A question that has likely been asked in various forms since the dawn of existence. What do you want to be, or better yet, in this case, what do you want to do after college? I often get asked how I got into real estate sales and to be honest, it wasn’t a career path I had dreamed of or even something I had planned to do. Sales came naturally to me. My first official job at 16 was working as a hostess at a breakfast spot on the weekends, this would later trickle into numerous serving jobs over the next 6 years. Waiting tables was fun, it required the ability to engage with people from all walks of life simultaneously. And it was waiting tables that led me to real estate and RE/MAX as a junior in college at the University of Oregon.
“What do you want to do after college?” Lorena asked me on a Sunday in 2014. Lorena and Ted visited me every weekend to grab dinner while I worked the usual Sunday evening shift. They were what you’d call regulars. I answered fearlessly, ‘I’d like to give real estate sales a try before I’m done with school so that I know if I’ll succeed or need to pursue a different career after graduation.’ I was somewhere at the end of my sophomore year then. Ted’s face lit up. The irony is I had no idea what either of them did for a living, all these days chit-chatting, and not a clue. Starring at Ted with confusion due to the joy on his face, he told me that Lorena worked as a recruiter for RE/MAX Integrity (Eugene, OR), and encouraged me to get my license.
The rest, well, a wild ride! No one ever said it was easy. Getting a license is the easy part. It would take me about 6 months I get my Oregon real estate license, in mid Junior year. And another 6 months to I sell my first home. I would sell 15 homes that first year, in 2015, at an average sales price of $225,000! In October 2015, just after my 23rd birthday, I had my last shift serving tables at the restaurant that led me to real estate. I cried on my way home. It was official, I was going to give this my all. I knew what I wanted to be. I was already there.
In spring of 2016, I graduated from the Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon with the blessing of a career, while my peers were anxiously facing an uncertain job market. That summer I would move 110 miles north back to Portland and start from ground zero building my business in a new city. But this time, I had a foundation. And like any good foundation, dreams can be built for a lifetime.
To Lorena & Ted, thank you. Your belief in me was unwavering.
