another two years as an account executive for a national wholesale mortgage lender.
PBN: What was your 2024 like in the Rhode Island real estate industry?
PETTINELLI: My 2024 was a year of embracing change and achieving professional growth. I represented buyers and sellers on 44 transactions in Rhode Island and Massachusetts with over $30 million in sales, more than any of my past years as a sales associate.
I feel the success of this year is a result of the different real estate hats I wear coming together. I am registered in Rhode Island as a general contractor, I am a property manager and landlord. I am involved in and passionate about all aspects of real estate. I think my clients see it and continue to refer me to new clientele. I am so grateful for the opportunity to represent buyers and sellers on such an important decision.
PBN: What are some of the biggest challenges for you and your firm right now as you try to help your clients buy and sell homes?
PETTINELLI: The challenges facing buyers continue to be lack of inventory and less-desirable interest rates than years past. Although it is certainly less competitive than 2020 through 2022, we still need to be strategic in submitting offers knowing that there is likely competition. Sellers continue to face fewer challenges in this market compared to buyers, yet there are still some obstacles we must work to help sellers overcome.
This year I had a handful of sellers list their home “subject to suitable housing.” Listing a home for sale without having a predetermined relocation can present challenging steps in the home selling process. Ensuring you’re working with an agent who is successful in listing homes, as well as buying homes, is important in these situations.
PBN: What would be your best tips to prospective home sellers in this market in the Rhode Island area?
PETTINELLI: Prepare your house to be the best version of itself that it can be. As a general contractor, I am often able to walk through homes and help sellers get their house ready to go on market by completing projects that have been started but never finished or executing renovations in a timely fashion that will ensure top dollar. Re-tiling a bathroom floor, installing new countertops, decluttering and staging are low-cost investments that can be made prior to listing that will pay dividends when buyers walk through.
Additionally, try to catch up with deferred maintenance to eliminate reasons that a buyer would try to negotiate – have heating and cooling systems serviced, repoint brick and touch up paint. I aim to be the single point resource to execute these to-do items for my clients before going on market.
PBN: Why is it so important that a home seller finds a reputable real estate agent to list their property? How big of a difference can it make?
PETTINELLI: I can’t stress enough the importance of working with a reputable agent whether buying or selling. When I am working as a sales agent, I take comfort and security in the thoroughness and strength of an offer submitted to me by a fellow licensed agent who understands the terms and deadlines in a purchase and sales agreement.
As buyers’ agents, we ensure that buyers are preapproved by experienced loan officers, ensuring they understand the process as it pertains to offers, deposits and deadlines. I use the experience gained by hundreds of past sales to negotiate on your behalf. I have a network of attorneys, fellow agents, loan officers, inspectors and contractors who work together to help ensure a smooth transaction even after closing.
This is what I do day in and day out as an agent for Churchill & Banks Cos., a firm that has been a vital and innovative force in the Rhode Island real estate industry for more than 30 years.
PBN: How has the National Association of Realtors settlement earlier this year over commission rules impacted the way Realtors now do business? Has it changed things for you?
PETTINELLI: I don’t think that the NAR settlement agreement has shifted the way in which we practice to the extent that it was thought it may have. Essentially, buyer’s agent commission is no longer predetermined between a selling agent and the seller. Buyers and their agents can agree upon the amount of commission the agent will make and whether or not it will be paid by the buyer to the agent outside of closing or requested to be paid from the seller proceeds.
In every single transaction I was a part of this year, the seller’s agent paid the buyer’s agent commission from sale proceeds in the same fashion that they had in years prior. I think it’s important that the commissions are negotiated separately, but at the end of the day, the way in which they’ve been paid seems to be very consistent with how the industry has traditionally operated.
Marc Larocque is a PBN contributing writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com. You may also follow him on X @Marc_La_Rock.
