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Some
background about us...
We were both born in San Francisco, attended
school in the East Bay, and college for Bob at UC, Berkeley where he earned a BS and MBA,
and for Roxanne at Chico State where she earned a BA in Sociology.
We met at Larry Blake's Rathskeller in the turmoil of the Vietnam era, once
even being tear gassed as we left the place. At the time Bob was working in Compensation
and Benefits for Kaiser Steel and Roxanne was a Social Worker III for Alameda County with
a case load in Oakland.
After we married, we realized that the positions that we had trained for in college
were not as satisfying to us as we had hoped. We didn't particularly like working in
offices, and especially didn't like working on a strictly determined time schedule. In
addition, we didn't like being apart most of the day.
So...one day we made a pact to kick over the traces, and just buy one way tickets
to Europe. This was quite a decision as it sort of canceled out our career paths with our
organizations. Well, we spent about 20 months traveling all over Central Europe, down in
to North Africa, and many months on the Canary Islands where we lived in a great
little cottage on a banana plantation. We learned a lot about many countries and a lot
about ourselves. And we learned to love our own country. One of the best
lessons could be summed up in Grandma's quotes that "there is no place like
home".
We came back to California determined to work for ourselves and to work together.
We had already discovered the terrific benefits of investment real estate ownership, while
working our "straight" jobs, so it was an easy step to decide to obtain our Real
Estate licenses with the goal of working together in our own company. We made our way to
the Sierras where Roxanne was successful in Mountain Property home sales, and Bob worked
for a contractor as a handyman and go-fer. The lessons we learned at 6,000 feet have stood
us in good stead all of these years. Bob has built upon and extended his construction
knowledge with our 30 years of ownership of investment homes, and Roxanne has kept us
organized and has provided consistency in our dealings with tenants, both short and
long-term.
One of our investment properties happened to be Bear Wallow Resort in Boonville,
Ca. As sole proprietors, we were responsible for all of the food and beverage service,
maintenance on the lodge and all of the cottages, and their utilities. This was the
mountains again, so all of the skills that we had learned before were needed even more as
we fixed everything that broke, from plumbing, electrical, appliances, roofing, flooring,
septic and water delivery systems, to deflated soufflés in the kitchen and sob stories at
the bar. We did it all...
We sold our Resort in 1990 and discovered Oregon. The Grants Pass area is much like
Mendocino County, so we felt right at home. We purchased and fixed up several nice
properties on medium sized parcels, and were pleasantly surprised to find people lining up
to rent them. In fact, rentals are always in short supply around here.
Several years ago, we decided to begin our Real Estate business again in Merlin,
just outside of Grants Pass. Bob had been a Real Estate Broker in California since 1980,
so it was not much of a problem to become licensed up here in our adopted state of Oregon.
Again, we are working together at a job we love.
The reason that we tell this little story is that there is an increasing legalistic
aspect to the Real Estate Business. More forms are required to satisfy new regulations,
and more paperwork is generated in each transaction to prevent all parties from being
sued. Unfortunately, this emphasis on paperwork has blinded some agents as to the actual
work that they are trying to do. Some believe that all you have to do to be a great agent
is to know the paperwork, backwards and forewords, and a little bit of the Real Estate
Law, and this, coupled to a schedule that they adhere to from their office chairs, will
suffice.
Well Folks! That is not us!!!
With our disdain for office couch potato work, we get out in the field and mix it
up! We are there when the inspectors and appraisers are at the home, and we make sure we
watch to see that all work performed is done according to our contract, and that it is
done on time. We get the paperwork across town personally, we don't wait for a courier or
overnight mail. And...we follow up personally, on all deadlines and commitments. |
