Debbie Solano specializes in finding the perfect home for families who want to enjoy country living with easy access to the amenities of the city and suburban shopping.

Growing up in dairy country where the trains turned around to head back to New York City, Debbie tries to recreate for her clients the lifestyle she enjoyed as a kid, believing that being able to come home from school and ride a horse or walk in the woods is what every child should experience while parents work in the city or fly around the world.

In Debbie’s own words:  “Daddy exported oil field machinery for Tulsa clients.  In 1940 he moved his family to New York because that is where the export business was.  They raised their kids as New Yorkers and moved back to Houston in 1976, again because that was where the oil industry had moved.

“My parents had friends in Tulsa and my great uncle had been president of TU when it was Kendall College.  I visited here for the first time in 1967, but did not move here until 1984.

“My ex-husband was recruited by Hall, Estill and so we moved here from Pittsburgh, PA, where I had worked as the law librarian for Jesse Luton, the general counsel of Gulf Oil Corporation.  When Chevron took us over there was no reason for us to stay in Pittsburgh.

“So I came here and headed up the Hardesty South Regional Library.  However, since I also had certification as a corporate records manager, I left the public library to run Library and Records Management Services, Inc. while raising our son Michael.

“Then in 1988 I was recruited to work as the executive secretary to Gene Williams, a commercial real estate developer and partner in Henson-Williams Realty.  While I was there we were building a planned community around a yacht club south of Houston and we were also doing a design competition for an office building in Kuala Lumpur.  I learned quickly how to prepare professional brochures and presentations for dog and pony shows.

“Following a life-long call to ministry, I headed off in 1991 to attend Perkins School of Theology at SMU.  Because of the difficulty of commuting from Claremore to Dallas and maintaining a farm and a family, it took me six years to get my M.Div. During that time I got my real estate license and spent six months selling houses as a buyers’ agent for Gordona Duca.  When I finally graduated I was able to stay home in Claremore.

“While waiting on the ordination process, which never happened, I first got a job selling sucker rods at Upco.  Then I worked at the help desk at Sabre fixing computers and printers over the phone for French-speaking travel agents.  That was where I learned how to build web pages in French and code in XHTML.

“Then I worked as a paralegal while I took some education courses to get alternative teaching certification.  I did research and prepared documentation to prove that a family from Zimbabwe would be slaughtered if the INS did not grant them asylum.  I learned then how powerfully wired the world was through the internet, and yet how ephemeral the information was.  I had visions of servers being smashed across the dark continent in the era when blood diamonds were first being documented.

“Then I taught middle-school French in Bartlesville the year that we were all eating freedom fries.  That was interesting.  I loved my kids, but the position disappeared when the budget was cut.

“So I took my theological education and my teaching experience and worked as the Director of Christian Education and Youth Director at a church in Broken Arrow.  However, when I found myself divorced after thirty years of marriage, I realized I needed more income and a retirement plan.

“I never thought I would be resurrecting the real estate license, but that is exactly what I did in 2005.  I found Patt Cooley, my former managing broker, and placed my license with her office at Coldwell Banker Radergroup.  I joined the Land & Ranch Division in order to get back out into the country and see horses and cattle.

“Meanwhile I met friends in the oil industry who sent me out to Woodward to the High Plains Vo-Tech Center.  I participated in the government programs there to learn about the oil and gas business.  I even sold a house via cell phone while I was there.  Lo and behold I now have a rig pass.  I joined the AAPL and did some occasional landman work for a fledgling oil company that has recently begun exploring for oil right here in Tulsa County.

“This experience in the oil & gas industry has proved to be a godsend for my real estate clients looking for rural property.  I know what a D6 dozer can do in short order to beautiful property.  I now encourage all my buyers to try to get the mineral rights under their land.

“Moreover, I now understand what my father did for a living.  I am the only one of his five kids who has a clue to what a pioneer he was in his business.  I wish I had paid more attention to all of his stories!

“In 2007 I started building websites to attract farm and ranch clients.  Now most of my business comes from the internet.  Many of my clients find me and work with me because they know that I understand what they mean when they don’t want to see their neighbors or hear highway traffic.  I know how to find oil fields, wells, and flow lines.  Chicken farms are a bit trickier, because the wind carries the odor for miles.  Google Earth has become my friend.

“So here I am trying to make a buck peddling land and lifestyle.  I now work out of Coldwell Banker Select’s office in midtown Tulsa at 4408 South Harvard.

“With this website and my other monster website, TulsaRealEstateWeb.com, my buyers are able to find property anywhere in northeast Oklahoma.  My home buyers come from all over the country and work with me because they know I am passionate about country property and am willing to drive to help them find the ranch or homestead where they can enjoy our wide open Oklahoma sky, but still get to Tulsa, the hub of northeast Oklahoma, the cultural center of the universe, if you will, in the same way that Paris, France is the cultural center of a different world.

“Enjoy the maps! Explore my featured partners. and don’t forget to look at my school district and community pages.”

– Debbie Solano