Michael Shannon

<p>I graduated from Champlain College with a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting. Quickly after graduating, I knew that accounting wasn't for me. I gained a great understanding of accounting, numbers and business as a whole. Throughout college and after, I knew I belonged in business but I was having trouble figuring out exactly what I was going to do. As graduation approached, I realized that I wanted to stay in Burlington. At the time I had a steady job but not one that I looked at as a career. As everyday passed, I grew more eager to find a path that I would be happy and proud to go down. When I made that decision to stay in Burlington, the next logical step was to find my next apartment&hellip; so I thought. While looking at apartments, I noticed a banner ad on the rental website that had a mortgage calculator. With a background that revolved around numbers, I simply couldn't resist running the numbers on a mortgage calculator. It was that very moment that I realized how much money my landlords had been making off me. My first thought was "I need to stop paying rent NOW" and immediately began exploring the options to purchase. This all became a reality months later and by August, just 4 months from graduating college, I had a duplex at the age of 23. It just so happens that my Realtor at the time was in the early stages of opening his own real estate company, KW Vermont (at the beginning it was called Keller Williams GMP) which I was unaware of. We kept in touch over the next few months as I settled into home ownership at a young age. In December, months after my purchase we reconnected and he told me about his new business venture. It was at that time he told me that it was something I would be successful at and that I should strongly consider it. At the time I was still figuring out what I wanted to do for a career so I said I would think about it. I only spent 2 days pondering this before deciding to purchase the online course and study material. For me, it was an easy decision. I thought back to when I bought my house, how happy I was to own a home and not pay rent. It was also one of the best decisions of my life since the rental income I was making helped offset my mountain of student loan debt. It was at that point, I decided to devote my time and efforts to others who dreamt of home ownership. From day 1 I've always done everything humanly possible to help people, leaving no stone unturned. I've been able to build a business solely based on referrals because everyone who I've worked with knew that I put their best interests first. I love working with people and have been blessed to find a career that I can be excited about everyday!</p>