Originally, I am from the mid-West and grew up in a small town in Illinois approximately 2 hours outside of Chicago, a place where everyone knew their neighbors. I enlisted in the US Marine Corps as a teenager and served a distinguished 30-year career which included being a recipient of the Purple Heart Award. After the Marine Corps, I worked for the Department of Defense for 10 years as a training consultant. As an investor in real estate for over 35 years, I have personal experience of buying, selling and managing rental properties. I started buying and renting homes in North San Diego County while stationed at Camp Pendleton. I am experienced as a buyer using VA, FHA, Conventional loans, as well as 1031 Exchanges through the purchase/sales of dozens of my own properties. Over the years I’ve acquired rental properties valued at more than $4 million which led me to start my own business as owner-operator of C&S Smith Realty, LLC to manage the rentals. I have lived in the cities of Encinitas, Carlsbad, Pacific Beach, Oceanside and Vista and have been able to experience the unique characteristics of each of these communities. Regardless of where I have lived in San Diego and North County, I have been a pillar of the community which includes coaching youth Baseball, Football, Basketball, and Soccer. (I am an avid sports fan, especially baseball and you can find me in Arizona every March to watch the up and coming athletes in spring training camps). Additionally, I volunteered at local churches to feed the homeless and volunteered with the Oceanside Police department with their homeless out reach program. As I was developing my own real estate portfolio, I was always asked why are you not an agent with all your knowledge and passion for finding new properties? So now I do what I love which is dealing with real estate and finding that perfect home for each of my clients.