Allentown real estate investor
I always knew I wanted to be a realtor; I wanted to put people in homes and invest in myself. I went to Scott White [to obtain my real estate license], which is located in Bethlehem, and because of COVID, I did everything online. I would work my normal job Monday through Friday until about 5 p.m., and then I’d have to hop on Zoom by about 5:30. It was a lot of that for about two months, and then studying. My birthday wish that year was to have my license before my birthday, or at least on my birthday. My birthday is July 10th. I got my license on July 1.
Although I am putting people in their dream homes all of the time, my best one would be in 2021, right before Christmas. I had a client from Florida and I had not met them in person at that time, but we were doing virtual showings via FaceTime and WhatsApp. We finally found a home. They really liked it, and it just was a good feeling knowing that they were putting their trust in me to help them find their home when they were moving from Florida all the way up here. The same way they loved it when we first went to go see it is the same way they loved it when they came up here. I normally do nice closing gifts for my clients, but for them, I bought a really nice, large storage tote with cleaning supplies. One worked at a bank, and the wife was a veterinarian, so they had a lot of cats, too. At the time, Target had all their Christmas stuff for dogs and cats, so I bought them a bunch of cat toys because you know, they’re their kids!
I moved here in 2009 and I am very familiar with Allentown because my grandparents lived here. Every summer I would come to Allentown and spend two and a half months up here. Allentown has definitely changed over the years, but since I moved up here officially, things have been great. Allentown is special because it is very big and diverse. There’s lots of different food here – and I love food! There are lots of different things that go on, like the Allentown Fairgrounds – that is my favorite place to be in August. I have memories of me and my grandma.
As a kid, right before I went back to wherever I lived at the time, we went to the Fairgrounds. She had her bag of quarters, and the one game that we always played was at Nick’s Candies, where you spin the wheel. I always have memories of that. Now I have a son and my son loves the fairgrounds! Rainbow bagels and the candy is all he thinks about Thursday through Saturday, and now he has those memories with my dad, his grandfather.
Interviewed by Becca Baitel ‘23, Josh Botel ‘25, and Isabel Molettieri ‘23. Photo by Joe Romano ’23.
