‘That was a big shift in my life, and I became a lot more grateful and happy, understanding how close life and death are.’

Brentwood

“I always try to have a positive energy. Growing up, my two sisters passed away, and I never knew how to handle it. Then I got into a bad car accident around 2015, but I was in great spirits.

“I remember being in the hospital talking to my dad and my brother and laughing and telling jokes. I realized I had two angels watching me. That was a big shift in my life, and I became more grateful and happy, understanding how close life and death are.

“My parents worked two jobs for most of my life, so from a young age I knew nothing was free, everything comes at a price, whether it was the price of time, the price of comfort.

I had to become a creative thinker and help people be able to move forward. People were afraid with all their chips on the table with buying and selling a house.

“My brother helped raise me and gave me the never-quit mentality. He helped me with my homework; that was where the sit-down-and-figure-it-out mentality came from.

“I got into real estate because one of my cousins became my mentor and got me into entrepreneurship at a young age. I graduated from college and was working in banking when I got my real estate license.

“My cousin kept giving me encouragement, and we ended up teaming up in real estate, which is now a passion of mine. I quit my full-time job to go full time in real estate. My first month out, I found out I was having a son. It was a blessing; it was a big push in my career, to go harder and give it my all.

“I had a great year and then COVID hit, so then I was at home with a 1-year-old. Everyone’s fearing for their lives, but also the fear and anxiety of deals falling apart, mortgages can’t get approved.

“I had to become a creative thinker and help people be able to move forward. People were afraid with all their chips on the table with buying and selling a house. Now you have this boom — low inventory in houses and prices going up. I have to do a lot of explaining to the buyers. It’s been good for myself because I became a lot more well-informed about what’s going on in the market.

“My clients I consider family at the end of the day because we go through so much together. A lot of my clients come from past relationships, from banking. I used to box, so people come from inside the gyms. There’s a definite joy seeing someone get their first home, seeing someone sell and move up into a new home.”