Okay…some of you know that I have been in the process of bringing a real estate agent into my firm. Today I was down at the Real Estate Agency with John Kirk, making it official. John is a Principal Broker like myself so that my company can still serve buyers and sellers without dealing with issues of disclosed limited agency.
John and I did a transaction together almost two years ago now for a great house for my clients in the Richmond Neighborhood. So I just wanted you all to know that there will be another agent blogging on here probably in the next couple of months. Poor John is going to jump into the blogging fold so you all be nice to him…especially my favorite grammar police commenter, Recent Buyer. 🙂
John went to graduate school, and if there are any other Whitman Alums, he’s one of you. If you are looking for a laid back real estate agent with a highly professional attitude, then John Kirk is who you are looking for. Laid back and professional really do go together.
John is an avid brewer…that’s right, this guy brews beer and teaches classes on how to brew beer. He loves his motorcycle and I would expect to see some posts from him on great rides in the area as well as a few on the local micro-brew scene and maybe…if you are really nice and use him as your agent, he might treat you to some of the stout, Guinness type beer he is brewing in time for St. Paddy’s day.
But, I think you’d have to call him (503-871-3300) pretty soon…St. Paddy’s day is just around the corner.
Do I have to sell my house to get some of that beer?
Now normally I’d tell you if you refer him a client, he’d give you some beer, but we can’t give unlicensed people any type of compensation for a referral…
Yep…I think you’re going to have to sell your house with him. 🙂
Ok, Melina you bring coffee and at the end of the inspection John will have Beer!! Now that sounds like a perfect day!
Congrats to both of you!
Shoot Jim, why don’t we have John just fire up the BBQ and start a tailgate…you bring the burgers.
You missed the rest of my life story….we obviously need to sample some of my “Irish Brown” so you can find out the details. “Irish Brown” is in quotes because no such style officially exists…it’s an original recipe, but I like to brew outside the box.
So, aside from being the newest addition to team Tomson Burnham, my love for a good well-earned beer, and a fascination with old air-cooled BMW motorbikes (donor-cycles as my MD sister-in-law likes to call them), I’ve also had the opportunity to have several careers in my life.
In college, I was a Psych major and thought I wanted to be a school psychologist. I’ve worked as a school-psychologist intern in Milton-Freewater, Oregon and later had the opportunity to work as a counselor at a school in San Diego that was for kids who were removed from their homes by the state due to abuse and were unable to be placed into foster care due to the severity of their behavior disorders and or emotional disturbances.
After those experiences, I decided that I needed a teaching credential and earned a California teaching credential from Point Loma Nazarene University. After that I spent five years as a sixth grade math and science teacher to English language learners for five years in Lemon Grove California (a San Diego Suburb).
My lovely wife had by then completed her PHD at UCSD and was teaching at USD. She was in a temporary position at USD and was offered a tenure-track position at Willamette University, so I got to begin the next chapter in my life, titled “Stay at Home Dad”.
We moved up her about 7 and a half years ago when my son was about 9 months old. I stayed home for the next five years and was able to experience one of the toughest jobs I’ve ever held, especially after the arrival of our daughter two and a half years after her brother.
During that period, I also had to keep myself busy so I came up with and patented an idea for an all-cedar kid’s playhouse that goes together like Lincoln Logs with the intent of making millions. The problem is, the cost of cedar was already high and spiked shortly after I received the patent. I may revisit the idea, but I figured I’d have to have the parts injection-molded in plastic in China to be competitive, and that pretty much went completely against the initial idea of a quality, environmentally friendly product. You can see a partially complete website with the playhouses at http://www.kidscabins.net.
The most recent chapter, “Real Estate Broker”, began when I let go of that idea and was beginning to go stir-crazy for lack of adult interaction. My dad is a commercial real estate investor and my brother is a developer, so I guess I had real-estate in my blood. I began as a buyer-broker under a very experienced broker here in town…pretty much taking her excess business and leads and doing my best to complete transactions. It was a great way to cut my teeth in the real world of real-estate transactions with some very sage advice.
After I felt I had gained enough experience and had begun to develop business for myself, it was time to move on. I spent the next several years at the “Big-Name” brokerages here in town, but was unhappy with the cost associated with doing business under their name. I was paying for lots of overhead, but the overhead was not leading to additional business for me.
I’m looking forward to working with Melina for a number of reasons. She’s honest, fair, and a good negotiator (I had the sad experience of representing a seller in a declining market when she was representing the buyer). She also has a gift for web development and marketing. I never cease to be impressed with the quality content and design that her website delivers.
Cheers to the next chapter……and yes, the beer will be ready in a week or so!
John
P.S. I have given thank-you gifts of beer to clients with custom labels sporting a photo of their house….how cool is that! Bet you there aren’t many other brokers who can say they do the same!
Ugggh…sorry…some ugly grammar and oopsies in there….gotta proof before posting!
Don’t worry…one of my readers Recent Buyer, makes his regular patrols for my grammar mistakes. We in the blogging world call them the grammar police. Well shoot John, you just wrote your first blog post in the comment section. That was going to be your first assignment was to write a bio!
Melina and John,
Congratulations! You are both very knowledgeable agents who really work hard for your clients. What a great team!
John, I guess this means we will see you at more SBBN meetings soon? 🙂
Great News 🙂