Fely Quitevis-Bateman has been in the real estate industry for almost five decades now, starting her career in Manila back in 1974. Through sheer handwork and determination, she was able to create a name for herself after moving to the United States.
The Nevada-based businesswoman established Precious Properties and has been calling Pahrump home for the past 30 years. Pahrump is located in Nye County, about 60 miles west of Las Vegas and an hour east of Death Valley National Park, a place known for extremes.
Through the years, Quitevis-Bateman has held positions in Nye County and she takes pride in these roles, which she navigated with ease.
“I have been very proud of all the positions I held especially being a Nye County Commissioner where together with the other 4 commissioners we carefully determined how to spend the county’s budget and the approval of different projects that came to our table for approval,” she relayed.
Quitevis-Bateman invested not just her money but her time as well. She knew she had so much to learn in the industry and believed that for her to succeed, she had to invest in improving her mental fortitude to grow a successful business venture.
She went to Harvard Business School in Cambridge from 2005 to 2007 after she was accepted from over 2,000 applicants to study Owner/President Management Program.
“I was lucky to be in the 6% who were accepted. My class was 21 days a year at $1,000/day and I had the honor to be in a group of multi-millionaire business owners and a couple of them are billionaires today,” she shared.
She makes it a point to learn from every position she gets herself into, whether it is in Harvard or her hometown of Pahrump.
“I learned very important lessons as one of the commissioners of the Division of Aging too. As a member of the jury selection, I was honored to have met and sat down with all the NV Supreme Court justices and selected a candidate that replaced an elected Nye County Judge that passed away a few months after being elected,” Quitevis-Bateman recalled.
The hardworking achiever bought her first house in Pahrump in 1999 although she has been selling Pahrump land since 1992 as a California broker.
Indeed, she has amassed great memories in Pahrump, witnessing it rise and grow into what it is today.
Club.
One of her favorite memories is when former President Fidel Ramos stayed with them in 2007 for a few days. “He was very happy to have played gold at Mountain Falls Country Club,” she quipped.
Despite her successful and colorful career, Quitevis-Bateman takes pride and treasures her humble beginnings and low-key profile.
She was born in Bugallon, Pangasinan and her father used to be a carpenter turned contractor while her mother was a plain housewife who took care of them extremely well. She is proud to share her father’s success story in helping build some high-rise buildings along Buendia Ave, Ayala Ave, and Paseo De Roxas in Makati with her siblings who are engineers, CPA, and architect.
Pahrump Rising
Quitevis-Bateman chose Nevada because demographics showed Nevada to be the No. 1 growing state, and it still is up to now, she said. She saw the great opportunity available in Pahrump and the surrounding region, especially since Pahrump is the heart of the desert and the perfect place to enjoy the best of southern Nevada.
She became a realtor in Manila in 1974 and came to Los Angeles in 1984 at the age of 41. She had several clients who wanted to retire in Nevada or Arizona so she would do her due diligence and look for properties the retirees could invest in. The first property that she herself bought gave her the idea that real estate is the best investment a person can have.
That is why when she saw that opportunities were aplenty in Pahrump, she decided to call it home. Decades later came a flourishing housing market coupled with a considerable population increase that necessitated multiple new businesses opening their doors to the public.
Over the past few years, several positive economic indicators have helped transform Pahrump to become a sleepy desert town on the rise as it slowly emerged from the Sin City’s shadow.
According to Kiplinger Letter, a trusted leader in personal finance, investments, and economic forecasts, Nevada and Arizona are the only two states to have a population growth of up to or more than 50 percent till the year 2040.
Nevada will continue to grow as predicted with Las Vegas being the entertainment capital of the world. Today, Quitevis-Bateman shared that approximately $12 billion-plus budget is on the pipeline, and some of them are now under construction.
“Investors should look at demographics in their investment process. There are approximately eight taxes that we don’t pay in NV including state income tax. We have entertainment, sports, fine dining, shopping, health care, and many more. Our international airport is one of the best nationwide,” she explained.
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