About

I am a Principal Broker and work at The Sunset Group. I have been working in real estate since 2001. I started my career as a Realtor in 2002 working with expired listings, selling homes others couldn’t. There is some luck involved but there are some things that I saw Agents not doing correctly.

In 2005 I became a Principal Broker and have been training and supervising agents while still helping others buy and sell real estate.

Want to really know about me?

I was (gasp!) born in California. My parents owned a restaurant in the late 70’s but the gas shortage killed it. We lived in North Bend, Oregon for about a year on my grandfather’s 150 acre ranch. But the economy wasn’t great there so we moved to Cleveland, TN which is just above Chattanooga where my father’s family lived. My mom was a Realtor for a couple of years with Century 21.

I remember her selling a $40,000 house and having a master key for all lockboxes. If that key was lost, every Realtor’s key had to be replaced. We have really improved in the technology.

I graduated from high school and my family moved to Portland where my mother was born. I had planned on going to Western States Chiropractic School here in Portland because of the relief Chiropractic gave my Mom. I went through a year at PCC and felt, at the time, that Chiropractors weren’t accepted by the mainstream and they were making claims to cure everything, even cancer. I couldn’t really go along with that and if that was what I would have to do to succeed I would have to pass on it, and I did.

I had planned on being a Chiropractor for about 6 or so years and I didn’t have another occupation planned. No plan B if you will. I had been a comic book fan since I was 10. At the time Entrepreneur magazine listed the comic book industry as one of the 10 hottest businesses for 2003. With my parents, I opened Heroes Haven in Salem on Market Street in the plaza with Pietro’s Pizza.

It was almost a $1 Billion industry in 1993.  I could write a small book about what went wrong but it involved greed and big bosses taking advantage of the situation and there was a brutal bust. In 1998 the industry was only worth $250 million.  A 75% drop sucks. There were 7 shops at the most during that time and mine was the last of three.

I saw the writing on the wall and my parents continued for a few years but I went to PSU in the fall of 1998. Through the summer of 2000 I went every term taking 16-21 hours per term so that my PCC credits counted. I got married at the end of 1999 while working two jobs and taking all of those credit hours.

I graduated in the summer of 2000 with a Bachelors in Psychology. I thought of going for a Master’s degree but newly married and previously working 60 hours and all of the school hours I decided it wasn’t best for the relationship.

A few months later I met up with a friend who was about to become an agent at John L Scott. He was partnering with a friend and wanted someone to be an assistant. I had been interested in real estate, who isn’t to some degree, and I they gave me a good pitch.

I worked for them for 9 months before I decided I would be much better on my own. I challenged the real estate test after studying for 2 weeks. Back then you could challenge it without taking class hours. I learned a lot as they hit the ground running and at one time had 65 listings which I think they realized was just crazy later.

I was officially a real estate agent in December of 2001 but didn’t do start anything until January. I got really lucky as I made expired listing calls and got a listing from my seventh call. I had a really successful first six months doing more in that time than typical rookies do in their first year.

I left John L Scott in 2003 for RE/MAX which was across Cornell Rd. from John L Scott. In 2004 and 2005 I dealt with my failing marriage which officially ended in 2005. It threw me for a loop, though I didn’t realize how much until later. I left RE/MAX to go to Rio Realty in September of 2005 with the idea of becoming the Principal Broker soon which I did in December while building my business back up after sitting back a little while after the divorce.

As I restarted my business I decided to do Limited Representation listings where, for a flat fee, I would list the home, put up a sign, give them use of a lockbox, take photos, etc. I did this for two reasons. One of my best friends listed his house like this, with someone else. The other reason is that there is a California company that does a ton of it, and my friend used them. I figured if my friend was going to do it, why should some guy in California get the business.

I don’t do a ton of them and find it surprising that when offer flat fee to FSBO’s they often choose my 4% listing. Well that works for me. In 2008 I began offering hourly services but only one person has taken advantage of that so far.

So if you read all of this, I hope you found it mildly interesting and please, no stalking.