Hidden Gems: Meet Javier Olave Marquez of JA Realty & Consulting, LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Javier Olave Marquez.

Hi Javier, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, you could tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am an immigrant from Colombia, and I came to the USA at the beginning of 2001, to a small NC town called New Bern, 23 years ago, leaving my wife and son behind to work in the cold field at the time, planting trees and with the water and ice land up to my knees and eating my cold lunch on the side of the road, I did that for some months. A local citizen brought me to his group of cleaning crew and his houses around the town. I found a more stable job at a vast Yacht’s yacht-making company in the same city and stayed there for about 2 years doing one of the more challenging jobs as a fiberglass assistant. I was very skinny then, and my boss made me go inside the smaller holes of the boat to install fiberglass, haha. This job payment was not enough to make the money I needed to bring my wife and my only son at the time from Colombia, so I found a part-time job at a Mexican Restaurant, and when I had been done with my shift at the boat company and went to the restaurant until 10 or 11 pm every day, sometimes changing clothes in my car. In the following year, I was able to bring my wife and son to the USA.

After two years of working these two jobs from sun up to sun down, and with my long experience in the banking system for over 15 years and my CPA degree in Colombia, I was able to find a job at the Latino Community CU. I started there in Sep/2003, but I had to move from New Bern to Greensboro, NC, and by the time my wife was pregnant with my second son, Jefferson. To be able to move, we had to talk to the doctor to deliver the baby a little ahead of time, but everything was fine. We moved to this new city, knowing nobody but very happy to have found a job where I was experienced and well-skilled.

With those skills and experience and challenging work, I became very quickly the new manager at this branch, working with the Latino community in the Triad and starting the Mortgage Loan programs for the CU, so well during those 5 years I stayed in Greensboro, that my CEO at the time, offered me a position in the Triangle area to reinforce the program so I moved my wife and two kids again to a new city, the same, knowing nobody there, but with a very positive attitude to be better and do better for my family and my job I had bought my first own house in Greensboro. I could not sell it then because of the country’s 2008-2009 difficult times, so I rented it and came to live in Morrisville, NC, where I have been for the last 15 years.

Here in the Triangle I opened several LCCU branches and getting the lending and mortgage program up to a high level for the CU and the hispanic community, becoming the VP of Lending, helping develop and create a lending policy adequate to the latino community needs, I managed many branches, created many programs, did a financial educational classes, managed a tax preparation program at the CU for some years, and finally transferred to the Central Services Department, to help creating and managing the Mortgage Underwriting Department for the whole institution, being the point of contact and training for all lending and operational employees, until the end of 2020, completing almost 18 years at the credit union when I finally made a massive decision in January 2021 to give my resignation and throw myself into the self-employment area to become a Real Estate Agent, after 35 years of being an employee, a big step but now little more than 3 years later, I truly believe it was the best decision I made in my professional career.

I started again from scratch in the real estate market. Still, with the vast lending experience and enormous exposure to the real estate business for many years, I became the former COGU Real Estate Agent with my late friend, Liliana Concha, who constantly and for many years was bugging me to leave the CU and work with her, like she did, many years back, until finally, I took her to advise and work with her for the last 3 years becoming the Broker In Charge and supporting her and the whole COGU team, until the unfortunate events of her passing in January this year 2024 and the difficult times all of us, agents, went through! I became the face and the leader of the whole team through those difficult times, being the point of contact for everybody, working my butt off to make this horrible situation as much easy as possible for everybody, dealing with so many difficult decisions, and talking to so many people to handle with the families the process of close the COGU company! Those unfortunate events were the push I needed to make a big decision in my professional career and start my own company, which we talked about with Lili many times, so that is how my JA Realty & Consulting, LLC real estate agency was born, bringing with me more than half of the previous COGU agency and offering them a new home to keep working and help our community with the real estate needs!

Since my company was not in the near plans and was so sudden, we did not have a space to work on, so my own home was the new home for all these COGU agents and my new company agents, but we received the help and support of the whole Hispanic community, many organizations, colleague real estate agents and companies and one of them Sofia Chang, at key Start Realty and management, offered me her offices to work there for a couple of weeks, until I found my own space and office in Durham and finally our now 15 agents, have a new home and own space to keep working with the clients, community and continue Lili’s legacy and the job she started many years ago and that sadly had to leave, not by her own choice.

Now I am here, creating, training, and making our space and our own company better daily, serving all our clients, especially the Hispanic community, with their real estate needs, and bringing and working together with these 15 professional real estate women. I am a fighter, I am an experienced real estate agent, I am a positive human being who always finds solutions for everything instead of focusing on the problem, I am a husband, I am a father, and soon I will be a grandfather, I am a leader, and I am 57 years old in the best years of my life, having time for everything, very well organized, exercising, inspiring good things to everyone around me and proving that even if you are an immigrant in this country, which is our home now, you can accomplish anything you make up your mind to it! And as I say in all my social media videos, SI SE PUEDE! TU TAMBIEN PUEDES! Thank you for the opportunity to share my story!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not at all; as I mentioned in my previous presentation, the road has had many bumps, but I am cheerful and always find good things and solutions in all situations. Struggles, moving so many times, not only a job but cities with my family, and the hardest of all, losing my dear friend Lili led me to where I am today!

Let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
My firm was created recently due to the closing of my previous agency, COGU, due to the unfortunate events of the owner and dear friend Liliana’s passing. We are a real estate agency, but more than that, we are a family, helping many more families to achieve their dream of being homeowners and help with any other real estate needs, such as selling a home or helping find an investment home and create wealth and stability to our community We are known for being very professional, passionate and charismatic about our job, always going the extra mile for our clients, we have agents with a vast lending experience that help the client from the very beginning the process of applying for a mortgage loan and find their dream house. People should know that we care about them; we fight for them and advise them on preparing themselves for everything involved in home buying, selling, or investment. We offer our clients one-on-one attention and excellent communication, even long after a deal is closed. We have often become our clients many times, and we also help manage their own business with the rest of our clients, helping each other! We are a family Helping many more families!

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
No matter how difficult the road can be, you will always prevail and will find the solution to all the situations and challenging lessons that life has put you in your way. Always have a very positive attitude Even when dead, as sad it is, especially when it comes unexpected, like with my dear friend Lili, you find ways to be better and help others who can not cope as well as you can do

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