Chance Meeting at R4 Leads to Move, Marriage and More Real Estate

In 2019, Maria Billingmark was a RE/MAX real estate agent based in Honolulu, Hawaii. Originally from Sweden, she enjoyed the warmth and sunshine found on the islands but missed the quaintness and changing seasons of home.

Iowa, it seems, was the perfect compromise – though she didn’t realize it until she attended R4, the RE/MAX annual convention, that year.

As she tells it, she was on the fence about going to the R4 Fun Night Concert because she really didn’t know anyone else attending.

But she loved Tim McGraw, who was performing exclusively for RE/MAX R4 attendees.

“I thought, ‘I can do it,'” Billingmark says. “I’m a big girl. I can go to the concert by myself.”

That decision, it seems, changed everything. Even Billingmark couldn’t have predicted the winding road her life would take because of it.

Traci Jennings, who along with her husband Bill owns RE/MAX Real Estate Center in Ames, Iowa, was introduced to Billingmark at the concert and invited her to join her group. They danced and sang along as McGraw performed, but most importantly, Jennings and Billingmark forged a connection – in true RE/MAX fashion.

Billingmark had always been enamored with Iowa because it reminded her of where she grew up in Sweden. She told Jennings this and revealed she had started to consider giving up the island life for the midwestern culture and corn fields of Iowa.

“I just chuckled,” Jennings says. “Iowa – it’s a rural Midwest state. You don’t hear a lot of people moving from Hawaii to Iowa. After R4, I teased her and sent her pictures of Iowa and what we were doing. She’d say, ‘That’s beautiful. It looks like home.'”

Billingmark and Jennings stayed in touch and became good friends. When the pandemic hit, Billingmark started to think more and more about Iowa.

Finally, toward the end of the summer, Billingmark decided it was time to make the move. She’d found a short-term rental outside of Ames, but the Jennings suggested they had room on their farm and she could stay in the family’s basement apartment until she found something permanent.

“Thirty-two boxes arrived,” Jennings says. “We picked her up from the airport and started to get her acclimated. Life is different here.”

Though they met at a RE/MAX event, real estate was never the main goal of the move. In fact, the two never really spoke about Billingmark joining the Jennings’ RE/MAX office. Instead the Jennings showed her around Iowa, took her to high school football games and had her help around the farm.

“I felt like I made the right decision after a few days,” Billingmark says. “After just a few weeks, I loved it here, I knew I was here to stay. This felt like home.”

Eventually the Jennings’ brokerage felt like home too.

Billingmark earned her Iowa real estate license and joined RE/MAX Real Estate Center in the fall. But the story doesn’t end there. The Jennings introduced her to a contractor they regularly work with and encouraged them to meet. Their first date took place a few days later.  

“We knew it was right from that very first day, it was instant,” Billingmark says.

In June, the couple will marry.

“Things have fallen into place,” Jennings says. “I mean, do you believe in fate?”

From the chance meeting at R4 a couple of years ago to the constant contact that followed, Billingmark and Jennings say they forged a relationship through RE/MAX. Neither knew where it would lead, but both are happy how it turned out.

“With RE/MAX you are never really alone,” Billingmark says. “It’s such a wonderful brand. It means so much to me.”

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