Melissa J. Shea is a licensed Real Estate Broker in CT and NY and Regional Owner of EXIT Realty CT and RI. She has served as President of the Long Island Real Estate Investor Association (LIREIA) since 2007. A successful small business owner since 1996 and a real estate investor since 2004, Melissa is a licensed Broker with EXIT Realty Everyday In NY and EXIT Realty Everyday in CT. She also holds a commercial loan officer license for all 50 states. Melissa's real estate investment journey began in 2004. By 2009, she had acquired a portfolio of over 360 rental units, primarily in Alabama and Mississippi, including six renovated apartment complexes. She has since completed over 600 fix and flips and new construction projects, both residential and commercial, and has overseen more than $100 million in real estate transactions. As an educator in the real estate investing community, Melissa has taught over 100 students. Impressively, 84 of her students have earned their investment back within two years, and 40 have earned $100,000 in real estate investing through either equity or cash flow. Melissa's expertise extends to distressed short sales, modifications, private note purchasing, and private capital brokering. She has raised over $40 million in capital for real estate and operates a property management company. Together with her husband, she has built new construction homes for affordable housing and is currently developing new homes in South Carolina and a travel center to create employment opportunities for those impacted by domestic violence. Melissa is an international speaker, a two-time author with Mission Matters and the Jack Canfield group, and was voted among the Top 100 women in Real Estate in 2019. In 2020, she sold one of her companies for over $3 million to an international company and was featured in Forbes magazine. She and her husband John are founders of the non-profit organization Clear the Way Supportive Housing Corp, which focuses on foreclosure prevention, homelessness prevention, and affordable housing, particularly for those with disabilities. Melissa and John reside on Kent Island, MD with their eight children.