ROD STEPHANCHEW
Rod’s interest and passion for real estate and helping people began at a very young age and is in his blood. His Grandfather was a local Real Estate Broker starting Sherbrook Realty, his Auntie was a REALTOR® with McKague Sigmar Realty and turns out many years later, Rod became best friends with his REALTOR® when he was transferred and living in Langley, BC. Becoming a REALTOR® was inevitable, however, many years of training and conditioning were necessary for Rod to become the true professional that he has become today.
Being the 3rd of 4 boys, there was never a dull moment at the Stephanchew household growing up and between education and sports, competition was always fierce. Many life lessons and a keen sense of street smarts were mandatory to survive and excel in this high achieving family. Father Richard became a pharmacist and successfully ran his own businesses for his working career after a knee injury prevented him from living his dream of becoming a Winnipeg Blue Bomber. Winning a Canadian Championship during his junior days with the Winnipeg Rods has secured his place in both the Manitoba Sports and Manitoba Football Halls of Fame. Following in Dad’s footsteps, all 4 of the brothers went on to graduate university, enjoy successful careers and have excelled in several sports over the years. Mother Louise was the glue that held the chaos together and fuelled the family over the past 60+ years. Mom and Dad are incredible inspirations, the boys’ biggest supporters and two of the most incredible people on the planet!!!
Rod was a very active kid that grew up overly fast trying to keep up with big brothers Rick and Randy, while taking younger Ryan under his wing to get him up to speed as quick as he could. Impeccable communication and negotiation skills were seasoned at a young age and a true love for family, friends, socialization, healthy competition and most importantly making the time to have fun along the way. Work hard and play harder is ingrained in Rod’s soul. Over the years Rod has competed at a high level in all sports, most notable being a Provincial AAA Hockey Championship. His real passion evolved in his early teenage years and downhill skiing became Rod’s world and that is when the organization and planning skills were put to the test coordinating trips throughout Canada and the US for him and his friends. This spilled over into many trips to Mexico and the Caribbean in later years and fitness/bodybuilding/golf came to the forefront.
With strong aptitudes for math and sciences, Rod is a graduate of the University of Manitoba with an Honours Degree in Business with a double major in Marketing & Personnel Management and minors in Statistics & Psychology. This formal education has turned out to be the perfect blend for Rod to excel in real estate. After graduation, Rod underwent a rigorous training program being exposed to all areas of retail banking and was posted as a Manager of Customer Service at RBC. This is where Rod’s extreme focus on customer service developed and he met the love of his life, Jennifer. In fine form of growing up at an accelerated rate, Rod became an instant father to son Noah, who has developed into a fine young man, now residing in the US, being recently married and running his own successful construction company. Jennifer has been Rod’s true champion for the past 30+ years and shortly after Rod moved into the pharmaceutical industry and getting married, supported him when a career opportunity and promotion was presented and they jumped at the opportunity to relocate to Vancouver. Jennifer has been instrumental in supporting Rod’s career all while raising two boys, now both successful young men, and working in the healthcare industry over all these years. It was in Vancouver when son Nicholas was born. Shortly thereafter, Rod & Jennifer realized the utmost importance of being close to family and friends and came back home to where it all began, Southeast Winnipeg. Nick now resides in Kelowna, being close to his brother in Washington and both have strong passions for snowboarding, golf and skateboarding. Nick is carving out a career in the other passion of his life, the automotive industry.
Professionally, Rod honed his business acumen working alongside professionals for 20 years within multi-national organizations in the areas of management, sales, marketing, human resources and even has experience as a Regional Sales Trainer. Many sales and service awards have been accumulated over the years and he brings this wealth of experience to the table for all his clients in real estate. Rod has a strong work ethic, a second to none attention to providing the utmost positive customer experience, honesty, integrity, attention to detail, is always available and makes each client feel like they are his one and only client. Rod always lives by and maintains his principles of: “if you’re going to do something, do it well” & “he will not sell you something that he would not personally buy”. Rod always puts his client’s best interests 1st. With Rod’s diverse professional background and accomplishments, true passion and blood for real estate, impeccable communication and negotiation skills, positive, realistic attitude, Rod has found his calling.
