Our Story: Olympians Turned East Bay Real Estate Experts

Today we’re doing something a little bit different from our normal videos about real estate statistics and the market. In this blog, we’re going to go a little bit more into our personal lives and share with you how we met and what we love about working together.

Hans: Kristin and I each came to the Bay Area independently through the sport of rowing. There was a high-performance team here on the Oakland, and Alameda estuaries, which we each joined after college at different times. She grew up on the East Coast and in Boston, where she discovered rowing on the Charles River. She then took it to college where she won two national championships. Then, ultimately, she went on to the national and Olympic teams for Team USA.

On the other hand, I’m from Seattle. I went to college at the University of Washington and won some national championships there as well. I knew I wanted to continue the sport after college. So, I eventually found my way to train down here at the California Rowing Club. And this is where we met each other for the first time.

Kristin: So, here in Oakland, we were training with this small team of about 15 people. It was unusual in the fact that it was a co-ed team, and we were training mostly in small boats. So that’s where we really got to know each other. The rowing world is quite small, so we immediately got to know each other. Being on such a small team and training together daily, we got to see each other frequently. We see each other at practice, in the weight room, etc. Thus, we really started to get to know each other better.

As part of this team, we’re also competing all over the country and around the world as part of Team USA. So, that was a really wonderful way for us to get to know each other a little bit better.

Hans: And we were able to support one another because we were both pursuing something that we were so passionate about and were doing it in parallel. We really found some big similarities in the way that we approached our rowing, training, nutrition, etc. We found out that we have some of those things that really overlap. So, we realized that there was some chemistry going on. That eventually led to us deciding to see each other outside of the boathouse.

Then, all of a sudden, we realized that there was this beautiful relationship forming. At the same time, we felt that there was something really special that we wanted to continue to pursue. Frankly, for a long time, it was like our relationship was secondary to rowing. That’s because our rowing was a 24/7, 365-day endeavor. Rowing, for us, was something we both found, and we were so focused on it at first. However, eventually, we realized that that wasn’t going to last forever. And we realized that we wanted to build something out of that that could last forever.

Kristin: That’s why, ultimately, I retired from rowing in 2015. Hans retired in 2016 after his trip to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. From there, we kind of started to kick off our lives. We knew that we loved the Bay Area. Having lived there for a handful of years already, we just, frankly, wanted to stay.

So, we were in Alameda at the time and still are in Alameda today. We moved in together after we retired from rowing and really kicked off our lives.

On my side, I started in the fitness and personal training space. At the same time, I ran a small business here in Alameda for several years. Then, because of Hans and his passion for it, we began real estate investing. Even before we purchased our own home, we were purchasing investment properties out of state. So, Hans was doing real estate as an agent, while we were also doing investments outside of that as well.

Hans: That was honestly our first foray into business together and see if it would really work. I mean, sort of secretly, and eventually not so secretly. So, I always wanted a partner who was sort of interested in some of that—investing in work-life integration. It’s really been my dream to build something financially amazing that was aligned with our household from a business perspective. That’s why I’m so glad that I found Kristin, because it turns out she has that very same desire!

And so, we bought our first rental property out of state and started managing it. It had its challenges and ups and downs, as anyone would expect from one’s first shot at anything. Fortunately, we realized that it was something we really enjoyed. We saw the power of it, and eventually, we started to dig a little deeper.

Then we bought some more properties. We started to do goal-setting retreats together. We really got into the weeds of, like, what we wanted for our lives. So, we began to look at how we could make our lives intertwined or not. How do we want to build the best thing we possibly can?

Kristin: I’d say that’s really one of the pillars of our relationship together—intentionality. It’s something that we try to bring not only to our lives but also to all the work that we do with the clients that we serve.

Kristin: As Hans said, we do this couples’ goal-setting retreat each year. We go away, and we look at some of our one-year goals and our five-year goals. It was actually during one of those goal-setting retreats that we hatched the idea of working together. Hans is already deep into real estate as an agent and broker with the Gunderman Group. And we just started thinking about what life would be like if I joined him. Next thing you know, we joined forces and did this together. So, that’s where that came from, and it’s been honestly so much fun to work together ever since.

