Mark Marsillo grew up in Scottsdale and witnessed the area boom. He worked various jobs throughout his youth, from construction to acting to the restaurant industry. The relationships he built and the skills he garnered account for much of his success in real estate. Acting, in particular, taught him the great skill of resiliency and to keep moving forward in any situation.

After graduating from Arizona State University, he accepted a restaurant management position. But a friend suggested that he would be good at real estate and encouraged him to become licensed. Reluctantly, he did. Thirty-four years later, he still loves his job.

“I always ask my clients if they are happy, because if they are not, then I won’t be satisfied with my work,” says Marsillo, a top-producing Realtor with Realty Executives. He’s the recipient of multiple Realty Executives Diamond Awards and the 2008 Realty Executives Presidential Award.

Marsillo represents buyers and sellers, from first-time to luxury, in Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Phoenix, Fountain Hills and Cave Creek. More than 95% of his business is based on repeat and referral clients. The friendships he forms and the journeys they go on together can be transformational. “A couple years ago, I had an out-of-state buyer in need of a liver transplant,” he recalls. “They relocated here so that they would be close to the hospital should they receive a call. They did receive that call — on the same day they closed on their new home. I don’t know anybody else who received a liver and a home on the same day.”

Marsillo is a member of multiple Realtor associations, a GUILD Elite member of the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing and a Shriner helping raise funds for Shriners Children’s hospitals. With every client, he says, the goal is the same: to deliver what’s important to them.