I've spent 40 years helping people make the biggest decision of their lives.
Now I'm here to help you make yours.
I didn't plan to be a real estate broker.
I became one at 18 years old — not because I had a plan, but because I was good at it and I loved it. I loved the people. I loved the complexity. I loved the moment when someone walked into the right house and just knew.
Forty years later I've closed more transactions than I can count. I've seen markets collapse and recover. I've sat across from people at some of the most important and emotional moments of their lives — and I've watched them make brilliant decisions and heartbreaking ones.
The difference is almost always the same thing: having someone truly in their corner.
Someone who wasn't going to benefit from their decision going one way or another. Someone who would tell them the truth even when it wasn't what they wanted to hear.
But somewhere along the way, I lost sight of my own Chapter 3.
In 2009 my husband and daughter were in a serious motorcycle accident that turned our family completely upside down. Overnight I became the primary income earner — with two daughters in private school and college on the horizon. I buried my head in work. I missed moments I can never get back. I kept everything afloat but I did it at a cost.
Both of my girls went on to graduate from the University of Michigan. I am so proud of them I can hardly stand it. But when the nest emptied I found myself asking the question that I now hear from my audience every single week:
What's next?
I started writing down goals. I made plans. And then months passed. Then years. The change I kept promising myself stayed just out of reach — because being busy is easy, and being brave is hard.
Then two years ago I was diagnosed with cancer.
I had always assumed I would live to 100. I never even questioned it. And suddenly I was confronted with something I had been avoiding my whole adult life: the reality that time is not guaranteed, and a life spent waiting for the right moment is a life half lived.
The cancer was my wake-up call. Not just to take care of my health — but to finally, actually, build the life I had been putting off. To stop letting my income depend on one small town. To share 40 years of knowledge with people everywhere who needed it. To travel. To feel free. To live my own Chapter 3 instead of just helping everyone else with theirs.
That's what Chapter 3 Lifestyle is. It's my next chapter. And I built it to help you navigate yours.
So why real estate?
Because underneath almost every big life change at our age — there is a home decision waiting to be made.
Should I sell? Should I stay? What do I do with all this equity I've built? Is now a good time to move? Can I afford to downsize? What if I want to start over somewhere completely new?
These aren't just financial questions. They are identity questions. They are life questions. And they deserve real answers from someone who has actually sat at this table — not guesses from a blog written by someone who has never closed a real estate deal in their life.
I have closed thousands. And I am done keeping that knowledge in one small town in Michigan.
You've spent decades building a home. Let me help you figure out what to do with it next.
The experience behind the advice:
— Licensed real estate broker — 40+ years
— Thousands of transactions across every type of market
— Founder and sole broker of my own practice in Hillsdale, Michigan
— Deep expertise in retirement transitions, downsizing, and relocation
— Cancer survivor — I know firsthand what it means to finally stop waiting
— No affiliation with any lender, title company, or franchise — completely independent and agenda-free