Three questions people always ask us when they find out we’re both Olympians as well as in business together

Kristin: I don’t want to squash everyone’s expectations and what they’ve heard through the news. Unfortunately, the Olympic Village is not quite what the news is making it out to be. It is, however, quite special.

The Olympic Village is where all or most of the Olympians from every single country stay. It is usually a collection of high-rise buildings. It’s really cool because everyone is eating in the same dining hall together. The dining hall stretches out over several football fields and has all different kinds of food in it. It’s really cool because everyone is together. You’re riding the elevator with other Team USA athletes. Also, you’re passing athletes from all different countries all over the world through the village every day.

The thing about the village is that everyone is there to do their job. So, everyone’s really respectful of each other. Everyone knows that this is a very high-stakes competition that they’re in. They’re really at the peak of their careers because they made it to that village.

Hans:  Yeah, so it’s 10,000 athletes plus coaches and various staff members. So, it’s a bustling place. And you’re right, there is a tremendous amount of respect. There are not a lot of parties. You’ll have to leave the village for that whole engagement.

But there’s a lot of camaraderie. Understandably, there would be some people who may not have done as well as they wanted to. At the same time, some have done as well as they wanted to. So, there’s a lot of commiseration and support there, even if you don’t speak the same language. If you look around and make eye contact with anyone, you’ll notice that everyone knows what everyone’s cut from. You’re essentially all cut from the same cloth because of what it took to get there.

Hans: Well, every day is different. But on the whole, it’s amazing to have a support person, a leader, and a follower. It’s amazing to have a person in my life who gets me and who I can trust and lean on. Plus, she’s so competent and amazing. So, it’s wonderful having that level of trust, support, and teamwork. Obviously, we share bank accounts, and we share tax returns like they’re all going to one place. It’s pretty unique that way because we’re both working towards a very similar goal. And I believe that having that not only in our personal lives but also in our professional lives is just a tremendous and amazing part. It’s something that I didn’t know I wanted, but I’m so glad that I have it now.

Kristin:  Yeah, I feel the same way. I feel like it’s great because we started as teammates on a rowing team. We started on something that was fully dedicated to what we were doing at the time. That being said, this real estate endeavor feels a lot like that in the sense that we are totally invested in what we do and serving our clients at a high level. We really take that teamwork with us and try to incorporate it into everything we do. So, working together is a total thrill. I feel like it comes naturally to us.

Hans: Then, there are also the obvious side benefits of it. One example is when I’m in the middle of a phone call and we have to go to a showing. In such situations, she can just run out and do it by herself. Or, if I’m sick or she’s sick or whatever, there are two of us as opposed to just having one. So, we get to cover more ground together as well as sort of separately.

Kristin:  What I love about real estate is having the opportunity to impact the lives of the people we work with. Plus, being able to share this amazing place that we live in with our clients. It’s truly a great place. It has diversity, uniqueness, and wonderful culture. So being able to share that with others is at the heart of what I love most about it.

The other thing that I also love is that I feel really drawn to it in a similar way that I was drawn to rowing, in the sense that there are a lot of different things that go into being good at real estate. So, it’s not just one particular thing, and every day is very different. However, by mastering this and really getting good at every little piece of the real estate transaction, you can really have a big impact on the result in the end.

Hans:  Yeah. For me, I always remember my life in chunks, or chapters, or whatever you want to call them. Then, I often think about those chunks in the area where I was living at the time. So, it could be my college apartment or the house that I was renting. Perhaps, when I moved down to Regatta Drive. Or when we moved in together at Central and Grand, then Briggs, and now our current place. I think about our lives in those chunks.

So, being able to help facilitate that transition—leaving one place and going to another, closing and then opening a new chapter from one chapter to the next—for someone is ultimately what I love about this job. It’s having that impact and being able to tee someone up that really motivates and inspires me. I’m not talking only financially so that they can make a good investment decision, but also emotionally, familiarly, etc. For me, it’s really making sure that they can have amazing memories to fill that next chapter with. So, all of that is ultimately what I love about doing this job.

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