Several factors made Brent Riley a great fit for my Gainesville real estate adventure. First, he has lived in the city his entire life. He knows Gainesville and its people. Second, he has been a successful realtor for some 30 years. Moreover, he owns rental properties, thus he also has the eyes of an investor.

Throughout my experience, Brent wasn’t my realtor: He was my business partner. He understood what my investment goals were and worked to support them. Equally important to me, Brent would thoroughly explain his reasoning for a position he advocated, or speak up when he thought I might be going off my path. The decisions were always mine to make; in the end, I nearly always followed his suggestions.

There’s more. To begin: Brent embodies integrity.

Beyond being a professional in the truest sense, Brent is exemplar in managing details. Impressive, too, is how he looks for and handles “ripple effects.” As my father would say, every action has a counteraction. Brent anticipates the counteractions and works to mitigate a potential issue, or seize and expand an opportunity.

Brent humbly earns your trust. In the spring of 2019, while living on the west coast, I visited Gainesville and met him for the first time. We kept in contact for nearly a year. In early 2020, the time came for me to make a move. At that point, Brent became my Gainesville-eyes-on-the-ground. I ultimately purchased property he recommended – which I had never set foot in, but only saw in pictures from 3,000 miles away. That’s trust.