Why did you come to work for Sunriver Realty?
I had worked with Sunriver agents and Principal Brokers previously and believe the agency is a very high class operation with talented and nice people at the helm. The team spirit at Sunriver Realty is very attractive to me. I had the opportunity to learn the business working under a top performing agent for many months.
What do you love about your job?
I am very sociable and like interacting with people. Additionally I love real estate and have bought and sold many houses in Central Oregon myself. I have had many houses built to my specifications and I have built my own home in California. I have a great affinity for nice houses and finding great values also. I seem to have the ability to find the right houses the fit the buyer’s needs. I also love deal making and negotiations. Consequently the broker’s hat fits me perfectly.
What are some of your areas of industry expertise or preference?
I have a background of 30 years of marketing experience that I bring to real estate. I have done practically every type of marketing communications and have skills with design and graphic arts, media buying, strategic planning. My skills at designing houses and specifying surfaces and materials are valuable in evaluating homes and in helping clients with remodeling, styling, and staging. I like working hard, solving clients' problems, and making their dreams come true.
How do you enjoy Central Oregon?
I love the area for all its recreational opportunities. I fish and enjoy the off road recreational areas. I also think Bend is spectacular for its cosmopolitan atmosphere with big city cuisine, entertainment, shopping and events but small town friendliness and personality. Summers here can’t be beat. Year round recreation is appealing.
What's a valuable lesson you've learned (in real estate)?
Don’t assume you know what clients want without spending time with them to know them well and learing their motivations, and desires. There are always ways to put a deal together that may at first seem impossible. Almost all people are inherently good and nice and enjoyable to be with. Treating clients like friends and family and having genuine concern for their welfare is really valuable. Respect is essential to me for them and vice versa.
What’s your favorite quote or phrase?
For twenty five years I had this quote above my desk to help guide me through success and failures. It is by Teddy Roosevelt given April 23, 1910 in Paris:
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."