I was born in Hutchinson in 1951 with a family history serving this area going back over 100 years. I attended 7 different schools in Illinois growing up because of my father's job but always spent the summers on the Hutchinson areas lakes. We then moved back to Hutchinson permanently in 1968. I started working in Hutchinson before graduating from Hutchinson High School in 1970. My first job was a check-out clerk at National T Grocery store where Ace Hardware is now located. I worked 10 years at 3M Company after graduating and then obtained my real estate license in 1979. Married in 1972 and at that time interest rates were 16% to buy a house so if you think interest rates are bad now don't fret. What that afforded me was the opportunity to start working for my mother who was in real estate at the time, but also owed a travel agency. A few years later I bought the travel agency from her and for the next 20 plus years helped people travel all over the world. During that time I never relinquished my license and actually became a broker. After 9/11 and the advent of the internet I felt it time to go back full time into real estate and have been here ever since.