I was always taught “Work hard but have patience, be honest, always keep your integrity, make sure you have a true desire to help someone more than yourself and remember that when you think you have nothing left to give, dig down and give just that little bit more, you're never really done even when your mind says you are. Make sure to put yourself in the other persons shoes before you act, see it through their eyes. This will take you far in this life, be it with family and friends, in business or in the sports you compete in.” James 'Bud' Hargin

These words he learned many years ago continue to ring true for James. Beginning years ago his grandfather established and successfully ran a pioneering real estate and insurance company in Hamilton in the early 1950’s until 1970 at which time family took the helm and continued to operate the business. He had a different approach to things according to James. “It was more about relational sales but still having unassailable negotiating skills.”

“Real Estate is in my DNA I guess” says James with a laugh. “I started years ago investing in properties and initially thought a Real Estate Licence would be advantageous for my investments, I had no idea it would eventually turn into my career and ultimately a passion to help guide people through one of the biggest decisions of their lives, whether that's for a family home or for their own investments”

James' desire to work and be entrepreneurial started at the young age of 9 with a paper route. He quickly picked up multiple routes and hired his own team of would be paperboys. “My friends wanted routes but they weren’t always able to get them through the normal channels, so since I was able too, I did and hired them myself. It was a mutually beneficial set up and we delivered hundreds of papers every afternoon and  on Saturday mornings”. What this taught him he says was the power of a great team, “You can do so much more with the right group to support you”. The somewhat simple lessons learned here continued in his other future ventures, including real estate.

After a post secondary education that focused on Commerce and Marketing, James started his professional sales career in the automotive sector in 1999. “I gained so much real world experience, about sales and marketing with my many years in that field. It was also during that time that so many new technologies were emerging, it was really exciting at that time and it helped me connect with people in a completely new way. It hasn’t slowed down at all and if anything it just keeps getting quicker and because of that it’s a huge piece of the way this real estate company operates”.

James is both a business man and a family man. “We all work for the company, we truly are a team through every aspect of this life”. His family is at the beginning and end of all he does, he says. “My family and I have integrated work and life together very well I think. We spend a huge amount of time together, whether it’s strictly family time or whether it’s all of us volunteering at different community events together. I think it’s important for them to be involved in the community they live in. We have a ton of fun but we work hard too. The kids are also a big contributor to keeping our finger on the pulse of the latest trends to stay connected”.

James says “I believe we continue to grow because of the relationships we’ve built, because of the way we do business, because we continue to follow those words and lessons that were learned many years ago, because of family and friends, because we are, I believe, a refreshing change to what has often become a business of only transactions. I believe we continue to grow because we believe wholeheartedly in our mantra of “Giving You More””.