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2000 REALTOR OF THE YEAR

Steve Freeman
Broker-Owner

CountyRealty
1790 N 180 E
Brownstown
812-358-8635
812-528-0976

By Appointment Only

Personal Background of Steve Freeman

  I became interested in real estate while working as an appraiser assistant during my first year of college; way back in 1985. After earning a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Masters in Business Administration, I moved to Alexandria, Virginia. The timing of our move could not have been worse; the early 1990's and the height of the recession. Although my wife had a job waiting for her, I tried to find a corporate finance position. During the rampant downsizing occurring in the Washington DC area, a corporate finance position was not to be found. So I decided to get into residential real estate appraisal as a full-time appraiser. While appraising in the Fairfax county metropolitan area, I had access to excellent tax and MLS information via my computer. We did not use MLS books whatsoever. I used the computer system for just over a year and became quite proficient in using it to it’s fullest.

   To get out of the rat-race of the big city, my wife accepted a better position with a company in Seymour, Indiana. I left an area with a population probably in the millions to move to Jackson County Indiana, population around 35,000. I solicited the appraisers in the area for a position to fulfill my apprenticeship period, but because almost every one of them operated their business from their home, I had to accept an apprenticeship with Louisville company. That company offered me appraisal assignments in the Louisville and southern Indiana markets. I worked those markets for approximately six months. Due to the commute, vastly reduced appraisal fees and extremely poor market information tools, I chose to discontinue appraising residential property.

   I decided to find employment that more closely matched my collegiate training. I joined a consulting firm specializing in the development of custom accounting information systems in distributed computing environments. During my two year involvement with them, I learned a great deal about computer networks and their capabilities, as well as database development. For my own education and enjoyment, I began development of my real estate information system. Over time, however, I realized that a career in accounting information systems did not really satisfy me, and yearned to get back into the real estate industry. In June of 1995, I earned my salesperson license.

   As a new agent, I affiliated with the Jackson County Board of Realtors via association with one of the larger brokerages. Based on my experiences appraising in the Fairfax, VA and Louisville metro areas and my information systems background, I continued to develop and refine the Freeman Real Estate Information System (FREIS) which I considered at the time to be a supplement to the upcoming computerized MLS system. When I interviewed with the principal broker, she assured me that the computerized version of the MLS books would be installed by August of 1995. It is a good thing that I continued development of my product, for it was quite some time before the computerized system was installed.

   In March 2000, I decided to part company with that brokerage in order to pursue my own destiny as an Independent Real Estate Broker, with primary emphasis on Buyer Agency.  Currently, I am developing and improving the CountyRealty.Com Virtual Office Website, in addition to working with property buyers and sellers.