Today we’d like to introduce you to Brendan Gail.
Hi Brendan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I spent the majority of my childhood in a loving San Diego home raised by my mom and Stepdad Josh. Josh married my mom when I was five years old, making him a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My biological Dad, Barry, and my beautiful stepmom Sheri lived an hour north in Newport Beach. I remember how lucky I felt to have two sets of parents who loved me growing up as a kid. I thought having two Christmases was the coolest thing in the world! My childhood was full of so much laughter and fond memories with my brothers and sisters in each home. I was naïve to the challenges life can bring – how every child should grow up. At 10 years old, my family received devastating news. My mom, a healthy and active 38-year-old, had cancer. The naivety of my childhood vanished, and life hit me full force. Over the next 15 years, I watched the strongest woman I know beat cancer twice, but she would not survive it a third time.
At 52 years old, we received the news that her cancer was terminal and she had less than 2 years to live. I was 24 at the time, living in Los Angeles. I recently graduated with my master’s degree and was working in collegiate athletics. At this point in my life, I was passionate about sports and living a healthy lifestyle. I enjoyed teaching college-age kids about responsibility, life, work ethic, and leadership. I threw my time and emotional energy I had into work to keep myself busy and distracted from my personal life. My mom continued to fight and felt determined to outlive her diagnosis.
Late one night I heard a knock on my front door. I opened the door to find my childhood best friend standing on my porch with a look of dread in his eyes. “What is it? Is mom, okay?” I asked. “It’s your dad Josh. He took his own life. He’s gone, Brendan. I’m so sorry”. My world stood still. This was my initiation into the tragedy of death, something I would soon become familiar with.
Over the next 6 years, I would lose my mom, my grandpa, and my Yia Yia. I sold my childhood home, packed my things, and moved to Tucson, AZ to start a new job. As I continued to move up the ladder in collegiate athletics, I was no longer working and helping the people I wanted to help and was feeling less and less fulfilled by my work. Thankfully my luck was about to change. I met my future wife, and she immediately rocked my boat, pushing me to exit my comfort zone. I quit my job and sold my house and 8 months after we started dating, we boarded a flight to New Zealand. We left the states on a 3-month adventure to circumnavigate the globe… but that’s a story for another time. After we returned home to San Diego, all I wanted to do was have a long conversation with my mom. She had always known me best. I needed that sounding board in this time of transition. I was 33 years old and had left a great job in a career that I had been in for the past 10 years. I was floundering and worried I would never find my calling. My wife was insistent that I become a realtor. I had floated the idea a couple of times in the past. Candidly, I struggled with the idea of working on 100% commission. I brushed her off thinking there was no way I could succeed in the already saturated industry. It was my Father-In-law’s belief in me that hit home. He had started and owned his own successful automotive shop for 33 years. He started it from the ground up and his shop excelled because of his work ethic and ability to build relationships. “Brendan, you’re passionate about Real Estate, and you’re so good with people. You work hard. It’s a slam dunk.” His words of encouragement hit me at my core. It was words that I could hear my mom telling me. His unwavering belief in me ignited the flame and set off a chain reaction. Finding out my wife was pregnant with our first child turned the burner up too high. I was now armed with incredible motivation to provide for my family and in a field that I was passionate about. With the confidence from my father-in-law and my wife, I hit the ‘buy’ button on the Real Estate courses. That was 5 years ago.
I grew up in two beautiful homes with even more beautiful people. So many of my favorite life memories were shared in the confines of these homes. A home, I learned, is so much more than just a house. It’s the place where unique, shared experiences take place with the people you love.
Time with loved ones is not guaranteed. I can’t get my mom, Dad Josh, Gramps, or my Yia Yia back, but I will never forget the memories we shared in that home. My main drive for being a realtor is so much more than buying and selling houses or making money. I want to help families find a special place where they will create their own lasting memories. I love helping find the ‘house,’ but it’s your family that makes it ‘home.’
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road. My biggest struggle was figuring out what drove me to get out of bed every morning or what my ‘why’ was. I feel incredibly lucky to have learned so much about death and subsequently about life at an early age. This helped me quit jobs and change careers that ultimately weren’t the right fit for me. It has given me a tremendous perspective on what’s important and what’s not and has helped me be a better person and employee. All of my previous struggles have led me to my career in Real Estate where I get to help people make one of the biggest decisions they’ll ever make with a sense of ease and comfortability.
We’ve been impressed with Brendan Gail as part of VS Home Team in Poway, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Raised in Poway, I am a native San Diegan passionate about the transformative power of homeownership. I have now been a Real Estate Agent for the past five years and I am genuinely interested in understanding each person’s unique home-buying and selling needs. I specialize in helping first-time homebuyers, seamlessly guiding those individuals through this important decision and process with dedicated, personal attention.
I’m most proud of the service I provide my clients. I feel like as realtors we get to have these really intense, meaningful short spurts of time with our clients. We talk multiple times a day, and we really get into the details of what their goals are. This takes an immense amount of vulnerability and trust, something that is so important to me that I’m building with each and every person I work with.
Something that sets me apart from others is that I ensure EVERYTHING is transparent. I think there’s a lot of mystery and misunderstanding about the profession of real estate. Just because there’s a low barrier to entry to becoming a realtor (taking the class and passing the test all in a matter of months) doesn’t mean that good realtors aren’t working extremely hard to provide world-class service to their clients. If it were that easy, everyone would do it. My integrity, systems, and processes are really what set me apart, but mostly that I CARE. I care about my client’s overall well-being, and I want to do everything I can to help them live the most prosperous life they can. I bring my authenticity, empathy, and sense of humor to every part of my profession to help create the best possible outcome for my clients.
We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Something that may surprise people is that in 2017 I made the most life-altering decision I’ve ever made. My then-girlfriend and I had decided we wanted to move back to San Diego from Tucson in 2017. Since we were going to do it with or without jobs, we decided we were going to take the opportunity to travel. We packed everything into a storage unit and promptly boarded a flight for New Zealand on a 16-country, 32-city, 3-month circumnavigation of the globe. Considering I’m a very rational person, it’s probably the most ‘un Brendan’ thing I’ve ever done. I sold my house, quit my career, and left on a plane with a girl that I’d only been dating for 9 months. Almost 7 years later, I’d say it worked out. Not only did I marry that girl, but we now have 4 children (boy, girl, and twin boys!). It stands alone as one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bgailhomes.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bgailhomes/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brendan.gail.5
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendangail/
