in honor of Women’s History Month, we wanted to tell the stories of Real women. Each week, we’ll be posting a new, in-depth look into the life of a Real agent and the career path that led her to the Real community.
I’ve moved 13 times. Every 20 months until I was 12, and then many times as an adult. After attending Kutztown University in Pennsylvania and receiving a degree in Art Education, I quickly learned that I did not want to teach in the school districts.
I had two fabulous sons with my first husband. In 1998 we lost our home to a tornado causing us to move in with relatives for 10 months. We started looking for a home to purchase and the agent helping us thought it would make a good career for both of us. We became licensed in 1999. My husband got a steady job again after recovering from the tornado and quit real estate.
For 16 years I continued working from that office, learning new construction as we rebuilt our home. For my formal training I was handed a stack of books and told to go home and read them. I was told to let a broker review my agreements before sending them to an agent. Everything else I guessed at.
After we got divorced, I purchased my first home on my own. I remarried for a short time, lost my house to foreclosure, and was left with tremendous debt. It was highly stressful for my kids and me. At the time, I had no idea what the implications would be. I dealt with the debt and embarrassment for many years. I had to again return to waitressing part time to make ends meet.
I started dating Dave and moved in with him when my house foreclosed. Six months later I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, and had five months of chemo, surgery, and one month of radiation every weekday. I was fortunate not to be sick and was able to keep working in real estate, though.
Later on, Dave and I made the decision to close his business and move to San Diego to take care of a sick relative. He purchased a home there and the listing agent asked us to come work at the office where she worked when we got our California licenses. I took many classes and became familiar with REOs, foreclosures and learned to do open houses. I had to get over my fear of selling such “high” priced homes in comparison to Pennsylvania. Seems funny now. A house is a house, and people are people.
My brokerage was later purchased by Warren Buffet and we became part of his company. Our manager decided we should position ourselves to sell higher priced homes and moved our office to the beach community. After a year of the long drive, horrible traffic, and never feeling welcome at that location, several of us left the company.
In March of 2019, we found Real and Jason Lopez. Our first meeting was great and we felt at home. Dave and I joined and started rebranding. Moving back to Pennsylvania was not in our plans, but became necessary to take care of my mom. It’s great being near my kids, siblings, old friends, and past clients again.
My career in real estate took me from coast to coast, but I finally feel like I’m in the right place. Every year I’ve been at Real Broker, it has been better than the previous. I continue to get the best education of my career. Our core values aren’t just words, they are lived by and expected of all of us. I’ve never worked anywhere where the agents were so willing to not only share all the great ways to succeed, but also warn of the bad, without feeling like we’re in competition with each other. Our staff and technology set us apart from every other brokerage. The stock options and revenue share are just a bonus.
I love growing with this company. It’s an honor to be part of such a great vision. I look forward to it every day, and I hope I’m doing it justice.
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