Beyond the Listing
A keynote by Charles Maring for real estate professionals on finding the stories only a local would know and sharing them in ways that build trust.
What Makes a Place Feel Like Home?
When we put our house in Wallingford, Connecticut, up for sale, I made a film about the things I knew I’d miss. A deer crossing the lawn. Rain on the garden flowers. The view across the fields after a snowfall. I’d filmed those moments over several seasons because I lived there and had a camera handy. When it came time to sell, I could show someone what it felt like to wake up there.
I bring that same curiosity to an online magazine I produce called Savannah Proper. Sometimes a story begins with a walk through a familiar square or a conversation with someone who knows a piece of its history. Real estate professionals can start just as simply. The owner of a shop you’ve walked past for years might tell you why she chose that street, who helped her get started, and how the neighborhood has changed since she opened. You can tell that story with a phone, a few photographs, and an hour of listening.
That’s the idea behind Beyond the Listing. Every community has stories worth sharing, and telling them gives people a reason to get to know you long before they need an agent.
Become a Storyteller for the Place You Serve
When I set out to tell the story of Chippewa Square for Savannah Proper, I started with a place people already recognized. The closer I looked, the more there was to write about. The theater, the historic churches, and the people who shaped the square gave me a way to help readers see a familiar place with fresh eyes.
Real estate professionals have a head start. You spend your days moving through the community, hearing what people remember and seeing what’s changing. The next time someone says, “I remember when this used to be…” ask them to tell you more. That conversation might become a short film, a photo essay, or a story for your newsletter. It also gives you a reason to meet someone, listen to them, and share a piece of local history in their own words.
In Beyond the Listing, I draw on my work with Savannah Proper to show how an individual agent or an entire brokerage can build a body of stories that people who already live there would want to share.
What Your Audience Will Take Home
In Beyond the Listing, I walk through how to take a local story from the first question to something you can share. We’ll look at how to find a subject, ask questions that get past the familiar answers, and decide what to photograph or film with the phone you already carry. I’ll also show how AI can help organize interview notes or shape a first draft while you verify the details and preserve the voice of the person you interviewed.
The goal is for everyone to leave knowing whose story they’d like to tell, what they’ll ask first, and where they might share it. An agent might begin with one conversation for a newsletter. A brokerage might build a recurring series, with each agent introducing someone whose work or story deserves more attention.
Music is one of the ways I get to know a place. I’m curious about the people who play the rooms I love, how they found their way to town, and why they keep showing up to play. A photograph might begin with the performance. The story often begins afterward, when there’s time to ask a question and hear where the answer takes you.
What are you already curious about in the place you serve? Maybe it’s the local music scene, the people who restore old houses, or the coach who’s been running the same youth program for twenty years. Start with someone you’d be glad to spend an hour with. Ask what keeps them coming back. Their answer might give your neighbors a story they’ve never heard about a person they see all the time.
Follow a Curiosity. Meet the People Behind It.
A Keynote for Real Estate Conferences and Brokerages
Beyond the Listing is a 45–60 minute keynote for REALTOR® associations, brokerage conferences, and real estate leadership events. I bring original photography and film to the stage and take the audience behind the work, from the detail that first caught my attention to the decisions that shaped the story. I tailor the examples to the people in the room and the communities they serve.
As a photographer and filmmaker, I’ve spent more than three decades telling stories through images. I’ve taught and presented for PPA, WPPI, and American Express Travel. In this program, I bring that experience to a question real estate professionals can act on as soon as they get home. Whose story could you tell that would help your neighbors see their own community differently?
Scenes from Home is the narrated film I made when we put our Wallingford, Connecticut, house up for sale. Filmed across four seasons, it shares what I’d come to love about living there, from the wildlife in the yard to the changing view across the neighboring fields.
Bring Beyond the Listing to Your Real Estate Event
If you’re planning a conference, association meeting, or brokerage gathering, tell me a little about who’ll be in the room and what you’d like them to take home. We can talk about how Beyond the Listing fits your program and tailor the examples to the communities your audience serves.