By: Matt Emma

Sara Ston did not start her career in real estate. She started it in a classroom in New York City, working as a special needs teacher. The work was demanding in ways that most people never see. It required patience, structure, advocacy, and the ability to stay calm when everything felt uncertain. It also taught her something she would carry forward for the rest of her professional life. Some people need more guidance than others, and the ones who do deserve someone who will show up for them fully.

When Sara eventually left teaching and moved into real estate in Michigan, she brought that same mindset with her. She was not interested in building a business that revolved solely around volume. She wanted work that felt meaningful.

Serving Clients in Transition

Sara quickly found a market in which she could find meaning and provide support. The clients she gravitated toward were seniors, families managing probate properties, adult children helping aging parents downsize, and people caught in the middle of caregiving, grief, or difficult family dynamics.

“My ideal client is often facing a situation that feels much bigger than real estate,” Sara explained. “They already are coming to us overwhelmed.” Many of Sara’s clients are part of the “sandwich generation,” adult children caring for aging parents while also raising children, managing careers, handling family logistics, and trying to make smart decisions about a parent’s home, care, downsizing, or estate.

Sara did not view the challenges her clients were facing as simple transactions, but rather, as transitions. Recognizing a home sale as only one piece of a much larger puzzle, Sara built her business, The Stonway Group, as a comprehensive support network extending beyond a listing and a closure. While the Stonway Group secures strong real estate outcomes, Sara and her team also help clients move through the larger transition surrounding the home with a clear plan and steady guidance.

A Team Built for Support

Sara creates individualized roadmaps for each family, walking them through the decision-making process, connecting them with trusted resources, and ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.

“What helps us solve that well is that our team is built for support,” she said. “I believe clients are better served when there is real collaboration behind the scenes. Strong agents, strong systems, and strong administrative support create a smoother experience.”

Over ten years in real estate, Sara has built a business that runs almost entirely on referrals. That kind of trust does not come easily. It comes from doing the work the right way, over and over again, with families who remember how they were treated during one of the hardest chapters of their lives.

Recognition Rooted in Leadership

The results speak for themselves. Sara was recognized as the number two producer at her brokerage in 2024. She has been named to the Best of Hour Detroit list for two consecutive years. She holds the SRES designation and was chosen by Top Producer Magazine for her leadership.

“Leadership has always mattered more to me than individual recognition alone,” Sara said. “When I was working in education, I measured my own success by the success of the people I was there to serve. Bringing that mindset into real estate has been one of the most meaningful parts of my career.”

Expanding Beyond the Transaction

That philosophy also led her to create something beyond her real estate work. Seeing the same struggles come up again and again with families managing aging and transitions, Sara launched How to Help Mom, a platform designed to share practical support, educational materials, and trusted resources with families as they consider questions associated with new life stages. This work extends beyond, and often comes before, the real estate transaction itself.

“I realized the information, relationships, and practical support I had built through my real estate business were too valuable to stay limited to one transaction at a time,” she said.

Sara currently serves as president of a Local Business Network group and is launching a senior-focused chapter built around trusted vendor relationships and referral collaboration. For her, the future of real estate leadership is not about chasing numbers. It is about building the kind of culture that allows both clients and agents to thrive.

The ideal outcome for her clients is not just a successful closing. Sara works to ensure that they feel informed, protected, and genuinely supported throughout the process, allowing them to look back knowing they made good decisions during a difficult chapter. That is what Sara has spent the last decade building, a business grounded in trust, guided by experience, and shaped by the belief that some people simply need more care.