JOAN CATON

I've had two wonderful careers: one in the field of education and the other in real estate. After earning my Bachelors and Masters degrees, I began my educational profession as a special education teacher working with children with learning disabilities. I was very intrigued with finding out the why? and how? they learned in the way they did and what roadblocked them from learning in the conventional way. I was drawn even further towards experts working in the areas of neuropsychology and utilized and modified their information to develop many techniques for my students. I was asked to share these methods at state and national conferences and was soon asked to teach adjunct classes at the college level. Eventually, I earned my Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Educational Psychology and became an Associate Professor, specializing in Neuropsychology and the learning process for children with special needs. After 29 years of teaching at the University level, I retired at the end of 2005 when my father died and my ailing mom came to live with my husband Bill and me. I was not going to miss a moment of being with her. When she died in 2007, I decided to re-focus my attention on real estate. I received my license in 1989 in order to help Bill open our real estate office in Plainfield, IL. Even though I was teaching at the university level at the time, I would assist Bill at open houses and with CMA's and searches, as well as attend conferences and do the Company marketing. However, I did not take on my own clients until 2007. By 2008, while many realtors were leaving the industry, I was learning fast about short sales...and there were many of them. These transactions and those from sellers and buyers from my sphere kept me busy for the next 6 years. By 2014, when our economy was not really moving much, I looked at possibilities internationally. In 2015, I took classes and received my CIPS designation and in 2016 attended MIPIM for the first time. March 2019 will be the fourth year in a row that Bill and I are attending this excellent conference.

Specialisation

Residential

Countries

Thailand, Korea, Democratic People's republic of

Experience

29 years

Associations

CIPS, NAR