About Kelby
I have always desired to help those in dire need. This manifested when I was 20 years of age when I tried out for Air Force Special Warfare Pararescue. After a grueling selection and 2 years of training, I began a 10 year adventure across 4 continents rescuing military personnel from war zones and civilians devastated by natural disasters.
While overseas I would come home and see my family 2 weeks out of the year. On one of these trips I met my soon to be wife Rachelle at the oldest dance hall in Texas, Gruene Hall. She was from Falls City and grew up believing time with extended family would be important for our children, so I began submitting paperwork to move back.
Rachelle had been managing Brons beach carts in Port Aransas for 8 years and I would visit her as often as possible. She dreamed of owning a home there and when we found out she was pregnant we applied for a VA home loan. This was a difficult process as the Island is expensive and a military salary isn’t much.
We were approved for a home that had two little apartments below that helped bring in income and were necessary to our approval. We signed the paperwork for the home while in the hospital 2 days after our first daughters birth.
After settling in and finding some projects in our fixer upper, we got to work restoring our new home and enjoying being newly weds. It was stressful with contractors and a newborn, but we were making things work.
Then Hurricane Harvey hit our 2 months later.
Our apartments were demolished and the work we had completed down stairs destroyed. We felt defeated, but with the support of family, we got to working cleaning up our home. As we began to put plans together to rebuild, the city contacted us and issued a cease work order. Apparently the home we were sold had illegal dwellings built downstairs that were not permitted and could not be rebuilt.
We were scared. The home had to be rebuilt, we were not allowed to have renters, and the mortgage demanded to be paid. So I set out to contract in Africa 45 days on 45 days off providing medical aid to indigenous people and forces. Our hopes of an island life together quickly changed into a military lifestyle yet again.
Over the next two years we took the contracting money and rebuilt the bottom of the home into garages and patios and opened a small golf cart rental company to help bring me home once it was profitable.
While in Africa I studied real estate, took the exam, and became an agent because I never wanted this to happen to me or anyone else I knew ever again. I would become an agent, provide honest representation, and share my story.
It didn’t take long for this message to be received warmly. In my first year I went on to list $15M in properties and represented and additional $12M in purchases. Was this success generated because I work tirelessly for my clients? Or because I provide the best media packages locally available? Sure, that’s all true. But what I hear most often is that clients feel safe, their interests protected, and that I never quit working for them. I know what it’s like to lose almost everything while keeping a family together. I will never let that happen to you.