KALONA

Peak season for buying and selling homes spans from March to June, with pleasant temperatures, a break between school years, and maybe a little extra dough in the pocket from tax refunds prompting many to seek a change. If this spring has you contemplating a fresh start, you may wish to give Peter Schwartz a call. Kalona’s newest REALTOR© is a pro at beginning again.

“I’ve had a variety of jobs,” he says as we chat in the News office, and he gave them all a couple of years, but none of them felt quite right. Lawn care, roofing, and truck driving all had their turns, but he knew he wanted something different.

“My wife is in real estate, and she’s from Brazil,” he says. “She saw me doing other jobs and saw that I wasn’t really enjoying myself in other jobs. She’s like, ‘If you would try, you’d be a really good agent.’”

So Schwartz went for it, completing the required education and finding an agency that could offer him a quality training program and professional support. Today he has his license in hand and is a REALTOR© with Ruhl&Ruhl REALTORS, working out of their Iowa City office.

“I believe her now,” he says.

Now the Pathway graduate’s life is clicking into place. He and his bride are celebrating their first anniversary, and they’re expecting to welcome their first child into their Richmond home. It’s a season of firsts.

To get here, Schwartz had to take some leaps, like first exploring life in Texas, where he trained to be a massage therapist, and then connecting with his sweetheart on Tinder and spending six months in Brazil, a place he was eager to experience but challenging to navigate without speaking Portuguese.

“That was scary,” he says, “but big things make you grow.”

Google translate, some Rosetta Stone, and a few English speakers helped ease the transition, and he found himself picking up the language fairly naturally. “So 95% of our conversation, even now at the house, is in Portuguese,” he says.

As his wife studies English through Kirkwood and continues to work in real estate online, Schwartz, a former track and cross-country athlete who ran for Mid-Prairie, is training for the Kalona Days 5K this June. And he’s busy absorbing everything he can about real estate from his mentor and peers at Ruhl&Ruhl REALTORS.

In terms of markets, Schwartz is focused on Washington County as his primary territory, especially Kalona, which he has always considered his home base. Johnson County is also in his purview; he’s eager to work with folks moving to or from Iowa City, Lone Tree, and other communities.

Whatever help people seek regarding their real estate needs, Schwartz can provide. And lest you think his newness a drawback, it’s quite the opposite, he says.

“Even though I am new, that actually gives a benefit to clients, because everybody at the office knows I’m new. The manager knows I’m new. So they’re going to be with me step by step,” he says. The extra attention is “almost like getting two or three REALTORS©” when clients choose to work with him, which is a plus when it comes to buying or selling a home.

One need not even be local, he notes; he’s licensed to service properties throughout the state of Iowa, and if someone has needs outside of the state, the Ruhl&Ruhl REALTORS network extends so far, Schwartz can help them find a trustworthy local REALTOR© almost anywhere in the world.

In addition, as he is growing his client base, Schwartz isn’t already swamped with work; he can afford to be generous with his time and attention.

And how is that real estate market right now?

“March, April, May, June, that’s when people are looking to buy, and that’s when a lot of people decide to put their houses on the market,” he says. “This is the perfect time right now to be listing, and this is when a lot of buyers are deciding, Ok, let’s try to find our dream home.”

Some 30-40 new listings are posted each day in Washington and Johnson Counties, Schwartz says, and they cover a range of price points, from starter homes in the $100,000s on up. He’s well versed in strategy for how to get the best price for a house, and he’s eager to put his knowledge and insight to use.

“There’s been a lot of training,” he says, and as we talk about how fair market value is determined, how quickly homes are selling, and how new construction isn’t always perfect, it’s clear Schwartz has absorbed all of it – and he’s excited to share it.

A master of new beginnings, Schwartz can help you find yours this spring.

Contact Peter Schwartz at 319-930-7075 (cell) or peterschwartz@ruhlhomes.com (email) or find him online at peterschwartz.ruhlhomes.com (website). The Ruhl&Ruhl REALTORS office is located at 1075 Highway 1 West, Iowa City.