Samuel Ortega Lao

The “accidental” real estate broker from Cebu, Dr. Samuel Ortega Lao, is now the National President of PAREB, the First and Largest national real estate service organization in the country. Founded in 1960, it is composed of Seventy Seven (77) Local Board Associations with Six Thousand (6,000) members and associates from different parts of the country. Dr. Lao, actually graduated from the Cebu Doctor’s University, with a degree on Occupational therapy. His entry to real estate, just about when the Asian Financial Crisis started to set in 2007, was just a favor for his friend who asked him to help sell a subdivision project that his friend developed.

Although he has a medical degree, he also has an extensive experience in the food business since he also managed their family’s fastfood enterprise while he was running a Direct Selling business at the same time. He found his new venture quite exciting and decided to take the examination to become a licensed real estate broker. He realized that the income potential of real estate is many times more than what he was previously doing with relatively lesser stress.

To gain more experience and learn more about the industry, he joined a big real estate company as an In-house Sales agent. Being a real entrepreneur, he already started his own company,  Realty Options, Inc. after just one year. And as they say, the rest is history. His company has grown many times over and his leadership and influence in the industry has definitely become truly remarkable. Proof of this is the trust given to him to lead this huge organization. A true professional who we can learn from and a leader to be emulated, especially by the new “accidental” real estate practitioners.