Dennis Doucette – Putting Life Experiences To Work As He Helps People

You never know how someone is going to end up joining the Westwood Living sponsor family. Earlier this spring, as I was having my shoulder worked on at APR Physical Therapy, my therapist, Dave Fleischman, said, “You gotta meet Dennis Doucette. He’s perfect for what you do.”
 
Less than a week later, Dennis and I connected for coffee and, sure enough, we could tell in an instant his personality and priorities were just right. He’s 100% a ‘people-person,’ and he really cares about supporting things aimed to make the community better. Plus, his story was a great one to share.
 

Since 2012, Dennis has been working in real estate and he joined William Raveis in 2021 as a sales associate. He has succeeded in the field because of his personality, knowledge and ability to work well with many different types of clients through all kinds of situations.
 

“My integrity is top notch,” said Dennis as we caught up at the William Raveis office in Wellesley. “I get along with everybody, even if they’re difficult, and I think that’s the hardest part. There’s a lot of egos in our business. When it comes to talking with people, I don’t need to be the smartest person in the room. I just need someone who wants to communicate with me and talk with me, even if there’s a problem. There’s always something that comes up in a real estate transaction. It’s how you handle it that defines you as an agent.”
 

Surrounding himself with good people has been the key, and working collectively toward an agreeable solution gets the job done.
 

“I’ve honed that skill, and I am very proud of that,” he said. “I have a lot of pride in that when it comes to communicating with people. I treat everyone with respect, and I don’t have an ego when it comes to this. I’m able to find the right way to talk to people and get information we need to help everybody here.”
 

Dennis, who is a member at Norfolk Golf Club and enjoys playing golf with his wife, Andrea, has “help” in his DNA. He served as a Medic in a field artillery unit for 10 years with the Army National Guard. For the last 21 years, he’s been a member of the Winchester Fire Department.
 

“I’m actually a paramedic and a firefighter,” said Dennis. “What’s great about the firefighter schedule is it allows you to work another job, so to speak, because we work two 24-hour shifts each week. We have a lot of days off. Originally, I worked in construction, so the combination of those two experiences has really made me understand so much about homes and how they’re structured. I feel like I know homes inside and out.”
 

It’s not unusual for Dennis to be walking a client through a house when he points out some deficiencies or challenges other real estate agents may not notice.
 

“Before a house sells, you have to do a fire inspection,” he said. “I can see fire hazards right out of the gate. I’ll come through the house and say, ‘Hey, that smoke detector is in the wrong place. We have to move that.’ I look at electrical panels, how homes are plumbed and where things are running. I look for safety hazards all the time, and it’s just instinct because, as a firefighter, you’re always looking at that. When I look at roofs – I used to be a roofer – I’m the ladder guy on our crew. So whenever I’m looking at a roof, I’ll stand outside and look at it, and I’ll see some pitch differences. I’ll see some imperfections. I’m always looking at roofs, sometimes to know if I have to climb up and cut a hole in there or save somebody out of a window, but when I’m looking at this as a realtor, I’m able to see things that can be red flags moving forward that maybe we need to discuss.”
 

Naturally, during our chat we talked about the current real estate market and what Dennis anticipates in the months ahead.
 

“If you love a home, you should buy it, and not base that decision on interest rates,” he said. “Rates go up. Rates go down. When the rates come down again, which they will, you’re going to see even more of the floodgates open when it comes to people looking for homes. Inventory will increase, but bidding wars will get more intense. You’ll see 15, 20, 30 offers, instead of the three or four we’re seeing right now. So you have a better chance at getting a house in this market, even though the inventory is a little bit lower. You can get in a house and make it your own, and when the rates come down and the floodgates open, you’ll sit in your home and all your equity will increase as everyone around you starts selling their houses.”
 

In the end, Dennis is a guy you’ll end up chatting with for a long time. He’s engaging and insightful, living a life filled with fascinating experiences. We didn’t even touch on his ski house in North Conway or the fact he recently drove a boat from Florida to Cape Cod. Those stories are included in our full conversation, which you can find on Episode 109 of the Westwood Living Podcast Network, available on Spotify, SoundCloud, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook and Buzzsprout.