Photo by Mike Lamb Morgan and Dallas Mahoney pose with their three children in front of the Full Circle Realty doorway that prominently displays the company logo.

Sitting at a table that includes two real estate agents during a Rotary meeting, one question is bound come up?

How many homes are for sale in Marshall these days?

One of the agents came up with an average figure of 15 to 20 at any given time.

Returning to the office after the meeting, I did a quick real estate data search for Lyon County.

Redfin.com reported 19 homes sold in Lyon County for the month of March, which was up from 15 for the same time in 2025.

Stacker.com offered numbers for the past month that supported the 15-20 range. Stacker.com reported an active listing count of 19 for March.

Real estate has always sparked by interest because I assume it’s a tough business. But I have also found you are not going to find a real estate agent to admit that. Everyone knows being optimististic is key to success in sales. And if you watch HGTV, you get the impression selling homes is easy.

With all that said, I recently received an email from Dallas Mahoney plugging his wife’s Full Circle Realty business celebrating its 5-year anniversary.

“The owner and broker, Morgan Mahoney, started Full Circle Realty and has built it into a successful operation while staying actively involved in the community,” Mahoney stated in his email. “She’s also balancing life as a wife and mother of three young children. Knowing her, she likely wouldn’t reach out to share her story herself or her team, but I believe her experience as a young business owner starting and growing a local company could resonate with your readers.”

He mentioned that Full Circle Realty was hosting a Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce After Hours, which is a monthly networking event. So I decided to attend.

After working my way through the fairly large crowd to the cheese and crackers with beverages offered at the event, I eventually found Morgan and got her story.

“Grew up in the area — half hour away. Always knew I wanted to be in the area. It’s always taken good care of me and my family and met my significant other or my spouse, Dallas, in this community,” Morgan said. “Just got to know more and more people over the years and I’ve always wanted to be in an occupation that was people orientated — find a way that I can give back or help people. Real estate’s been a fun way to meet a lot of different people and hear why they came to Marshall, what they love about Marshall, while also becoming friends with them and watching them grow their families and make connections in the community.”

Morgan also explained that while in high school she loved to watch HGTV with her mom. While friends and family just expected Morgan to get into interior design, she actually attended South Dakota State University and earned a degree in horticulture. After spending a few years in the agronomy field, Morgan eventually gravitated toward real estate.

“I was a realtor for three years prior to opening Full Circle. I was also working another job. I was having children and working two jobs and it became pretty demanding and my real estate kept growing, so I just thought that’s really where I felt my passion,” Morgan said. “I took a leap of faith, which was during COVID, and we came to a point where there was four houses on the market, so it was very much ripping the band aid and hope for success. And it’s been a blessing ever since, but it’s a lot of growing pains to get established.”

And she apparently didn’t have any trouble finding agents to work in her office.

“It seemed like every four or five months, someone was knocking on the door asking about the company and what our motto is. So with the support of them it kind of gave us more recognition and then kind of grew from there,” she said.

Morgan admits selling houses in southwest Minnesota is not an easy profession. But she’s always optimistic.

“This is prime spring market right now. When the weather gets nice, that’s when the market, you know, ramps up, so we’re hoping for a busy summer ahead. But in our area, we’re very much dealing with a shortage of inventory, so there’s a lot of competition,” she said. “That’s the same with even our rental markets. Low on inventory. It would be a great time for sellers to put it on market because there’s lots of buyers out there looking.”

While Marshall would be the “hot spot” for selling homes, Morgan said sales will “bleed” to the smaller surrounding communities.

“If people can’t afford to live in Marshall, or can’t compete, then they’re looking elsewhere in Minneota, Cottonwood, Tracy. It kind of overflows to them, and we absorb that market. I would say the sweet spot is kind of anything in the two hundreds to 350 range. The sweet spot for our market activity,” she said.

While the numbers are tough, Morgan loves her profession. It’s because of the people she deals with on daily basis.

“Every day is something new. In our occupation we deal with a lot of people’s emotions. The real stories behind the scenes. People go to where they pick up their kids, they do their day to day, but we’re the ones that are hearing ‘I lost my job’, ‘I got a promotion,’ ‘my spouse passed away,’ or ‘my mom moved to assisted living,'” she said. “I like to be connected into the community. So that way, when people get placed in different areas, I can help add resources and connections to activities or movers, or electricians or plumbers. When you are in people’s homes they’re sometimes vulnerable states and they’re looking for us to guide it. So it’s rewarding to help them.”

I found it amazing listening to Morgan talk about that passion and rewards she talked about. As he talked, her three children scurried about with their father. She has a third grader, a first grader and a 3-year-old. She realizes the kids make some sacrifices while she runs her business and supports her community by serving on the chamber board and volunteering in a number of community organizations

But it appears Dallas not only supports his wife, he also relates to what she goes through to make a sale. He sells farmland for Northwestern Farm Management.

“We can talk to each other and bounce ideas off each other. We’re both in the same line of profession, but I joke I would never sell houses. It’s kind of cool,” Dallas said. “When she has to work and leave, I understand it. That’s the way it goes. You know she has her busy seasons and that’s all right. That’s why it’s a team. And I know she appreciates all the agents with Full Circle. She wants everyone to succeed and grow.”

He also believes in serving his community and currently is on the Marshall Fire Department.

And by the way, I asked Morgan how she came up with the name of her business.

“If you look at the logo, it’s an abstract key, so you can see the circle is like the handle. It’s a key. That is why the logo is what it is. But really, it derived from, what do we offer in experience. So start to finish, it becomes full circle, from finding a lender to looking at houses, having inspections, appraisals, getting to the closing table. So we help you through the full process,” she said. “Then the other aspect is every stage of life. So our slogan is we are there for every stage. And that means, you know, kids out of college that are buying their first home. Then maybe they get married, have kids, grow the family. So they need a little bigger house; grown out of it. Then maybe they want their dream home, or their vacation home. Maybe they need a business space. Then come back to one level living, something as they get older, selling that as they go into assisted living. We’re there for every stage of life.”

So, I get it now. Real estate is a full circle business. And it appears Morgan is pretty good at it.