As my youngest of 3 heads off to college in 2022, it feels unreal that my own college graduation was 40 years ago. But as a graduate of Fairfield University's class of 1982, it's hard to ignore that reality. My two oldest are daughters of 25 & 27, older in fact then I was when I started my career and bought my first home. Little did I know that the little 3-5 year investment I purchased would grow into (by several expansions) what has been our family home since then.
Being one of 7 siblings and growing up (mostly) in Hyde Park, NY we had our share of family fun in our very beautiful hometown. An area with mountain and river views being the Backdrop of the mid- Hudson Valley. The convenience of hopping the train out of Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Station in NYC was an added location benefit. Our family also spent many summer weeks vacationing in Chatham MA, enjoying the sandy shores of the Cape and all the fun that surrounds a vacation destination community. I found myself gravitating towards the ocean for 2 summers of fun (and waitress work) during college, before exploring the mountains of N. Shortly after graduation and a quick trip to Europe, winter called me to skiing and I found this wonderful town in the White Mts. Although in my mid 20s I had no long term goals, whatsoever, of living here in the Mt Washington Valley permanently, here is where I stayed. Maybe it was the beautiful scenery combined with the lively small-town vacation atmosphere surrounded by national forest with easy access to mountains and rivers. It certainly helped to be just a hop skip and jump from the coast and also the amenities of city life and jetport access in nearby Portland ME or an easy drive to Boston. But, year after year, I continued to enjoy the area along with the friendships that were easily built based on so many commonalities and the fun that this unique vacation area has to offer, year-round. Almost 4 decades later, the same love of my surroundings, combined with strong friendships and much enthusiasm for the community I continue to reside in. It isn't surprising the same is true of so many others and some of those early friendships have continued for a lifetime. I still find it easy to make new friendships as an inclusive community minded resort town and I also look forward to enjoying even more friendships with folks I have yet to meet.
One of the aspects of a career in real estate that I absolutely love is the ability to work with so many friends ( old and new). It is incredibly rewarding to be able to help guide them in their real estate endeavors. Whether buying or selling and oftentimes over and over again, over many years. After some 35+ years in the same business, I am now fortunate to also be working with their children and my children's friends with their real estate too. Whether it's in the Mt Washington Valley New Hampshire, or nearby Western Maine, (where I reside in the town of Fryeburg), there are many surrounding towns (in both states) that expand my radius to about an hour in every direction from my North Conway village office. Through both my personal network as well as the office's many affiliations, we have expert real estate agents all over the country (and in some parts of the world), that we are also able to introduce and connect people with.
One of my goals over the next 10 years is to continue to enhance those agent and client connections through my own travels in addition to the ones from our many affiliations, which include a Luxury Network and Leading Real Estate Companies of the World. Although it has been a very long time since my "Let's Go Europe" travels to 8 countries in 1982 and my 1989 excursions through Greece and Turkey, I'll now be feeling a bit more "foot loose", with my last in college. Hopefully the world's covid-19 challenges that we have all been facing these past few years, will begin to fade and the world will start to heal so we can resume our travel plans.
Bernie specializes in residential, land and waterfront transactions.
Bernadette is most familiar with the local real estate markets within and around the following zip code areas. See other realtors that service the same areas by clicking: 03812, 03813, 03818, 03832, 03849, 03860, 03875, 03886, 04009 & 04041
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