NextHome ACE Real Estate Services

Realtor/Owner, Greater Albion Michigan

Grab a cup of coffee and let’s get to know each other better…

I grew up in Lapeer, MI. As a kid, I was an avid bowler, baseball player, and musician.

I fell in love with Albion and the surrounding areas as a student at Albion College.

I was a music major and my goal was to be a school band director.

Growing up, I loved performing in my school band, recitals, and eventually leading our marching band as the drum major.

I still look back on those times with such fond memories.

When I returned home to Lapeer during my college summers, I taught music lessons and worked at the community center with the summer day camp program and helped with the area’s summer recreation baseball and softball leagues.

My first job as a music teacher was at Vandercook Lake Public Schools in southeast Jackson. 

After marrying my amazing wife, we moved to Denver so she could complete graduate school.

I taught for four years at Kearney Middle School in Commerce City, CO, which is also where we bought our first home through the HUD Teacher Next Door Program.

The population of Commerce City was prominently Hispanic and required some adapting on our part, but it was home for three years and we loved it.

As beautiful as Colorado was, when I was accepted as a grad student at University of Michigan, it was our opportunity to move back home.

While I completed my graduate degree in music education in the 2008-2009 school year, we also had our son, Ian. 

Emily and I found jobs in the metro Detroit area in 2009 and we bought our second home in Allen Park, which was about halfway between our two jobs.

As much as we loved our jobs in education, both of us sought the challenge of opening a business and working for ourselves.

Emily’s family has a history of entrepreneurship, and I was always interested in business, even though I chose a different career path out of college.

We decided to join the Zoyo Neighborhood Yogurt franchise as frozen yogurt was gaining popularity and it seemed as if our background in education and serving families seemed like a great fit for a family dessert shop.

The experience was extremely valuable and not entirely profitable, so after our lease ended, we sold the business and decided to move back to Albion.

Emily was going to help at the growing family business, Caster Concepts on employee engagement and I was going to help develop the rental property business my mother-in-law had built over the past few years.

It became apparent that I could get my real estate license and start to make a name for myself helping people buy and sell real estate in Albion.

As I worked with our tenants and our rental properties, my knowledge about houses improved and I started realizing that I could use my newfound skills for more than just rental properties and began to build my business as an agent and eventually a broker and owner of ACE Real Estate Services.

Getting started in any business is challenging, and this was no different. I remember feeling like I was chasing and chasing fast moving listings with my buyer clients and didn’t have much to show for it.

Thankfully, with lots of hard work, education and self-determination, I slowly built my book of clients and started to make an increasing impact for my clients, my network, and the surrounding communities.

The most fulfilling part of my work is delivering at a high level to earn my clients’ trust.

When this happens, they refer me to their friends and extended families and perhaps I can help them down the road with home questions that go beyond just buying and selling real estate.

Today, I’m grateful to be helping homeowners in Springport, Albion, Homer and nearby areas seamlessly move from one home to the next.

Joe Verbeke's Story