“I wanted to reinvent myself”, said Chuck Fuery describing what attracted him to SCORE of Silicon Valley. After training as a classical pianist and teaching classical music at the University of California at Berkeley for ten years, Chuck decided to explore alternative careers to achieve his life goals of having a family and owning a home in the bay area. Real estate sounding interesting to Chuck, but he wasn't satisfied working as an employee at a commercial brokerage firm. Then Chuck saw an ad for the SCORE Small Business Success all day workshop. and took the crucial step to attend. While there, SCORE members informed him of the free, ongoing individual counseling.

Attending the seminar provided the catalyst for Chuck to start his own real estate company. He also took advantage of the one on one counseling provided by SCORE. Over the last 16 years, Chuck Fuery has built a thriving real estate investment and property management business, called Stanford Property & Finance.

Over the years, Chuck has helped his clients buy, sell, finance and manage more than $100 Million dollars of property. His client base has ranged from CEOs of Fortune 500 companies to professors, coaches, and staff at Stanford University. One of his goals is to teach others how to safely and successfully invest in real estate to create a better life for themselves and their families. To this end he has helped a number of clients form real estate holding trusts which safely allow their investments to grow with privacy and fully exploit the tax advantages congress has afforded to real estate investment.

Chuck’s success has enabled him to bring on two full-time and three part-time employees and become financially independent. Admirably, Chuck joined SCORE as a counselor to give back to his community and has maintained his SCORE counseling commitments while building his business. In addition to his regular SCORE counseling, Chuck is mentoring another aspiring real estate executive. He has also helped another client turn around his business with co-counselors John Edwards and Bill Bryson.

How exactly did SCORE help this professor of music become a successful real estate investor? The SCORE Small Business Workshop and ongoing counseling helped Chuck transition from an academic, research person to a business, people-oriented person. “The seminar showed me the value of selecting good professionals to help me with my business”. “Co-counseling was like an apprenticeship in running my own business. I learned about multiple ways to approach business problems and opportunities. In counseling others, I often came away with ideas for my own business.” SCORE mentoring by John Edwards has also helped Chuck focus on implementing more effective business plans, cash flow plans, digital technology and time management techniques.

Chuck is especially proud of being able to achieve his life goals of having a satisfying family life, being able to own a home in the bay area, and giving back to the community. As this professional musician can attest, Chuck knows the “sounds of success”.