When a sports injury prevented Bartley Neville from making goals on the field, he moved on to accomplish his goals in the business world, an objective that he accomplished after only 13 years in the business. Bartley, along with his brother Michael, is now co-owner of Neville Century 21 Realty in Pembroke.
 Bartley graduated from the two-year business program at Algonquin College in 1992. During his time at Algonquin, he was active at the College, he became student director and was awarded both the President Rosser Medal and the Alumni Award in 1992.
After graduation, Bartley enjoyed his position as student director and he enrolled in the one year General Arts and Science program which allowed him to finish his term as director. While in that program, he worked on several extra projects for the College and completed a marketing research project. When he graduated, he not only had an education but some hands-on experience to bring to the business world as well.
Bartley grew up having real estate as a part of his daily life--his mother Gloria Neville is a highly successful agent and previously a broker of Neville Century 21 Reality. She has been in the business for over 25 years and has led what is known in real estate as "the Neville Team". In the last few years, they have been ranked the #4 real estate team in Canada.
Bartley would work in his mother’s office during summer vacations and part-time while he attended Algonquin College. It wasn’t until he finished College in 1993, that Bartley looked back at his time at the Century 21 office and said: “I could make a living here; this would make an interesting career.”
He began taking courses to obtain his real estate license. During his career, Bartley set out to accomplish many achievements. The Century 21 team has placed 14th amongst real estate agencies in Canada for sales. The Neville team itself has been ranked in the top 30 in the country and Neville has worked his way up into the top five percentile of Canadian brokers. In 2004, he became the President of the Renfrew County Real Estate Board.
He credits his success on his sheer determination to succeed. “You have to be a people person to work in real estate,” says Neville,” I was lucky enough to be able to watch and learn from my mother’s own successfully established career.”
 With his goal of becoming broker of Century 21 behind him, Bartley has slowed down his pace to concentrate on his family life. Neville enjoys that his career allows him the flexibility to choose how much time to put into your work.
“When I first started I worked very hard to make something of myself”, says Neville. “It is a balancing act--more work means extra commission and money but you often make sacrifices in your personal life. I am happy where I am, I have my business without losing focus on my family.”
Running the Century 21 office is a business career in itself, one that the Business Program at Algonquin College helped to prepare him for. "As a student director, my position with the Students' Association helped me apply the budgeting, scheduling, and marketing skills I learned in my program. The small intimate classroom settings provided an environment that allowed me to excel in my education".
“I feel there are other challenges out there for me,” Bartley says, “but I just haven’t found them yet.” Whenever he does discover his next set of challenges, he will always have the foundation of his education and experiences from Algonquin College to help him meet them head on.
Visit Bartley's professional website here.
|
