Meet Chris Sturgeon

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Sturgeon.

Hi Chris, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
The road has certainly been winding. After the early loss of my dad, a ton of professional training in a field I am no longer a professional in, a brutal break-up, a rebound relationship that is going 16 years strong, two adoptions, one kidney transplant, a cross-country move, and an unexpected career change…here I am.

I’ve been helping people find home as a real estate agent for a little over three years, but before that, I was a career pastor. After 15 years, I was ready for something different, but not sure if there was something different that was ready for me. A Master’s in Divinity is pretty much only helpful in one career field. A lot of soul searching and a thousand cups of coffee with people who knew me well helped me to hone down some possibilities though.

My favorite job had always been when I worked with middle and high school students. It always felt like such a privilege to be invited into their lives as trusted friends, mentors, and guides as they were making huge decisions about who they were going to be. Having been over a few bumps in the road in my life, I loved getting to journey with students while they covered some of the same ground.

I saw the same opportunity in the work of a real estate agent. I still get invited to come alongside individuals and families as they are making huge decisions and I get to be a trusted guide and mentor and friend, and I just love it.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being in my late 30s with two kids, a wife, and a mortgage and feeling certain that I didn’t want to work in my field anymore was a pretty scary thing. How the heck do you pull off a complete career change when you are already mid-career? Add on that my wife was already self-employed and I was the one with access to group medical insurance and the stakes get higher. Pile on top of it all that she is immuno-compromised, lives with chronic disease and we were right on the front end of a global pandemic unlike anything any of us had ever seen and I think it is fair to say the road was a bit less than smooth.

That immuno-compromised part is because 12 years ago my wife’s first kidney transplant failed after only 6 years, and by some miracle, I was a viable donor. Every doctor and nurse we met along the way assumed we were siblings until we set them straight. One of them made a crude joke about my dad taking a business trip to her hometown 9 months before she was born…I didn’t think it was very funny. It remains though that it was tremendously rare for a spouse to be able to donate to a spouse. “Chief” (what my father-in-law nicknamed the transplanted organ) is still humming along just fine.

As you know, we’re big fans of Chris Sturgeon at Live West Realty. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
When someone hires me to help them buy or sell a home, they get me.

While I do have a team that helps with many of the aspects of the transaction, I handle all of the client interactions as well as negotiations and contract work. I show properties, host open houses for my client’s properties, and answer the phone when they need to talk… and I love it.

Real estate agents get to be a part of really, really happy times in people’s lives, and sometimes in the sad or difficult times too. I realized a long time ago that I am a helper. It’s what I was made to do and I love getting to help people navigate the strange road that we walk down when we are looking to find “home.”

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
I concentrate a lot on being a good friend. I don’t ever want a client to feel like I was less than that.

Buyers and Sellers deserve to have someone who cares about them, who has taken the time to find out what is important to them, who will be fierce advocates for them, and who will tell them the truth even when it’s not what they want to hear.

Those are things a good friend will do for us and it is what I concentrate on doing for my clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://christophersturgeon.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrissturgeon_realtor/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisSturgeonRealEstate
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/chris-sturgeon-88a1a012