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About Irene Medina, GRI CRS GREEN

For 10 years, I was a stay-at-home Mom with 3 beautiful girls. When I had my 3rd daughter, I was already dreaming of what my new career would be once she entered kindergarten! I loved watching home decorating shows. I practiced a lot in our home. I was thinking about becoming a realtor. The flexibility of working my own hours was perfect. I could still take the girls to school and pick them up.

So that’s what I did. In August 2003, I got my realtor's license. All 3 of my girls were in the same school. The hours were perfect. I dropped them off at 8:30 am and picked them up at 3 pm. In the evenings or on weekends, if I had to show property their dad would take over. It was the perfect career!

I fell in love with real estate. Quality training and certification were very important to me and I was constantly looking to learn and improve my skills. The first couple of years flew by and I was doing very well. By 2006-2007 the market started changing. People were defaulting on their mortgages. People were losing their jobs. By 2008 the market crashed! Nobody was buying or selling homes. People were losing their homes. People were stuck. They didn't know what to do. A lot of my colleagues had walked away from the business. It was scary. I didn't want to lose the business that I had created and worked so hard on. So, I started paying attention to the market and what was happening. It was time to start looking for new skills.

I started seeing the words "Short Sale" in our MLS listings. They were popping up all over the place. I started doing research to find out what a short sale was. It was when you sell your house for less than what the mortgage is that you owe on the house. It was a very tricky way to sell a house.

I started looking for training to do short sales. After finding the training I needed and working with hundreds of families to avoid foreclosure during those years, I became a "Short Sale Queen"!

It wasn’t easy but it was very rewarding. It made me the great realtor that I am today. I learned how to take care of my clients. How to be sensitive to their needs and listen to them. I cried with many at the kitchen table. They knew, once we had our interview, that I was the right person for the job. I was a fighter and a problem solver. They knew I was going to help them out of this mess so they could get back on their feet with dignity. And that is exactly what I did! Now I focus on helping downsizers move on to their new season of life taking all the skills and understanding that’s served me well over the years.