I’m fortunate to be enjoying a long, fruitful, and increasingly fulfilling career in real estate. I entered the field in 1985 at the age of 25 as a real estate salesperson. Finding myself without direction, I picked up a book by sales trainer, Tom Hopkins, and began putting into action all that he offered. From those efforts, I was awarded Rookie of the Year at a leading brokerage of several hundred agents. I soon found that most of the sales tactics that were being offered seemed manipulative, pushy, and ineffective. Whenever I used the sales scripts that I had learned and practiced, I felt a huge disconnect with my prospective client. Early on, I let go of word-for-word script recitation and focused on creating genuine interactions with honest, transparent communication. Rather than push my prospects, I would lead them into decisions that resolved their concerns and moved towards their objectives. As seemingly non-formulaic as it was, this worked reasonably well. So in my 3rd year of real estate I sold 114 homes without a team. And then I quickly rose to the top in my industry, outselling over 99% of my peers. As my success in sales grew, I began buying property and at one point had 30% to 100% ownership in over 185 residential and mixed-use units in Midtown and Downtown Sacramento.

While running my real estate brokerages and building my portfolio of assets, my greatest interest has always been in figuring out how to improve. I became an avid student of psychology, communication, sales, and I would happily take risks to try out what I learned, sometimes to the detriment of my financial security. While running my boutique brokerage, I became a coach and paid employee of Tony Robbins. Eventually a few entrepreneurial mishaps along the way cost me to lose it all financially while giving me invaluable lessons. And while it’s true that it’s so much easier to make a comeback than to build without prior success, I remain surprised by how much there still is to learn after three decades in the business.

Recently, while continuing to represent real estate buyers, sellers and investors, I have been most passionate in my coaching, training and mentoring of real estate professionals, where I teach real estate agents to succeed at high levels without using pushy, self-serving sales tactics. As well as multifamily and apartment sales. I’ve been on a mission to find out how it was that I sold over 1,500 homes in one neighborhood and never considered myself a born salesman, in fact I was a lousy salesman before I entered in real estate. It wasn’t that I had the traits that top salesmen are supposed to have like a lot of charisma, a silver tongue, and a mastery of sales skills such as objection handling and closing . I’ve never been comfortable with any of that. Rather, I’ve discovered what drives me forward day in and day out and I use what I learn to continue my journey.

Currently I own Dwell Real Estate, a boutique brokerage in Sacramento, Ca. And while real estate is a passion of mine, it’s only a portion of what fills my days. I am an avid reader, a frequent world traveler, a competitive soccer player, a joyful pickleball player, a dedicated father and grandfather, a loving partner, and a passionate student of physical, mental and emotional well being.