I’ve been in the real estate business since 1998. I’m a member of the (PPAR) Pikes Peak Association of Realtors and ReColorado MLS. Â I specialize in sales of residential properties buying or selling! First time buyers and relocations. My passion is affordable housing for all. I believe and reward myself by empowering others to make their dreams of home ownership come true.
My small time hobbies include roller skating, walking, swimming and spending time with my family (especially my mom). I volunteer for various local projects and fundraise for non profit organizations. If you are in search of an extremely fun, exciting and entertaining realtor, then I should be your choice!
What are some skills you have developed over the years that’s helped you be successful?
I’ve been in sales for 30 years, and my first stint was with Mary Kay cosmetics. At that time I didn’t wear any makeup, but I joined it anyway because it was a sales job and I could get a tax write-off. That was kind of like a foundation for me to get into sales, learning how to set goals and learning how to dream. They also taught me sales techniques. You could have something that someone absolutely loves, but if they don’t like you, they’re not going to buy anything from you. So the first step is just being likable and having people skills to be able to adapt to different personalities. I’ve had clients that probably didn’t like me in the beginning, but by the time we were done, they loved me. It’s a matter of dealing with their personality.
how did you weather the ups and downs in the real estate industry?
As long as you put some money to the side, you should be ok. An emergency fund is a big deal, not just for real estate agents, but for every single person in America, and that’s just having six months of payments saved up for a rainy day.
What are the most prominent concerns from Home Buyers?
Their biggest concern is their down payment. A lot of people think that you need a 20 grand downpayment for a house. Most people are never going to have that.
So what I do is I explain the process and find out what their income is to see what program I can put them in, and get them down payment assistance. Once I get them pre-approved, we start looking for a home.
What are the biggest concerns from Home Sellers?
How much can they get for it? I find a lot of times, they think they can get more than what the market analysis is. What I do is, I prepare the market analysis for them and let them see what houses are going for in their particular area and they can take a look at it, and they can make a decision from there.
What advice can you give to New Real estate professionals?
You are going to need some money because you got to pay for your schooling up front. I would recommend that you have at least $2,500.
I heard the market is saturated. I don’t believe that. There’s plenty of money to go around. I’ve been in the business long enough. A lot of my clients are referral-based, I guess when I started 20 years ago, my biggest challenge was getting clients because I didn’t have the money for marketing. Some companies give you leads, but they pay you a lot less. My biggest challenge was getting business people knowing that I’m a real estate agent. We have all kinds of avenues for marketing now,
Why do you do what you do?
Well, my passion is for first-time homebuyers. I’m geared towards the lower income families. Those that think they can’t own a house, single parents who think they can’t own a home, people who have credit issues that think keep them from purchasing a home. It’s getting people in the houses that don’t think they can own one, that make my day. When people give me a call, I try and help. Sometimes you have people that don’t have any problems at all. They think they can’t because they filed bankruptcy 10 years ago, that’s not a deal-breaker, but people don’t know these things. The first thing is to educate, people as to what can be done and what can’t be done.
What makes a good real state agent?
If you want to be an excellent real estate agent, don’t sell people a house that you don’t want to live in. Don’t sell a home that you can’t sell later. Find something that will be acceptable to you and your client. For me, if I don’t like it, you don’t get to buy it.