“The Company Family”
Monday, September 22nd, 2008This intended as an update of the personal lives of our little “family”, late September, 09:
This “practice” is almost a family! Not large, our personal lives quickly get meshed with our business lives. Sharing a lot of information as it relates to business, we inevitably share a lot of information about our “other” lives. Share and care, like a family.
When clients come to town, we live with them, too, for a few days and they become more transient members of this family, like houseguests, for a period. But it still feels like family. And these guests, too, participate in the larger family’s personal fortunes, good and bad.
We thought it might be fun to present a little summary of these private lives once in a while…hence this short note. You can identify especially with those you knew best from the “family”. Or if you’re just coming in to our family as our “guest”, then you’ll have a head start on the inside stuff. We hope you might come back here from time to time to see how the story changes.
Since many of you have first contact with Mary and Debbie, it seems only right to start with them.
Mary Ades: Mary is the first person you’re likely to see, or even answer the phone, so we’ve put her in charge of “First Impressions” a long time ago. She’s here 4 days a week and does general support work, the relocation packages, mailings, keeps up with the school and market statistics we follow, and…greets people.
At home in Germantown, (she gets a kidding for that little town, 30 miles to our east), she supports her retired (from AT and T) husband Ernie, and sees a lot of 3 grandchildren, all boys. One is now 4, lives on a nearby farm, the son of a daughter. Two, year-old twins, are sons of her own son. Along with the son, Mary and Ernie host the twins every other week in their home and so, we at the office follow those fortunes, too. While this duty is mostly a joy, there’s an occasional all-nighter, or certainly, some sleep-deprived nights. Another married daughter rounds out her immediate family. Mary is also fun to tease.
Debbie Carroll: Debbie and husband John live in nearby O’Fallon. While they are empty nesters now, they did raise (or are raising), 4 daughters….(”whew!”) that are out in the job world, with one still in college. They have one precocious granddaughter whom we all see frequently…the delightful Makayla. John has a private business as a networking specialist, so 1) spends long hours away from home and 2) is a boon to us on many occasions as we struggle with the computer world. At the office, Debbie is our “Relocation Director”, and so has the responsibility of servicing families before they ever get to town, usually helping with orientation and certainly supporting the agents and the company in any way possible. We have a hard time keeping up with the life-stories of the 4 daughters…as you might imagine. Debbie and husband are both natives of O’Fallon. She was a respected traditional realtor before she joined us 6 years ago.
Nancy Jo Mitchell: Nancy Jo has a recent distinction…she got caught in Houston and so experienced Hurricane Ike! While visiting an old friend there, transportation out was suddenly curtailed, and she “rode it out” with her host family. We’re trying to get her to do a little story on it, but she said it was an awful wind and incredible rain. (We can believe that as we got over 5 inches on Sunday morning, the 14th, in nearby Edwardsville, and a lot of wind, all the tail of the same hurricane. It was a record rainfall in a 2 hour period.) Nancy Jo’s husband Ron is a musician and music teacher, not quite retired. He’s a great trumpet player still and plays “out” a lot locally. In our photo gallery there’s a picture of him from Life Magazine, playing the trumpet in the football band in college…an unusual scene, where while he was kneeling, a dog rushed onto the field and “bit” his trumpet. Together, they have 6 children…3 sons and 3 daughters. Chris is licensed with us, another lives locally and the third lives in Colorado. One daughter is an Air Force wife and the mother of 4 sons, one recently married, (Husband, Manny is now deployed in Korea.) Two more daughters and a son live in Colorado, raising families of their own.
Chris Mitchell: Chris has a busy “singles” life in addition to his immersion here as an agent with us. Obviously, he had a head start with the business as Nancy Jo’s son, but he’s assumed great personal visibility and is doing a great job. Chris was trained as a Chef in a famous culinary school and worked for some years in that field before he came. He frequently brings great dishes to our tables even now. His social life is balanced with support for his grandmother, (Nancy Jo’s mother), who lives nearby. And he’s simply fun to have around. He could have been a stand-up comic. Get him started on one of his famous stories sometime…like his father promoting his grass cutting business when he was a high-schooler, then finding ways to “participate” in the profits….one of many hilarious routines. Chris does have a serious side though, and the realty world thought enough of him last year to elect him to the Board of Directors of the Belleville Area Board of Realtors.
Denise Carter: Denise grew up in Chicago, but landed here with husband Frank, who had a career in the U S Navy. They have a boy and a girl out of the nest, too, but living locally. Denise and Frank live near Albers…20 miles east along IS 64 on a beautiful tract near the Kaskaskia River, where they enjoy working in the extensive yard and supporting Frank’s “side business”. While working full time for Ameren, (and commuting horrendous distances to various generating plants,) Frank is an accomplished wood worker and participates in hardwood manufacturing as well as creating projects of wood with his “heritage” quality construction. Denise’s parents also live nearby…of French-Canadian extraction, they’re lovely people to have around, moved from the
Paul Ottwein: Paul is the “broker-of-record” for the Edwardsville office and with his son, John, also licensed with us, services most of the Edwardsville and Madison County traffic. The rest of us marvel has to how he gets it all done and still his time for some interesting other activities with an active family. Paul was married in April, to Amber Roper in a lovely ceremony in an historic home in
John Ottwein: John is one of Paul’s 3 sons, and with his licensure, we became the first family around here in a long time that had 3 generations of licensed realtors. John has also formed a real-estate related business, totally on his own. With Illinois radon-disclosure laws changing as of Jan 1, 2008, Paul and John viewed the business of radon mitigation as an opportunity. So John got some experience and interviewed others in the business, studied for and passed a couple of tough tests, developed a detailed business and marketing plan and is now in business as “Radon Control, Inc.” a radon mitigation company. In the couple of months that he’s been in business, he’s been remarkably busy. Obviously, we wish him well, and we hope he’s got a little time to also support Paul’s clients. It was great fun to see him put this business together, and, we believe, do it right.
Merrill Ottwein: Obviously, I’m (mostly) the writer of the above, so had to wait until last to tell my own story. I do get to meet most of the clients coming to the O’Fallon office, but I miss a few, too….really, still a joy to help deliver top service. But they’re allowing me a bit of slack in recent years, so we’ve been able to do a bit more traveling and still enjoy children (3 girls and Paul) and grandchildren (8 of them, all boys!) A more recent tag-along, 5 year old Ben, demands, and gets, a great deal of attention. We seem to be extremely busy with a host of things, starting with “business”, but participation in the Troy Community Band, Eden Church, The National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents, our local homeowners association and our family. A little cottage-on-a-lake in Glen Carbon seems to demand a lot of attention on top of that,and the total adds up to “busy”. Gracie and I just celebrated our 58th wedding anniversary on September the Tooth. We have plans to go to our national association’s annual meeting in
We’ll hope to be back from time to time with updates and hope you find it interesting. It’s our little “family”…in service to yours during business hours, which seem to stretch immensely, intermingling with personal thoughts and time.