Today we’d like to introduce you to Mary Heidrich.
Hi Mary, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
When I was born (April 15, 1966), my family was living in a home my father built on the point on the Isle of Sicily in Winter Park, Florida. I was born the youngest of 12 children to Francis Xavier Heidrich and Doris Mary Heidrich, my mom and dad. My mother passed away on May 16, 1975, and my life began to change greatly from that day on.
At the age of 14, I was sent to a British boarding school, Aiglon College, in Chesières-Villars, Switzerland — a little village on the top of the Swiss alps. I did all four years of high school there, snow skiing all winter long and hiking the alps in the other seasons. In the village, we spoke French. There were 43 different nationalities represented at the time, so I was exposed to many international cultures from a young age.
After Aiglon, I did my first year of university in Yonkers, New York, at Sarah Lawrence College.
I transferred to Parsons School of Design the following year and graduated 4 years later with a BBA in Marketing and Merchandising of Fashion and Design.
After working for two years in the fashion industry (first in Los Angeles then in Manhattan), I followed my then- boyfriend, Ippolito Etro, to live in the city he called home: Milan, Italy.
I lived in Milan for the next 30+ years. I raised three children there: Laszlo (now 31 years old), Greta (now 30) and Audrey
(now 28). I learned to live and speak like a true Milanese Italian.
While raising my children, I almost always had a job. I worked for several years in fashion (and my then-husband’s family is Etro, a very well-known, luxury, Italian family-owned fashion brand, so I was very exposed to that part of Italian design life) then I dipped my toes in the internet world by co-founding an online portal for women called BizyWoman.com. After that, I spent five years designing luxury shoes for women, under the brand name Heidrich Guabello. My partner and I were very successful in our small little world of customers and got several editorials in magazines like Vogue Italy, Elle Italy ..
The shoe business had to be closed for personal reasons and my next entrepreneurship was developing a perfume brand, called Majan Scents, which I did with the help of my son, Laszlo, and the world renown luxury perfume brand designer based out of Paris, Thierry de Baschmakoff.
When the Majan line was launched and taken on for sales exclusively at Selfridge’s in London, our services were no longer needed, so Laszlo and I went into another joint venture and created the Baron Bishop Parfums fragrance brand, which sold successfully for a couple of years in 8 different countries, from Australia to Spain. Unfortunately the brand had to be terminated when we discovered an issue with the organic safflower oil used in the production of the oil based roll-on perfumes.
And that is when I decided to go into real estate, which had been a lifelong dream of mine!
At this point, I had long-since divorced my husband in Italy and was living, for a short period, in Miami Beach’s Sunset Harbour.
Along with the decision to get my realtor’s license came the decision to move back to my hometown of Winter Park. I was already a year into a relationship with my now-husband, Michael Greear. The “boy next door”, you could say! Michael and I both grew up in homes on Lake Maitland. Our boat docks on the lake were across a small cove from one another — so close you could almost throw a stone from my dock to his! We bought a lovely ranch-style home in Winter Park a few years ago, and spend all our free time caring for our plants, trees and flowers in our beautiful back and front yards.
I have been in real estate, with Coldwell Banker Winter Park, for two years and I absolutely love everything about the industry. And I love being back home. I work mainly in Orlando, Winter Park and Maitland, but I have worked with clients selling and buying homes in Saint Cloud and Winter Springs too.
Working in this industry brings me such joy. I discovered things I did not know about myself: for example, how much helping people, protecting people, fills my heart. One of my strongest characteristics is righteousness and this line of work definitely calls for a lot of that! I am also a big people- person —— I love listening to people’s stories and understanding how their lives work, who they intertwine with on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis to better advise them when making such important life decisions like buying or selling a home, moving from one city or town to another.. Just the idea of a home puts a smile on my face, and I wake up every morning itching to meet my next customer! I sell and buy houses, townhomes and condos, big and small, simple and luxurious.
There are two areas of the industry I would like to grow in: one is selling land and the other is working also with international clients. My grandfather founded a local citrus business, Herman J. Heidrich & Sons Citrus Packing Co., in the late 1930’s. It was quite a big business and our family had citrus groves all over central Florida. Growing up walking, driving and even horseback riding (!) through lanes and lanes of fragrant citrus trees — both grapefruits and all kinds of oranges — instilled a great love for this land in me.
I have felt myself to be a citizen of the world ever since my high school days at the international boarding school in Switzerland. I have an Italian passport as well as my American one, and I thoroughly enjoy speaking Italian and interacting with people from all countries.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I would say I have been through several rough periods in my life.
Just being the 12th child is not easy. You get kind of lost at times and no one necessarily notices. Then losing my mother when I had just turned 9 years old was a BIG wakeup call. Talk about feeling lost …!
Growing up in Winter Park then moving to the top of the alps from one day to the next at the age of 14 was also a great challenge. I will never forget stepping down off the bus that took me from Geneva International Airport to Chesières-Villars that very first day I arrived to Aiglon College: My open-toed flat sandals stepped right into about 5 inches of freezing cold snow on a grey, September afternoon. My printed cotton dress and bare legs stood out just a little bit in a village filled with people covered in warm jackets, hats, gloves and boots!
It took me a year and a half living in Milan before I could really participate in a conversation in Italian. It was fun learning a new language, but it was also a struggle.
Divorce was devastating too, but I am fortunate to have a wonderful father to my children, so it took simply getting used to the new state of things.
The hardest thing I have ever had to go through (and still have to) is living far from my children. They are three of my very best friends and I miss the days of having them close, dearly. But such is life! They all love Winter Park and very much enjoy visiting as often as they can.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a realtor now. I work for Coldwell Banker Realty in the Winter Park, Florida office. I am part of a team that one of my cousins, Laura Lane Heidrich, formed at Coldwell years ago. The team is called The Heidrich Group.
I specialize in buying and selling real estate in central Florida, with most of my clients being in Winter Park, Orlando and Maitland. I feel my clients know me for the relationships I build, the thorough way I run things, and they feel truly cared for, protected. I am big on all that and it shows. Quality and attention are my priorities — I listen well, and I respond quickly. I will always recommend quality professionals to take care of all the various parts of any transaction I run. I definitely do “the above and the beyond” and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
People say my warm personality along with my extensive worldly experience in many areas of life and business make me stand out. .I have a big smile that I love to use!
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was very athletic as a child and as a young adult. I was actively competitive in gymnastics, swimming, running and high jumping.
As I got older, my love for nature grew and I began substituting the sports for walks, hikes and runs in nature. Today my husband and I enjoy bike riding together and our big passion is leisure swimming in any seas or oceans we can get in to! We just love wearing a mask and snorkel and observing life under salty water. Our great hobby is gardening though! We pass hours in our butterfly garden and caring for our many varieties of plants.
I have always had a very protective personality. I love my friends — and I have TONS of friends, both guys and gals — that I would do anything for. My favorite friend activity is laughing 🙂 And I am fiercely loyal to my buddies.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://maryheidrichrealtor.com
- Instagram: maryheidrich_realtor
- Facebook: Mary Heidrich Realtor
- LinkedIn: Mary Heidrich
- Other: Mary.heidrich@cbrealty.com
