My journey with real estate began back in 1997 in Waukesha, WI when I met Darin Bilden (who is now my husband). He was a home inspector, rental agent, and rehabber, and I worked in marketing and as a college instructor. Much of our early dates centered on the discussion of real estate. I was in love! With Darin AND with real estate. Shortly thereafter, we bought a 100 year old house together to renovate. Eventually, we bought another old house, did the same thing, lived in it, sold it, and then moved on to another one. Our family grew, and our kids even started helping out. As we continued flipping homes, I joined Darin to help run the home inspection business and later foundation consulting. At first, we sold our flips as FSBO (For sale by owner). We quickly realized that the real estate agents we were competing with had more knowledge and tools at their disposal, so we hired a real estate agent to sell one. As we worked with him, I learned that there was a lot more to negotiation than I had thought and really enjoyed the negotiation process. I enjoyed it so much that I got my real estate license so I could sell our properties myself. After a while, that wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to help friends and family buy and sell their homes. So, I let everyone know that I was a real estate agent, and jumped in full time. I encouraged everyone to own their own home as soon as possible. It’s a great investment and you have to pay money to live somewhere. I also continue to use my teaching skills to educate my clients. Many people don’t think they can afford a home, or their credit won’t qualify them for a loan. I connect them with some of the best lenders in the business where they can coach them on how to qualify.

I experience so much joy just getting to be a part of people’s lives as they buy their first homes, upsize and downsize, buy investment properties, and sell their final homes. It has been wonderful getting to know clients that have now become friends and help friends become clients. I love being able to be their advisor and answer questions on homes at any time. Life for me doesn’t start or end at the closing table. I get to see my clients all the time at the same places I met them – at church, my kids’ schools, women’s groups, my neighborhood, etc.

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