Profile: Amber Turner, GreenPDX / Living Room Realtors
Singing angels, green homes, and community connections
By her own admission, real estate was Amber Turner’s love at first sight. “When a friend said to me, ‘Amber, you’d make a great realtor’, I heard angels singing. I knew real estate was what I had to do.”
It almost didn’t happen. Amber, a daughter of a principal real estate broker, never considered real estate to be an option. “I was totally blind to it growing up because it was right in front of me all the time.”
While still in college, Amber got her industry license. She’s been a licensed real estate professional since 2005, working first with a team to learn the ropes, and then going independent a few years later.
The profession meshes well with her personality. “I’ve always been the social coordinator among my friends,” Amber said. “I enjoy bringing people together. I’m naturally extroverted and have a strong desire to help people connect.
Born and raised in Portland, the green part of real estate came natural to Amber. “I’m an avid bicyclist, camper, and birdwatcher,” Amber said. “I care about the health of animals and people on this planet. Nature has always been a part of my life.”
It took “An Inconvenient Truth”, which she saw a few months into her career, to nudge Amber into green building. She said, “It became obvious to me that a realtor had a huge role to play in helping people live healthier lives. I wanted to become a bridge between homeowners and green building professionals. I knew we needed to educate ourselves about better home building and remodeling techniques – and about the way we live in our homes.”
Going green helped Amber find “a deeper meaning in the business I’d already fallen in love with.” She continues to gather information and connect with green building professionals – architects, building-science people, contractors, realtors – around Portland so she, in turn, can connect others with them.
Amber quickly identified the best way to bring people together: a group focused on green building where people could share and learn. The GreenPDX Meetup launched in December 2006. Since then, GreenPDX has held more than 40 events, mostly tours of residential green buildings, and has grown to be one of the top 10 green building-related Meetup group nationwide.
As a client of Semiosis Communications, GreenPDX is working to help members make stronger and longer-lasting connections with one another and to educate members about green options for their homes.
As a realtor, Amber aims to increasingly “work with clients who share the same values as I do and to represent more green properties”. Though she enjoys helping people during such important life transitions, it’s sharing what she’s learned about healthier homes that, “makes my connection to the community feel stronger.”
(February 2010)
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Amber, you are one of our favorite people. Thank you for all you do to preserve this wonderful planet for future generations.