Oct 21, 2019
Patti
Brown wisited Yucca Valley for the first time in 1989 to meet, who
would become her future mother-in-law and real estate
mentor.
That
first trip Patti felt like she might be going on adventure that she
wouldn’t be coming back from and her first impressions of the
desert were that it was barren and somewhat far removed from what
she considered her ‘normal necessities of life.’ It was very
different from the lush green she'd grown up around in Northern
California.
After
a number of visits to Yucca Valley, Patti began to feel the peace
and serenity that came with each desert visit. Driving in the snow,
down the Morongo grade, heading home after a Christmas visit, the
conversation turned to, ‘why wouldn’t we just stay here?" Before
they knew it, Patti and her now husband, had a cabin in Flaming
Heights and were moving to make the desert their home.
Patti
admits it took her a few years to really fall in love with the
place. Having to travel down the hill an hour and 15 minutes each
way, each day to go to a job using her retail expertise, she didn’t
have much time to get involved in the community and make
connections with her neighbors. But, once she left retail and
started working in real estate, those relationships started to form
very quickly.
Patti's interest in retail came from her dad who
had worked for Nordstrom before starting his own business. Patty
followed in those footsteps working for department stores; she
likes retail and working with people.
When
Patti arrived to the desert, the only non-Mom & Pop store at that
time was old K-mart. And after driving down the hill working retail
hours, Patti found her self wanting to be closer to home and her
kids, so she started helping her mother-in-law - the realtor -
eventually leading Patti to become a licensed realtor herself,
before moving into escrow and eventually her own hard money
business, launching 'The
Loan Lady' in 1996. In this episode, Patty
explains a ‘hard money’ loan is, who may need it and how that money
is used.
Once
Patti was able to work here in the hi-desert, she came very
involved in the community. She is a committed Rotarian, involved in
many business networking groups and is currently the Board Chair of
the Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce.
We
also talk about the changing landscape of the real estate market in
the Morongo Basin and the types of jobs and income currently in the
area and what may be necessary to sustain the growth. Patti also
gives some advice on how to prepare to make a home purchase
here.