This is where I open up and let you try to get to know a little bit about myself, when you consider all of the options available to you today you want to make sure that you choose a REALTOR that you are comfortable doing business with and someone who will have your best interest at heart. I don't want to just give you some generic nonsense that so many Realtors put forth on their website - rather I want to use this opportunity to open up and share a bit about who I am as a person and why I should be considered as a Realtor that you can do business with.
So, let me open up a page or two of my personal life for your consideration.
First and foremost, you need to know that my priorities are pretty clear - First I serve an awesome God and I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. This does not mean that you have to have the same beliefs that I do for us to do business, it does let you know that I have strong convictions and I am willing to tell the world. As Jesus said, "Deny me before man and I will deny you before my Father".
Second thing you should know about me is after serving my Lord, I serve my wife, Sherri. She is such an awesome lady that everyone loves and why she chose to love me is still a mystery. We will be together 10 years in October of this year and these have been the 10 very best years of my life - bar none. The downside is that Sherri is a cancer patient having undergone her 5th regiment of Chemotherapy. Needless to say, I do whatever it takes to keep her both happy and comfortable.
Keeping my priorities straight is never difficult when I focus first on my faith, second on my family and third on my career. Real Estate is very important to me and Real Estate done right is critical. Although I am in my 50's, I only started in Real Estate in 2003 and I actually came into the career through the back door. Let me explain, going back to 2001.
Throughout the 1990's I was a very successful Visa - Mastercard Merchant Account agent and opened my own office in 1999, quickly becoming a national player being the exclusive provider to the National Auctioneer Association as an association benefit to their several thousand members.
On December 15, 2001 I was involved in a major auto accident that nearly killed me. A driver tried to beat traffic when a light turned green, turning left in front of oncoming traffic. The Saturn I was driving lost to the Expedition - leaving me with a broken back, two broken wrists and a number of other less serious (yet painful) injuries. During my year of disability, recovery and 2 surgeries I ended up selling my interest in my company to my partner, with a non-compete clause.
Once recovered, I investigated a number of other sales type careers including landscape design, publishing and eventually selling timeshare where I started the Real Estate License process. I quickly became disenchanted with the Timeshare industry and was long gone when my test was scheduled for my Real Estate License. So I cram studied for a few days and took my test. Lo and behold I am now a Realtor - with very little preparation or forethought on what I would do with the license.
The rest of 2004 I spent dabbling - reading everything I could and investigating different brokers and franchises before finally discovering Keller Williams, where I started after returning from my sons wedding in February 2005. I consider 2005 to be my first full time year in Real estate where I went ahead and closed 24 transactions, where the average Realtor averages about 6 transactions a year - I out performed my peers by 400%.
2006 is off to a slow start because of the personal tragedy of my wifes turn for the worse in January of this year. You may have heard if the Cancer doesn't kill you, the Chemo will. well,lets just say she was very sick having spent 3 stays in the hospital this year.
On top of my wifes condition, her 81 year old mother came to live with us - just weeks before my wife turned for the worse. Since her arrival, she has had a couple of strokes that she had been hospitalized for. She has had the surgery her doctors recommended and now appears to be fit for another decade or two.
Well, the Lord willing, all of my families health issues are now behind us and I am once again focused 110% on my Real Estate business. You can see on this website, that I have several listings and several more in the pipeline.
Please consider me as your Realtor.
Thank you,
John Occhi
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