Busy Agent Won't Wait for Phone to Ring

"Karen From Katonah" is the sort of woman who has umpteen pots on the boil and enjoys every minute of it. "I love keeping busy," she says, "I don't like waiting for the phone to ring."

Karen Benvin Ransom is an award-winning Associate Broker with Houlihan Lawrence in Katonah, N.Y. She's also the national award winning author of local online articles about living in Westchester County that regularly puts her name at the top of Google searches.

In the current market with its high inventories, Karen wants to make sure that the houses she sells stand out from the rest. She writes feature articles for each home, weaving historical details about the area into her stories. "I shine a spotlight on the homes I've been chosen to market," she says. "It's Always More Than the House" has become Karen's byline.

Real estate is not her first business venture. When she was 21, she and her fiancé started smoking trout in his parents' backyard in Purchase. They sold their smoked seafood to top restaurants and hotels in New York. Next, with a roof over their heads in Mt. Kisco, N.Y., they learned to make smoked salmon with famous chefs as mentors. Homarus Inc., the business they created, grew into a national and international enterprise. Their Saturday sales were very popular with residents in the Bedford area. Karen is still a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier, the professional society for women in the hospitality business.  

Karen is a through-and-through Westchester girl. Growing up in Tarrytown and what is now known as Sleepy Hollow, she had the honor of being the youngest princess nominated for the Tarrytown Tricentennial. While a freshman at Manhattanville College in Purchase, she got her real estate license and worked for Brannigan Real Estate during summers. These days, if she's not writing about or photographing houses you might spot Karen at Caramoor, where she's a docent. Or at the Katonah Museum of Art, where she is also a docent as well as a volunteer. "My parents spent a lot of money on an art history education for me," Karen says. "Volunteering at the art museum alleviates a ton of guilt!"

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