I have several useless college degrees and love selling real estate so much that I am now totally unemployable in in any other industry.  It's too bad I just did not go right into real estate after graduating from college. In fact, I can't remember a single thing that I learned in college!  I graduated Summa Cum Laude, but I guess I owe it all to flash cards.  St. Cloud State isn't very hard to ace.  If I had gone directly into real estate at the age of 19, I would be living on a boat right now.  But then I would probably just miss selling real estate so I would be doing what I am doing right now.  My past lives include teaching junior high science and a prior stint as a respiratiory therapist.  (What was I thinking?)   But those occupations were boring compared to real estate.  I just have to be out and about talking to people and exploring properties for them. 

Oh yeah, I have some of those acronyms behind my name, like GRI, ePro, etc.  Sure, you have to keep up with the technology, the market, and current practices; that of course is an imperative.  But the real education comes from fifteen years of helping people buy and sell real estate.  The best agents have done most of their learning in the "trenches." You can sit through all the classes offered by all of the real estate schools, pass all of the exams, and still be clueless about selling houses and representing the best interests of your clients. 

There is a lot of pretention in this industry.  Just look at our business cards and check out all of that alphabet soup pasted behind our names. But does anybody remember what real estate agents are supposed to do?  They SELL HOUSES!  What is wrong with admitting that?  If I am representing a seller, I know that my job is to get the house SOLD at the best possible price, at the best terms, with the least inconvenience to the seller.  What is wrong with that?  If I am representing a buyer, my job is to find the most suitable house with the best value, at the best possible terms and price for the buyer.  Of course, some skill sets, education and experience are needed to perform those jobs well.  But I here agents say that there is soooooooo much more to real estate than selling houses.  Well, maybe so, but I don't know what is more important that doing a good job of selling houses.  Let's get real.... our incomes are baseed on sales commissions.  Either we earn them, or we don't.

Here is a little more about my professional philosophy...  I don't believe that internet technology will ever take the place of direct contact with large numbers of individuals, either by phone or in person.  The agent websites have become a complicated and glorified version of the newspaper classifieds.  I am so old I remember newspaper classifieds as the modus operendi for most agents.  But even in those good old days, you could not expect to succeed by just running lots of ads.  The same is true with the internet; you cannot succeed by putting up a website and sitting back just waiting for the buyers and sellers to come.  Likewise, a good website or blogs are not the "silver bullet" either.  Of course, the blogs and websites are fun, informative, and even increase exposure.  But they do not supplant old fashioned direct contact by phone, direct meetings with prospects and and members of your referral base, or even just plain old cold calling by knocking on doors.

My personal life revolves around my family, which includes my wife, a daughter in law school, a baby on the way, and five other kids in between.  We also do some home schooling for academic reasons (after our school district said that my son -who was three years old at the time-  might not ever learn to talk, but who now tests several grade levels ahead of his age group in most subjects.)  I teach the history and science components and my wife does the grammar, math, etc.  We fly model rockets, do a little fishing, have become American Civil War buffs, and enjoy baseball. 

For more information about my services and myself, go to http://realestatetwincities.net