1985 and two years out of college was the year we started in real estate, buying a fixer upper to renovate and sell. With limited funds, we worked a deal with some seller financing, a 2nd mortgage for one year behind a large first mortgage.
We offered a room to a contractor in exchange for his services, then started cleaning, painting and renovating the home inside and out.
Just before the year was up, we sold it, paying off both mortgages and real estate commissions, netting nearly $50,000. With the funds, we put down payments on another fixer upper and a townhouse to live in.
With 90% financing, $50,000 could go a long way back then.
We continued to do fixer upper projects for several years and got our real estate licenses along the way. Some of the contractors we hired, and some friends who became familiar with our projects started asking if we could help them buy a fixer upper. So we did that too and really liked it. Soon, we started getting referrals and were helping others buy homes to live in. Our experience with “creative financing” often helped first time buyers become homeowners. We began to help home sellers as well. Our experience with home renovations seemed to help with the home prep process.
1988 was the year we joined the largest real estate firm in California and were the youngest among 55 agents in our local office.
This was the year we also did our first major remodel, converting an 1,100 square foot home into 2,700 square feet plus a 3 car garage. After that, we continued to build homes on the side, including an eight home subdivision.
1991 we were honored to receive the Presidents Sliver award as being in the top 3% among all the firm’s California agents. This being our third year as full time Realtors.
1995 we started a new real estate brokerage. We taught and managed real estate agents, while representing clients as full time Realtors.
1998 was our busiest year yet. We never had the desire to sell the most homes, but in 1998 it happened. We sold 114 homes, tops in the Bay Area per the San Francisco Business Times.
A year later, the Associated Press gave us credit for doing the first online real estate transactions. We had created a website and an email program that streamlined the process of buying and selling homes. With the volume of home sales we were doing, we needed a way to reduce the number of face to face client meetings.
There were appearances on Channel 2’s Morning Show which were live and kind of nerve racking, but it was fun talking about real estate and the trends of the time.
2005 and ten years after opening our brokerage, we had 4 offices, 60 agents and a mortgage company. We were becoming engaged in tasks that took us away from our clients, so we scaled back the operation. By 2009 we had reduced the number of agents in half and were offering incentives to work from home.
2019 and after more than two decades owning and operating our own real estate brokerage, we joined Remax Accord. We stepped away from the day to day operation so we could devote 100% of our time to clients.
We are Bay Area natives, undergrads at Saint Mary’s College. We live in Danville and are fortunate to live just a few miles from our daughter, her husband and grandchildren.
We enjoy playing pickleball and still renovate homes from time to time. Helping the homeless has been something we’ve done for years, and now the Children’s Miracle Network.
