Tony Piraino

My family moved to Decatur in 1987 and, outside of college, I have been a Decatur area resident ever since. My fascination in residential properties started at a young age. As a kid growing up in the Sunnyside Park area of Decatur I absolutely loved walking through the new homes that were popping up all over my neighborhood. If you have a house in that area built between 1987 and 1997, chances are I walked through it while it was being built! My interest in rehabilitation of old homes took off in 1997 when my family moved to an old Victorian style home in Cerro Gordo where we spent countless hours on various renovation projects. After graduating from Cerro Gordo High School I attended Illinois State University and University of Illinois to earn Bachelor of Science Degrees in Physics and Mechanical Engineering. During my Senior year of college I started reading real estate books that really piqued my interest in buying investment residential properties. At that time I somehow talked a bank into giving a poor college kid a loan to buy my first investment property in Bement while still attending U of I. After just over a year of heavy remodeling I was able to re-sell that home for a profit within a month of listing it! I continued my education while working as an Engineer at Caterpillar in Decatur by earning an MBA at Millikin. One of the real estate investment lessons I learned early on is the importance of building up a team of reliable people including an accountant, attorney, mortgage broker, and, most importantly, a real estate agent you can trust. The people I have worked with along the way have been absolutely fantastic and great examples to learn from. I am looking forward to being an important part of someone else’s team now and I really look forward to building some great relationships along the way. On a personal side, I have two great kids that are the center of my world. I really look forward to involving them in the real estate business over the years. I am an active member of the community – a limitless ambassador, 2nd term member of the Cerro Gordo Board of Education, and volunteer for various local non-profit organizations. I recently left a great job at Caterpillar after 14+ years to focus on real estate full time. I loved my time at Caterpillar and will miss the relationships I built there, but my passion has always been working in real estate. Feel free to call, text, email, tweet, snapchat, or facebook message me. I am very accessible!