Bill Fletcher
I wasn’t always a REALTOR®. But I always loved the land. As a young boy, I worked by my mother’s side in the garden. Her favorites were tomatoes and petunias. I followed close behind with my child-size watering can. She worked her way down the row, weeding and pinching dead flowers. My mom was like the horizon. I approached, and she moved away.
My love for the land was made visible while I was a young adult. I built a house from scratch in rural New York. I learned firsthand about all the systems needed to build a home.
Over 25 years of my professional life have been in education. I earned my master's degree in Counseling from the University of New Hampshire. In 2005, I completed my 11th and last year of directing a small multicultural high school in Berkeley. I transitioned my profession into the world of real estate. Much of my educational experience has easily transferred to my current work. Among those is empowerment. I want my clients to be experts in determining what is best for them. This occurs through education.
Almost immediately after getting my real estate license, we entered the Great Recession. The housing market collapsed. The Bay Area is flooded with homes for sale. Buyers were few and sellers were many. Bank-owned properties and short sales were the norm. I, with hardly any income, was treading water as best as I could and quickly going broke. The threat of losing everything cast its shadow over every aspect of my life. To make matters worse, I noticed a tremor in my right hand and a pain in my shoulder. I interpreted this as a symptom of the anxiety I was feeling. It persisted, and the diagnosis came back as Parkinson's Disease. I learned that the disease was progressive and there were no cures. This news shocked me. I had nightmarish images of my life slipping away as I sat in a wheelchair, hand-fed by a caregiver.
Fortunately, I empowered myself to become an expert in my brand of Parkinson’s Disease. I learned as much as I could about it, its treatments, and alternative therapies. In 2011, despite Parkinson’s, I became the top-producing agent in our Oakland Office.
At that time, I asked my youngest son, Eli, to work with me. He agreed. Our team has been receiving awards and excellent reviews ever since.
Selling your home and buying a new one is a major life transition. There are many decisions to be made, stress is high, and family schedules are upset. One of your biggest decisions is whether to buy first or sell first. We appreciate the opportunity to relieve some of your stress. We schedule vendors, home preparation, inspections, marketing, and searching for a new home. We assist in the decision-making process by providing necessary and timely information.
There’s something almost magical about having a little piece of the planet that belongs to you. Sharing that magic brings us joy. Parkinson’s disease, though challenging, has not been the nightmare I imagined. It can be managed. Through our work together, my relationship with Eli has blossomed. We understand stress and hardship. We’ve learned that most of what we fear never comes to pass. We give our clients the same love and care we give each other. And our clients often become friends.
