Confidence through experience
When the market crashed in 2008, my business didn't shrink. It grew. In a good year I'd done about 30 transactions. Then 80. Then 150. That kind of volume taught me what this business really takes: systems, controls, and good people around you to do what you can't. It's how Realty Exchange runs today.
Thirty years and more than 2,000 homes later, I still start every deal the same way: with the person. It's not transactional. It's relational.
How I got here
Thirty years ago I had a young son and a growing family, and I had capped out on what I could earn in the travel industry. I renovated the house I was living in, and my Realtor came by and told me I'd made $30,000 in a week or two. At the time, that was what I made in a whole year. I signed up right away, got my real estate license, and started taking carpentry and HVAC classes, thinking I was going to be a rehabber. I ended up finding out real estate sales was for me.
After ten very successful years in Illinois, my dad bought land in a place I'd never heard of. "Palm Coast? Are you sure you're not buying swamp land?" I came down to visit, and within two years Deb and I had moved the whole family here. We restarted our career in Flagler County because we loved it so much: the beaches, the weather, bike riding, golf, boating, fishing. We love the beach.