I am married with two wonderful young girls.  I was born and raised in a small city in upstate NY, about 90 miles north of NYC, in the Hudson Valley Region.  I have owned property in Florida since 2004.  I purchased a home here in St. John’s in 2015 when I was planning my retirement from law enforcement.  I retired after 27 years serving the last ten as a police sergeant with the City of Kingston in New York.   For about half of my career, I was on the executive board of our union having served the last 8 years as President.  This position was most rewarding to me because it allowed me to become very active in my community working with fundraising, having helped with numerous children's sports programs, wounded veterans and the poor.  I had also built a successful security and private investigative business before my wife and I decided that we wanted to make sure we were making the best choices for our children.  Putting family values first, we made a "five-year plan", keeping in mind our girls were about to enter middle school and kindergarten, and a few years ago decided to relocate to Florida.  After doing lots of research of the area, we chose St. John's County.  It did not take long for us to realize this was the best decision for our family.  The change did not come easy.  Relocating to an area where you know very few people can be difficult, but it has also become a very rewarding experience.  Having a love for golf, fishing and boating, it did not take me long to find my nitche.  I built a reputation over my career of integrity and feel it was my ability to communicate with my subordinates and peers that helped make me successful.   Prior to my career in law enforcement, I was a code enforcement officer with the Village of New Paltz which taught me the basics of building inspections which I then used to take a position with the City of Kingston as an Assistant Planning Aide.  Having a history in buying and selling (flipping) about 20 properties over my life, I decided to take my love and passion for real estate and my knowledge of the building industry and put it to work.   It gives me no greater pleasure than to help guide people through the purchase or sale of a property.  This is a time in someone’s life that can be extremely stressful and usually occurs when other major changes are going on in their life, for instance, starting a family.  It is for reasons such as this that I take you choosing me as your REALTOR to be a privilege and I will work hard to make this the least stressful event for you.  I look forward to helping you and learning a little about your life's journey. 

Sincerely, 

Barry Rell