People often ask me why I chose a career in commercial real estate. The reasons are twofold. Real estate is like a big puzzle that one must figure out all the pieces to do it correctly, but more importantly I enjoy helping business owners.A part of my career was spent in corporate real estate, leasing excess industrial real estate across North America. This position also involved finding new locations for my employer to expand. In this experience I often found tenants didn’t understand the liabilities they were taking on by signing leases. I also spent time managing real estate acquisition work for a fortune 500 corporation. In this position I managed all their real estate for over 1,000 locations. Two valuable lessons learned were: 1. If you only pick one location to focus all your attention on, it will disappear. 2. A bad lease can cost a firm more money then a high rental rate. In 2000 I climbed Mt. Tahepia in Butte Montana and it was at summit I decided to leave corporate real estate and move to commercial brokerage.The first two firms I worked at as a broker, I represented both sides of the transaction. When I came back from showing a tenant an office listing I was told I should do whatever it takes to put that tenant in the building, even if they were not interested.The State law in Michigan requires that if you have a listing the rights of the landlord come before the tenant. It didn’t take long before I realized this wasn't going to work for me. This caused me to move to a tenant rep firm however after 7 years working at this firm I decided to branch out and open my business, now called Compass Commercial.Compass Commercial’s mission is to protect businesses by representing only tenants and buyers. I have found this work to be very fulfilling to me. I am always looking for ways to save my clients money and make sure the business points in the lease contract are in alignment with the needs of my clients.Certified WBE & WOSB