A bit about me.

So much of one’s background is so far back when you get older.  Where should I begin without boring you?  As a Realtor I’m in my fourth and last career.   It’s the first three I’ll try to summarize here.

My first career was academic.  After earning a B.S. in Physics at the University of Massachusetts I did an internship in Medical Physics at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.    That was followed by 6 years and 3 graduate degrees at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  After filling in for a year for one of my professors at the U of M Medical School I held teaching and research positions at Rutgers, The State University and its newly formed Medical School.  This career concluded after several years at the University of Kansas Medical Center where I was Head of the Division of Radiological Sciences, Associate Professor of Radiology, and Associate Professor of Radiation Biophysics.  Life was great.

It was during the Kansas City years that I bought my first house and later started investing in real estate.  First a farmhouse on the homestead 10 acres of what was a much larger farm many years earlier.  Then there was the newer house on 30 acres which I rented to a police officer from a nearby town. Then I added 3 houses on 2 lots in town and finally a 240 acre farm with 1 mile of frontage on a paved road.  Yes, those were good years.  A lot was learned.

When I left Kansas City I started out on my second career.  This time I was an international businessman in Brazil.  For the next 17 years I managed my own company in the medical products import business representing American and European manufacturers.  Mostly, I imported radioactive material for use in medical diagnosis but there was a large educational component involved since I was bringing new, cutting edge products to the country.  Over the years my company changed as the country changed.   When importation became difficult we were the first company to manufacture injectable diagnostic reagents with the equivalent of FDA approval.  Later we manufactured clinical laboratory reagents and standards and, in our final years, we concentrated mainly on the veterinary medical market.

In 1994 I returned to the U.S., settled in Kissimmee Fl and retired.  Thus started my third career as a retiree and equity investor.  My much younger Brazilian, veterinarian wife was still  pursuing her career so I took care of the house.  We had lunch and dinner together every day and got to spend a whole lot of time together.  Life was great.

So that brings us to the present.  I’ll leave “How I got into Real Estate” for a future blog entry.  For now, let’s just say that I have been a REALTOR® since 2006 and I am enjoying interacting with buyers and sellers.

 In 2008 I became a Licensed Mortgage Broker.  Now I can be even more help to buyers with loan information and pre-qualification.

Let me conclude with a link to my website  http://www.myfloridahomesmls.com/RichardRiley  where you can see my listings, do MLS searches of ALL listings in Central Florida and find useful information.