Meet our Featured Boomers, Active Adults Realty Broker and Owners Kathy Sperl-Bell and Bill Bell!
This month, I thought I would introduce ourselves to you. In our Profiles, you can learn a little about our backgrounds, but we too are Baby Boomers and Kathy (thats me) is not from Delaware.
Where are we from?
I was born in Flushing, NY, like so many others from the NY Metropolitan Area. In fact, it is amazing how many people I meet in real estate or just socially that were also born in Flushing General Hospital. I feel like taking a poll of all our newsletter and blog readers for our next contest!
Bill was born in Washington, DC, lived first in the Baltimore area and in Northern Delaware since the age of 6, so he is almost a native. He attended Glasgow High School in Newark and several semesters at Delaware Technical and Community College. Like many Delawareans, he worked summers in Ocean City, MD, and winters in the Florida Keys.
Our lives before Real Estate
Kathy Sperl-Bell - Where should I start? Before real estate, I had several interesting careers. The first was in the travel industry, as a Bi-Lingual Secretary for Air France, then a Flight Attendant for TWA International and an In-Flight Director of Customer Service (DCS) in the early days of the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet. I got into sales as a Travel Agent in New York City handling group travel for large corporations and in the mid-70s, I became a Hotel Sales Director.
I moved to Boston just in time for the Blizzard of 1978 and landed in the new personal computer industry as a Computer Store Manager in Framingham, Massachusetts. Over the next 20+ years, I worked for companies like Compaq Computer Corporation and Wang Laboratories among others and lived in Houston, TX, and the DC Metropolitan Area.
When it was time for a change, I moved to Delaware in 2000, met Bill Bell, who is now my husband and business partner, and the rest is our story.
Bill Bell - Bill spent many years in the Hospitality industry, mainly in restaurants. He was also a Mechanical Designer for DuPont and worked for a time in Child Mental Health. In 2001, Bill started a construction company named Gotcha Covered that specialized in Universal Design and Aging in Place, concepts that are finally gaining attention in the construction industry. In 2006, Bill also got his Real Estate license and in 2010, he became the Associate Broker at Active Adults Realty.
What are we doing now?
We are not retired obviously as so many of our clients are now. Once I became a licensed REALTOR in 2001, I quickly decided that I wanted to focus on people, not houses. Its hard to believe how fast the years have flown by, but real estate is that kind of all-consuming business. I think it is easier to manage because we are in it together. We fit our personal life into the time we have available.
By 2006, I named that focus Active Adults or what we sometimes refer to as Boomers and Beyond, hence the name of our email newsletter, and the first iteration of our website www.activeadultsdelaware.com went live in May of that year, over 12 years ago. In 2011, we opened the doors of Active Adults Realty and we now number 20 people, 19 of whom are REALTORS covering all of Delaware.
What we both love about living in Coastal Delaware is the location, right in the heart of everything. From here, we can get to DC or Philadelphia or even NYC in a few hours. The small towns like Lewes and Milton, Bethany and Fenwick, the choice of great restaurants at all price points and the active lifestyle we enjoy is all right here. When not working in our business, I enjoy yoga, barre classes, biking or walking and lately pickleball! Bill has also been bitten by the pickleball bug.
Whats on our Bucket List?
Retirement is not in the stars for us, but taking more time to enjoy the things we love is. We are fortunate to have an excellent staff and team of agents so we can do a little more travel each year. We plan to spend more time in the Florida Keys and Bill is going to catch more fish. This year I am going on a Yoga retreat to Barcelona with a friend and next year Bill will accompany me on a Yoga retreat to Santorini, Greece.
Life is good. Namaste!
When you are ready to relocate and live the local lifestyle in Delaware you can count on the Active Adults Realty team. You just may be one of our next Featured Boomers! Call or email us today or Request one of our FREE Relocation Guides HERE for a comprehensive resource to help you relocate to a home that best fits your needs!