Selling real estate as a puzzle to be solved: Julia Weisenberg thrives on the challenge

You might call Julia Weisenberg a freelancer with both public and private roles. But perhaps the right term would be Renaissance woman, one who holds a Ph.D. from Stony Brook University in linguistics, completing undergraduate work there in Hispanic languages and literature. She’s always had a passion for the integration of gesture and speech in human language.

It’s what drew her to work as an American Sign Language interpreter and instructor and lecturer of linguistics at Stony Brook and to work with deaf individuals, and teach English to speakers of other languages.

Besides her native English, she speaks Russian, French and Spanish, to which she adds American Sign Language. And add to that a career in health and wellness, operating Jedi Fitness on Shelter Island. She also holds certification in women’s and senior fitness.

Then there are a few other roles she incorporates — real estate agent, public servant and the all-important single mother to three daughters. Her oldest, Aedin, is 20 and a sophomore at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Her 18-year old daughter, Daria, graduates from Shelter Island High School in June and leaves for SUNY Albany in August. Regina, 11, of course, remains at home.

In between all of her other responsibilities, Ms. Weisenberg has found time to run for public office and to serve on the Town Planning Board, Deer & Tick Committee and the Water Quality Improvement Advisory Board. She’s also found time to help form “Babes and Bucks,” and spent more than a little time hunting deer on the Island to help reduce what was an exploding population of the animals here.

What brought her to real estate was a friend she’s known since she was in elementary school, growing up on the Island. Compass associate real estate broker Jonathan Milioti said her skills and stamina demonstrated through her work as an interpreter and operator of her own fitness business would make her successful in the field.

She became a real estate agent with Compass in 2018, saying it fits well with her interpreting work because it involves a lot of communications and problem solving abilities.

Once she embraced the idea, it took her two months to complete a self-paced course she said could be done faster by those who wanted to do so. “I purposely chose a slower, comfortable pace that met my family’s needs,” she said.

While her real estate endeavors require weekend work, her daughters are used to their mother’s busy schedule. At the same time, she often finds a need to wrap her client appointments around dropping off or picking up Regina, she said.

Ms. Weisenberg thrives on working with people making one of the most important decisions of their lives. Home represents their safe zone, “a place of refuge and peace” and when she’s able to help clients find a house that fits them, whether it’s a rental or sale, she feels a great sense of accomplishment.

It can be frustrating to work hard on a deal that ultimately doesn’t work, she said. “Houses and land and their intricate pieces and specifications are all about facts and data — something normally clear-cut,” Ms. Weisenberg said. “Yet buyers and sellers inevitably make it emotional. I often feel like a therapist. It’s a puzzle and I love solving puzzles. I find it rewarding when you find a solution.”

She chose to return to the Island after living in Setauket, New York City and Brooklyn while working on her Ph.D.  What brought her back was the desire to give her daughters the same experiences she had as a child on the Island.

“Our life by and of the sea is an intricate part of every neighborhood’s history,” Ms. Weisenberg said. “Our living alongside nature and being kind to it is important.”

It’s why she works hard to impress on buyers that what attracted them to the Island is what they will need to help preserve.

This is one in a series of Reporter profiles of Island real estate professionals.