Joe Blachy

 

 

I Looooove the Real Estate business!!

 

Why? Because I truly enjoy working with my Clients and solving the complex problems that are associated with selling and buying Real Estate!

 

I LISTEN to the needs and desires of my Clients and implement a system of excellent, “old fashioned” Customer Care Service and the latest in technology … TO GET THE JOB DONE … WITH BOTTOM-LINE RESULTS … in a timely manner!!

 

JOE’S PERSONAL HISTORY

 

Jobst Walter Franz Blachnitzky (Joe) was born in Berlin, Germany, 8 days before Pearl Harbor day! NOT a good time to be born in Germany! He survived the bombings of Berlin and the arrival of the Russians in what became East Germany!

PHOTO COMING 

My Mother, llsedore with her three boys. I am on the left, Thomas is next and Michael on the right. I am guesstimating that this photo was taken in 1945, just before we left Berlin. I’m always amazed at the quality of the photo during a time, when there was virtually nothing available!

In 1945, after the end of the war, the five-year old moved with his family to the town of Cuxhaven, on the North Sea. For the first two years they lived in a Quonset Hut Refugee Camp, with hundreds of other refugees, from the eastern part of Germany. The hut was not insulated, had a dirt floor, no electricity, no
water, no heat unless we got small ration of coal and was serviced by a 10-hole toilet, in the center of the camp. Our food consisted of a single meal of fish stew, in a fish restaurant, every afternoon.

After those difficult years, we were able to find an apartment. In 1952 we moved to
Hamburg, since it was a better market for the theater and movie production
business, in which my father was involved.

PHOTO COMING 

Thomas and I on the road in front of our new apartment. I remember, like it was yesterday, that I was so excited when we received the Eisenhower jackets that we are wearing. They were named that because the
general always wore that style of jacket. The key around my neck is for the door to our house. I was 6 or 7 at that time.

 

Since my school was half days six days a week, starting at the age of 12, I always had a job delivering things on my bicycle all over the city of Hamburg. Those were great jobs because I made 10 DM per week, converted to $2.50 at that time. 

 

I finished the basic school in Germany, from which I graduated, after eight years of school!

 

My mother attended the Waldorf school in Stuttgart Germany, her best friend became a girl named Dot, whose mother was a German doctor in Chicago. She became obsessed with farming and her family lived on a small dairy farm in Black Earth, Wisconsin, which was near Madison. 

 

Dot invited me to join the family and working my way through High School in the USA, earning my room and board. The key incentive was “we have lots of food”.

 

In August of 1956, I arrived from Germany in Newport News, Virginia aboard an empty coal freighter, immigrating to the USA while leaving my entire family behind in Hamburg. The fare was $125.00

 

As I was walking towards the first door, after going through immigration and customs, I noticed a big sign that communicated POISON to me. The same with the second store, and the third store. I was a bit shocked that there were so many poison stores in America! I should tell you, that I could only speak a few words of English at the time and the German word for poison is gift!

 

After I figured that out, I determined it was pretty important to learn the English language!

 

I worked my way through high school on Wisconsin dairy farms in Black Earth and East Troy, and graduated in three years. I then went to see my family back in Germany, for the first time in over three years. 

 

Obviously communication wasn’t as it is today. Letters would take three weeks! The phone call was $3 a minute, minimum 3 minutes or $9. That would be a $108.00 in today’s dollars. Today, of course, I can call anywhere in the world for free, utilizing WhatsApp. 

 

My family wanted me to stay in Germany, but I told them “Ich bin jetzt ein Americaner,” (I am now American) and returned to the United States. My father, who was a film and theatre director and actor (used the name Blachy, a contraction of Blachnitzky) as a stage name, so I adopted Joe Blachy as my American name. 

 

A good high school friend suggested that I should consider going to college, so I enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Becoming frustrated with working 30-40 hours a week to pay my expenses, plus taking the typical initial “boring” required subjects, I moved to Chicago and took a job with Sear, Roebuck, and Co. at their International Headquarters in 1962.

 

I consider my job at Sears a “fabulous experience, in a wonderful growing environment,” as it afforded me a broad exposure to the internal workings of the company at all levels, because I functioned as the Assistant Audio Visual Director, responsible for running equipment at hundreds of functions, and at all levels of management, throughout the company.

 

The military draft was getting very close and I now had a goal to be a National Marketing Manager for Sears. So, after some classed at Northwestern University in downtown Chicago, I returned to Whitewater and earned my BBA while working at Sears. After a few short years as a management trainee in several Sears stores, I returned to the International Headquarters and, at the age of 28, became the National Marketing Manager of Sears Home Electronics, responsible for over $500 million in sales. I also served six years in the Army National Guard as an Infantry Platoon Staff Sergeant, E-6!

 

I loved Sears, and my career, but when my family grew to four children (aged three and under, including twins) I decided to take another gigantic “life-step” and left Sears. I bought a small business and moved my family to “beautiful and pure” Petoskey, Michigan. 

 

Puff’s of Petoskey started out as a small Appliance/TV store, but from these roots we created a unique high-quality Design Center for “first class” kitchens, bathrooms, interiors and everything needed for interiors of quality homes. The Puff’s team of design professionals led the only store of its kind in the entire USA, serving clients with design services. 

 

I sold my business and began my career in Real Estate, which has been an avocation of mine for many years, as I always fostered a powerful passion for Real Estate, obtaining my first license in Chicago during my Sears days. For my outstanding production, my first year in the business, I was named Rookie of the Year for the entire Coldwell Banker Schmidt franchise. 

 

A few years later, I was named the #1 Top Producer for the entire franchise, including about 500 Realtors, from Petoskey all the way to Grand Rapids. 

 

15 years ago, after a serious “medical confrontation” I pro-actively changed my entire lifestyle, including eating only healthy whole foods and exercising “intensely” everyday. I made this commitment to be younger every year! My health, strength and energy levels are outstanding and I would happily share my lifestyle guidelines with others. 

 

I LOVE the Real Estate business, because of the interaction with many wonderful clients, and the wide variety of intricate functions, that are involved in making each transaction come to fruition. I am always working on many different deals, but I focus on making each Buyer and Seller feel like they are my only client!

 

A final quote from Joe Blachy:

 

” PLEASE GIVE ME A CALL, I WOULD LOVE TO DISCUSS SERVING YOU!”