I think it is time to share a story
In honor of International Women’s Day, I want to take a few moments to share my journey, and what this business means to me. Being a woman in this industry is not easy, and I think this is a great time for me to share my story as I hope it helps someone out there.
I have Always dreamed about being a homeowner, and the dream only FELT like a dream because of how much money it takes to live in this area. In 2013, when all of my friends were married and buying homes and having babies, I was just getting engaged to Shane (my now husband) and moving into our small, little outdated 1960s apartment in Belmont overlooking the Belmont Library. Although I was super excited about my life at the moment, I was also completely envious and sad on the inside because all of my friends, and everybody around me were buying homes and starting their families and I really honestly never thought that that would be something I would achieve.
In 2014, Shane and I got married, and in 2015 I decided to join a top realtor in San Francisco, and follow my dreams for a career in real estate. Little did I know in the two years following, I would be putting in 15 to 20 hour days of hard work, and experiencing a lot of growing pains. All the while, I LOVED our little apartment and just decided that that little 1960’s apartment was going to be the vehicle to allow us to work REALLY hard, and save as much as possible.
When I decided to start McNally and Associates in June of 2017, I took a leap of faith and left the team I was with in San Francisco. Shortly afterward, and unexpectedly, I became pregnant quickly with Lucas. This obviously created a lot of personal struggle, and internal voices that I had to learn how to turn off very quickly. So, I sat in our little apartment and worked super, super hard to only have more business that year then I could have ever dreamed of.
While busting my butt, I also new that little apartment was not going to be the right place for a new baby (If we can all envision this- small, dated, apartment with no air conditioning and during really hot days we would have to two different window AC units running...You get the picture….) On really hot days Shane and I would fit in the living room because the rest of the apartment was still incredibly miserable. We cherished that little apartment or five straight years. At about 30 weeks pregnant, we made a decision to move because it was going to be best for us as well as our new baby!
We talked to Shane’s dad who owns a house in San Mateo. Although it was not the most ideal situation for us, we also knew that it was a great opportunity for us to keep saving while having more space (it was a three bed, 1bath home.) He was gracious enough to allow us to take over more than half of his house for our little growing family. We had my dad, who is a contractor, Come in and do a big remodel of all the three bedrooms so I could have an office and a nursery.
At literally 38 weeks pregnant, we moved out of our apartment and into Shane’s dad’s house. In all honesty, I cried and I had terrible postpartum. I was a new mom with two men in the house, and although my husband and his dad are so amazing, it is so hard to be a new mom at home with no help. It was overwhelming for me to just want and desire your own home as a new mom in your thirties is so incredibly difficult to understand unless you are in that position. In hat year of being a new mom and figuring things out, I dug down deep and kept working as hard as I possibly could, and I saved, and saved, and saved. Until, one morning in April, after many, many years of never thinking we would ever be able to buy a home, our home popped up on that Friday morning in Spring. While Shane was at work, I grabbed our one-year-old out of bed at 7 a.m to go see this house. As soon as I got the notification, I knew it was our house. I walked inside and called Shane and said THIS IS OUR HOUSE. I said I know this is crazy, but I need you to sign this offer right now, at work and you can't even see the property. He said, are you crazy?! and I said yeah, i’m a little crazy but you know what?? I know this is our home.
So, Shane did as he was told and signed the offer sight unseen, while only having the onl,ine photos for reference. Needless to say, he was NOT very happy about it. Fast forward two years later,while we were out on a date night, and little did I know that he came and sat in front of this house the night our offer was accepted and he talked to one of his best friends who is like a mentor to him and said his wife is crazy, and that she is making a really bad decision for our family. I don’t like this house and it is not the home I ever imagined spending $1.3M on.
Well, his friend ended up talking him into it and said that we were absolutely making the right decision and that he needed to listen to me. Now, almost two years later Shane understands my decision on buying a home that wasn’t perfect, wasn’t the prettiest on the block, but had AMAZING upsides to it and I could see that. We love and cherish this home and our little family has grown into (and almost out of!) This space and we are so incredibly grateful for these walls, the yard it allows our children to play in. Although we are quickly outgrowing the space, we also understand that this is portfolio building. We are so incredibly fortunate to be able to buy this home and leverage ourselves into a new home when the time is right
The moral of the story, for me personally, there was so much pain out of all of those years of looking at everybody around me doing all that I had dreamed of while really honestly never thinking that I would get there. It is really hard being a woman in society and figuring out how to make it on your own. It is really hard to sit there and watch all of your friends and everybody around you doing all of the things that you really wanted to do. I am here to tell you that it is possible, but you really have to work hard and DIG DEEP. You will pull everything together, and KNOW that the hard work is going to get you to the other side of the rainbow with a pot of gold.
Every time shit gets hard I know that I'm doing it for my big WHY. My big WHY was to buy a home, and now my big WHY is to give a life to these boys that I never had. Full of stability, love, and happiness in a home with a great marriage while going above and beyond, making sure that they feel the stability of being in a home with two parents and knowing what hard work is all about. I want them to know that dreams DO come true when you really put your mind to it. If you had asked me 3 years ago when I was packing boxes at 38 weeks pregnant if I really ever thought that we would own a home in the Bay Area, I would NOT have believed you. I knew it's what I wanted but it was such a long shot, and it was so hard to grasp having to save $250k, $300k, $400k down payment.
I am here to tell you that if I can do it, anybody can do it, it's all about mindset. It's all about not listening to that inner voice that tells you CAN’T do it, because I am here to tell you, you CAN and you WILL!
To all my strong ladies out there, Happy International Women’s Day!
