I’ve always lived in the Northwest and I appreciate the outdoors. As a kid growing up in Elgin, Oregon, I was outdoors all the time, playing in the dirt. We lived in a very small town with only 1,700 residents. We had two grocery stores and one gas station and there was no stop sign, not one. You just drove right through town.

It taught me such an appreciation of nature that it might be the reason that now I’m a real estate agent by day, and a farmer by night. My husband and I own a sixty-acre farm in Newport, Washington. We have 16 cows, several geese and pigs during the summer.

Even though I was raised in a small town, farming is a completely different way of life. You have to protect your animals from coyotes and other predators all the time. I’ve learned to talk to the animals and they talk back. The cows moo at me in half greeting/half rebuke when I come home. They’re glad to see me only because they’re hungry and want their hay.

I studied retail management in college because I had this wild idea that I wanted to open up a clothing store. And then I worked in a clothing store and decided this was definitely not want I wanted to do. So I decided to get an office manager job working for two dozen gastroenterologists because I enjoyed helping people.

I did that job for 14 years before we moved to Newport. I couldn’t find an office manager job in the medical field here, but I knew I still wanted to help people. My mother-in-law was a real estate agent and she thought I’d be good at it, so I decided to throw my hat in the ring.

It was hard in the beginning, because I didn't know anybody here and I had to build a business. I was used to getting a paycheck and having a 401K and health benefits.  It took me five years to build my brand, but I did it.

I work seven days a week and I love it. I don’t burn out because I have a huge passion for this job and I want to shine that passionate light on all my clients. I’m known around Newport as the sunshine person.

Now, everybody brings me things that say “Hello Sunshine.” I just got a sweatshirt yesterday with the two words emblazoned across the front. People drop off flowers out of the blue with a note saying, “I was just thinking, of you, Sunshine, so I had to run these by.”

That’s just one of the things I’m known for. The other is honking. I love to honk my horn at the houses that I helped to sell or buy for my clients, just to say hi. I like to let them know I’m still thinking about them by honking my horn, and they all love it.

I sold a house to my neighbor across the street, and I still honk every time I drive by her house.  My husband says, “Alisha, you’ve been honking your horn at her for five years, I’m sure she’s tired of it by now.” Then later that day, that same neighbor texted me and said, “Alisha, your honking always puts a smile on my face when you drive by.” So the honking continues.

I’m always looking out for the needs of others in my community, and not just in real estate. Recently, the FedEx/UPS store closed down in Newport, and the nearest one was an hour’s drive away.

I got the crazy idea to open up a FedEx/UPS store right in my real estate office. I hired someone to sit up front and operate it. So not only do I run my real estate business, I also run the Fedex/UPS store out of my office.

I do it so folks don’t have to drive so far to drop things off. But there’s another bonus. It brings people in to ship something and then they look around and ask, “What else do you do here?” And the answer is always, “We sell houses.”

My favorite part about real estate is helping people find their dream home, and my clients seem to appreciate it. It always makes me smile when someone says to me, “Enjoy your day, Sunshine.”