At the risk of boring you ... here's a quick summary of who I am.

I'm a WNY transplant (that's Western New York for anyone who didn't grow up west of Albany, NY). In 1994, I chased my high school sweetheart to Massachusetts.

After four years at Bentley University, I entered the corporate world as an "IT professional." Along the way, I was extremely fortunate to have mentors and more senior executives take me under their wing. Each teaching me to think outside of the box and test limits. Except for a few years with News Corporation, I had the benefit of working for small companies which allowed (and required) everyone to wear multiple hats. Exposure to nearly all aspects of a business and the freedom to create undoubtedly stoked my entrepreneurial drive to try something on my own. As everyone braced for Y2K, a few friends and I decided (at a holiday party over a few beers) to obtain our real estate licenses - what better way to become rich ... we'd have access to the listings and commissions. Ah ... to be young and foolish :)

My career in real estate officially started in 2001. After hustling to help match tenants with apartments in the Cambridge/ Somerville markets, I ultimately joined one of the most productive offices in the state. I was certain that proximity to successful agents was the key to learning - and it was. (What about the other guys? Two became successful property developers and the third owns a successful micro-brew.)

I continued to learn from anyone who would share. I also joined national coaching programs. Anyone who has had a real estate coach knows - it's not cheap. I'm guessing I've spent $100K+ in training/ coaching over the years. Needless to say, I became a great door knocker, expired and FSBO prospector and eventually had a sphere that was sending me referrals.

However, I needed to scale, and the only way I knew how was to add team members. This resulted in more overhead and higher desk fees. Eventually the brokerage's desk fees became too steep for my small team and me to justify.