Growing up in Queens, New York, Merri Perry saw it all.

Her mother was a gambler and underground poker player, coming and going at all hours of the day, leaving her daughter alone as she was a single mother. Her father was in the military and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and slipped into drug addiction. Perry said her childhood was anything but normal and incredibly chaotic, but one: she wouldn’t trade it for anything, and two: she is who she is because of it.

“I am who I am because of both of my parents,” said Perry, the team lead for Realty One Group, who is one of the top real estate agents in the metro and the newly named president-elect of the Las Vegas Realtors. “My father, when I saw him, he was on drugs, and then my mother was a gambler and never around. So I always said I would not take their path, so I became stronger and better. Some people, they end up copying what their parents do, and I was like, ‘Heck no.’”

Perry’s climb — she now sits in the top 1 percent of Las Vegas real estate agents in terms of sales — has been a long and winding one, another journey she said she wouldn’t trade for anything. She left Queens with her mother when she was 13, moving to Las Vegas in the 1980s when the city was anything but what it was today.

“I remember pleading to my mother, ‘Why are we moving to Las Vegas? No one lives in Las Vegas. Why am I leaving all of my friends I only have two months left in the seventh grade.’ But I made the best of it as quickly as I could.”

Perry said her mother’s gambling continued, and even intensified in Sin City, leaving at night and not coming home until early in the morning. Perry said she got picked on at school because all the kids thought her mother was a prostitute.

“I used to beg her, ‘Please mom can you do something else? Everyone always calls you bad names.’”

However, Perry said she still had a lot of respect for her late mother, a woman in a male-dominated industry, the gaming one on top of it, where people can get eaten alive in a moment’s notice. Perry said her mother’s grit definitely rubbed off on her.

“That’s all she ever did for a living,” recalls Perry. “She was smart and she was a hustler, she did what she had to do.”

Perry luckily had one high school counselor who saw strong math skills, coupled with street smarts, in her — much like her mother, and asked her what she wanted to do after graduation. Perry said she wanted to go to college, and so she ended up getting a full scholarship to UNLV, but had to work two jobs to support herself and her mother. She also didn’t have a car.

After a few years it became too much, and she dropped out and in 1987 started working at the Riviera Hotel & Casino as a waitress. Not even 21, she was already waiting tables, hustling and trying to make a living.

Discovering real estate

It was at that point though that Perry discovered real estate, accompanying some friends to view a home they were thinking of buying and before she knew it, Perry was negotiating and hustling with the Realtor. She ended up saving her friends close to $5,000, and Perry said a light bulb went off in her head.

“I remember saying to myself, ‘I need to go to real estate school.’”

Perry got her license in 1989, and said being a woman in the industry at that time was tough, and the lack of technology meant even more leg work in terms of finding and chasing leads. Perry joined a real estate team and was still working as a cocktail waitress on the side. She later got married to a professional poker player and had two boys, putting her career on hold again in the mid-1990s. She got into real estate again — this time with serious fire — after getting divorced 14 years ago.

“I’m great at it,” she said about being a Realtor. “Not just good, I know I’m great because I get my clients the best deals, and I work from the very beginning to the very end to make sure they get it.”

From there, Perry got to where she is today, at the top of her game, however she makes sure she takes time to give back to those less fortunate within her community. She currently volunteers for a number of organizations including Three Square, Give Back Homes, The Just One Project, Feeding the Homeless, Serving our Kids and she is also on the board for Project 150. Perry has also helped raise funds for the Injured Police Officer’s Fund, Bamboo Bridges and regularly helps out via the Las Vegas Realtors Community Outreach Committee.

Joshua Campa, who works for Berkshire Hathaway Home Services in the property division and has known Perry for years, said she is a “beacon of light” within the community who has more than 30 years experience in the game, and it shows.

“She is always giving back to others in any way she can,” he added. “She has the biggest heart and would give the shirt off her back for someone in need… She is a boots on the ground Realtor who prides herself in helping others achieve their dream of homeownership.”

Perry has become a mainstay within real estate circles in the city, and she said it all boils down to one thing for her when it comes to her line of work — being able to change people’s lives for the better.

“Everyone deserves the right to own their own home and call a place their own, and earn generational wealth while doing it. It is really the American dream. And that’s why I don’t think I’m ever going to retire because I love that feeling of helping put someone into a home they love.”