"I was new to Iowa," Eena Gardner remembers. "I did not know anyone: no friends no family. I literally started from zero."

It's been a long trip for Eena. Both in time and space.

She was born and raised in the Philippines, a country of over 7000 islands and 8000 miles from West Des Moines, where she now lives. 

She graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from the University of the Philippines, one of the top universities in the country. 

"I wanted to be a lawyer," she says, "but I took a different path."

Fresh out of college, Eena was offered a job as a television news reporter for the largest TV network in the Philippines, GMA 7. "I covered the defense beat at the height of the attempted 'peaceful' coup d'état in 1989."

That coup was a serious attempt to topple the legally elected president, Corazon Aquino. The plot was driven by members of the armed forces of the Philippines still loyal to the ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

"As a reporter, it was super exciting," Eena remembers. "I was assigned to the Military/Defense beat. I was on the frontline."

"The chaos of the coup only lasted for a couple of months," she says. " The leaders of the coup were sent to prison. But, the excitement of the beat did not end there. There were still serious news stories about communist insurgents, drug raids, and natural disasters. "

After two years on primetime news, Eena retired as a news reporter.

"One morning, in 2002, I just woke up and decided that I needed to get us out of my country."

“I was a young single mother with an 8-year-old daughter (Samantha). I just left and found myself in California.” And, by 2004 she was working as a mortgage broker.

While in California, she met her eventual husband, Bryan, a Midwestern boy living on the West Coast. They would eventually swell their family to four: Samantha (30), Conall (16), Logan  (14), and Reagan (13).

In 2012, when the mortgage meltdown hit, they moved to Iowa. "In 2014, I took a leap of faith and earned my Real Estate license. I didn't know anyone here. That was my biggest challenge."

Eena continues, “For me, Real Estate is not about selling houses. Real Estate is creating relationships.” She clearly loves and cherishes the friendships she made through this profession.

"I love every inch of being part of the home-buying process," she says. "Especially helping my fellow immigrant clients achieve the American Dream!"

"Every day, I get to be part of that American Dream."

"Real Estate has been good to me and to my family," says Eena. "As long as my clients continue to trust me, I hope to be doing this as long as I can."