Real Estate has been a passion of mine for as far back as I can remember. In college, I enrolled in Real Estate classes as elective courses. At the age of 21, as a full time student at Arizona State University, I purchased my first investment property. Buying real estate was not a thing most college students did in the 1990’s and my friends thought that I was crazy, but I crunched the numbers and found that I could almost live for free if I took on a couple of roommates. This was a no brainer as far as I was concerned!

In 1997 I was managing a high end fitness center in Scottsdale, Arizona when I was approached by the owner of a very reputable real estate appraisal firm. I began a year long apprenticeship under him and enrolled in the appraisal program at the Arizona School of Real Estate and Business. After completing the program I took the National and State exams and became a licensed real estate appraiser in the state of Arizona.

In the year 2000, my future wife suggested that we take a sabbatical for one year and move to Maui. Three years later, we realized we weren’t leaving. I began the process of obtaining my appraisal license in Hawaii. It was a lengthy process, so I attended real estate school in the meantime and began selling homes and condos for Century 21 All Islands. Soon after, I received my appraisal license in Hawaii and began managing the Hawaii division of Josephs Appraisal Group and Hawaii Appraisers Inc., as well as being hired as an expert witness on Real Estate value in the court room. It was a juggling act for a few years. During this time, I realized that I enjoyed helping clients buy and sell Real Estate more than I liked documenting the value of real estate for underwriters. So I made a decision to leave the appraisal world to work with a new, forward thinking, start up real estate company. Aloha Realty Group was the new company and it focused more on how to help the client achieve their goal, instead of just hitting sales numbers, which was important to me. Even though I am no longer appraising, my in depth knowledge and experience in that realm of real estate contributes to my success as a realtor.

Over the past two decades, my wife and I have bought and sold a number of our own investment properties in Arizona, Oregon, and Hawaii. Why is this important? Because, I practice what I preach and have been successful with all of my own real estate investments.