While I feel incredibly fortunate to be busy launching four new listings and connecting multiple buyers to their dream homes this week, I wanted to focus on something a little different this month, and that’s gratitude. With my birthday and the holiday season suddenly here, I can’t help but reflect on life and how grateful I am to have such an amazing network of people encouraging and supporting me at every turn.
When I was just 20 years old (and the door to becoming a professional golfer had closed), I started in the housing industry by sweeping floors, talking face-to-face with subcontractors and acting as a mental sponge at each of my dad’s new home build projects. Absorbing every piece of knowledge I could on the job and studying real estate finance and land development full time at Portland State University, I soon got the opportunity to become project manager for Gerritz Custom Homes.
With my dad’s supervision, managing custom home builds from a vacant lot to a finished product was priceless hands-on experience. With each set of keys I handed over, I gained more confidence in my ability to identify quality home practices - a lesson I’m forever grateful to my parents for providing.
After graduating from PSU at 23 and obtaining my real estate license, I made the decision to join Keller Williams Realty - where I was able to work alongside some of the top producers in Oregon. But despite my education and history, the incredible training at KW, and my exposure to some of the most successful agents in the industry, my first 15 months were extremely tough.
I was asking people to trust a 24-year-old “rookie” with one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives in a time where the average broker was 52 years old with a minimum of 10 years experience! Needless to say, I spent many nights in my parents basement praying for more open doors and asking God if this was the right path for me.
Despite making less than $20k in my first year of real estate, I remembered my father’s encouragement to always be my own boss, and I never gave up. I put my faith in the process through nights of frustration and tears and looking back, I know I have you to thank.
In those early days, you believed in me, trusted my opinions, and put faith in my knowledge. You gave me a chance!
And now I’m happy to say I'm in the top 5% of realtors in the state of Oregon for total sales volume and about to celebrate my 5th year in the business.
I share my journey this Thanksgiving season to extend my deepest gratitude to you for trusting me with your vision, your goals, and your referrals. And to encourage you to keeping holding on if there’s a challenging dream you’ve been chasing. Keep on pushing and know that the hard times are what teach us to truly appreciate the good times.
