Donna Moulton

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About Donna

I had an idyllic upbringing in Massachusetts and got a degree in art from Smith College several lifetimes ago. I have worked in museums and as a community organizer, and lived in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Colorado, North Carolina, and Maryland before discovering the best place, Arizona, in 1990. Back when I was in Maryland, I thought it was time to figure out what to do if I ever grew up. I decided to save the birds (and their habitats) by becoming a hydrologist. My art degree was not a very useful preparation for a career in hydrology, so I went to school at night and worked as a draftsman in an environmental engineering firm by day for three years. Finally I had enough calculus, chemistry and engineering courses on my transcript to get admitted to the University of Arizona graduate hydrology program. After escaping grad school, I worked as a hydrologist with a Tucson hydrogeology consulting firm. I was not saving birds, but I was helping a copper mine, our principal client. This was not what I had in mind, but the money was pretty good, so I stuck with it for an alarmingly stable six years. Having had an unpleasant real estate experience in West Virginia, I vowed never to own property again, except maybe a houseboat I could easily remove from a dying economy. Being stuck to the land was not for me. But Tucson's inexpensive houses and low interest rates of the early 1990s proved irresistible to me, and I bought my first house on my own in 1992. Home ownership was much better the second time around, and prices were still low, so I wanted more. Finding an inexpensive house that's worth buying near the University of Arizona is nearly impossible, and requires more diligence than any Realtor had demonstrated to me. So I took matters in to my own hands and got a real estate license in 1995 so I could buy one investment property. Being a landlord turned out to be much, much better the second time around, so I bought another house, then another, then another. Friends started to suspect that I knew something they should know, and I helped some of them buy their first homes. They referred me to their friends. I helped some of them buy income-producing properties. I continued to do hydrology full time for the first four years I had my real estate license. Working for a mine, living in a bed and breakfast in Globe, Arizona, enduring Globe’s culinary offerings (Mexican, Mexican, Mexican, Chinese and Mexican) took its toll on me. Working was interfering with my life too much. The only thing I really enjoyed, the only thing I was passionate about, was real estate. Early in 1999, I realized that although I was 44, my Dad was 90, so I may still have half my life ahead of me. There was still time to do something productive and enjoyable with it. I quit hydrology and went into real estate full time. It was the right decision at the right time. I have never looked back, except to wonder why I didn't have the guts to make the plunge to self-employment sooner. I have now completed over 400 home sales. I own and manage eight rental properties in Central and West Tucson. I feel much more useful in my current career. I love the positive feedback I get from clients, and it is almost as exciting for me as it is for a first time home buyer when I give them the keys to their new home. The hours are long, but I don't count them as I did when I was a salaried employee, because now I'm working for myself, and it doesn't feel like work. It feels like what I should have been doing all along. The summer of 2020 was hard to take for so many reasons: the pandemic, record-breaking heat and drought, and the weeks-long wildfire in the Catalina Mountains that prevented my usual cool summer hikes. I decided I needed a high-elevation getaway, so I obtained my New Mexico real estate license and bought a house in Silver City. Now I'm ready to help other people find homes in the Land of Enchantment. The skills I developed in my many previous careers are very useful to me in helping you buy or sell real estate. I am organized, optimistic, honest, hard working and a good listener. If I had known a Realtor like me, I wouldn't have gotten my real estate license! But I can save you the trouble of getting a license, and give you the benefit of my experience buying and selling homes and investment properties for myself and others. My goals are to earn your trust, help you buy or sell your home with a minimum of hassle, and to be the name on the business card you hand to friends when they ask if you know a good Realtor.

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