The Death Trap that started it all.

It was an extraordinarily ordinary moment that didn’t seem special at all. Looking back, it’s become a core memory that changed everything.

It was March 2024. I was standing on the second floor of a Death Trap that We Could Not Afford. My daughter was running to and fro imagining a life there. My spouse looked around apprehensively, likely seeing nothing but headaches and dollar signs. I saw possibility.

We were with our then realtor Jess touring a single family turned duplex in our Riverwest neighborhood. The location was amazing. The price was interesting. Too much for the condition, but workable. But it needed... literally everything. More work than seemed possible. Already I was dreaming big about this house sized art project and all the potential that lay just under the surface of its death trappiness. I was talking out loud about putting in a barn door and all the cool original to the house quirks.

Then I heard murmuring and laughter behind me from Jess and a friend who was touring with us.

“What?” I asked them playfully as I turned around.

Jess smiled and said matter of factly, “You’d make a really great realtor.”

The rest is history. This was the moment. The moment that became my why super early into it. The one I told folks about when they asked why I got into real estate. It’s not the entirety of my why. But it’s a piece of it. And I’m grateful for it, because it definitely led me here. Thanks, Jess. <3