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MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
Rod Peeler has been selling real estate in the city for 45 years. His \u2018never sleep\u2019 tagline has garnered him international attention, including on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.<\/p>\n
DeGeneres had an ongoing bit that asked viewers to submit photos of amusing real-estate signs, Peeler says, seated in a Corydon Avenue restaurant where he is slowly picking away at a teriyaki-chicken salad, being careful not to spill any sauce on a crisply-ironed white shirt.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody \u2014 I don\u2019t know who \u2014 sent in a picture of one of my signs and Ellen was like, \u2018You know, he doesn\u2019t look too bad for a guy who never sleeps.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
James Herbert Roderick Peeler, 78, was born on a cattle-and-wheat farm situated eight kilometres outside of Neepawa. The second-eldest of five siblings was six years old in 1953 when he was stricken with polio, resulting in an eight-month hospital stay in Winnipeg. He made a full recovery, though, to this day, his left leg is shorter and weaker than his right.<\/p>\n
The farm was an idyllic place for a young boy to grow up, he goes on, but that all came to a crashing halt in 1957 when his father, who often became violent when he drank, had a particularly scary episode. That afternoon, his mother Doris instructed the kids to get in the car, and fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the last time I saw him or the farm, my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n
After arriving in Winnipeg, they moved into a one-bedroom, second-floor apartment on Osborne Street, in the heart of what is presently Osborne Village. Their mother was studying to become a cosmetologist, so to help make ends meet, Peeler and his older brother Barrie got after-school jobs delivering the Winnipeg Tribune and Free Press.<\/p>\n
A succession of moves followed. By the time Peeler was a Grade 10 student at Kelvin High School, his family was living on Corydon Avenue, a couple of blocks away from a promising musician and fellow Kelvin-ite with whom Peeler walked to and from school, on a near-daily basis.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Matthew Rankin, who directs and stars in Universal Language, sits on bench adorned with the familiar image of Peeler.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d go by Neil\u2019s (Young) place and he\u2019d yell out, \u2018Hey man, how ya doin\u2019?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n At age 16 Peeler got a part-time job in the children\u2019s-wear department of the downtown Bay store. He turned out to be a born salesperson and during his senior year of high school, he aced the Bay\u2019s management-training course exam. He was already planning his future as a department manager when a higher-up informed him he wouldn\u2019t be allowed to advance, as he lacked the necessary university credits. Also, if he wanted to keep his position, he would have to get a haircut. (The Beatles were all the rage and Peeler had let his coif grow out, in an effort to emulate the Fab Four.)<\/p>\n Telling himself \u201cI\u2019ll show them,\u201d he marched over to the Portage Avenue Eaton\u2019s store the next day to request an interview with the head of personnel. They must have liked what they heard. He was offered a position and spent the next 15 years with Eaton\u2019s.<\/p>\n Peeler was in his late 20s, married with three young children, when he began travelling first-class to Toronto, Los Angeles and New York City as the person directly responsible for purchasing ladies\u2019 fashion garments for all of Eaton\u2019s western Canadian stores. Things were going along swimmingly until 1979 \u2014 the year a global recession tied to an energy crisis caused double-digit inflation and 21 per cent home-mortgage rates.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember our bosses calling us all together and announcing that, effective immediately, everything we were doing was shutting down and that Toronto would be calling all the shots,\u201d Peeler says. \u201cI had three kids, a house, a cottage at Victoria Beach, a new Volvo and suddenly, no job. I was absolutely devastated. I seriously thought my life had ended.\u201d<\/p>\n Peeler spent the next two years trying his hand at various sales jobs, none of which panned out. In July 1981 his brother-in-law Harry DeLeeuw, co-founder of DelBro Real Estate along with his brother Bert, asked if he had ever considered a career in real estate.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t SUPPLIED <\/p>\n Peeler works the phone when he was assistant store manager at Eaton\u2019s in 1975. <\/p>\n \u201cMy answer was no because, if I\u2019m being honest, I thought it was beneath me,\u201d he says. DeLeeuw persisted and a few weeks later, Peeler showed up at DelBro\u2019s St. Vital headquarters, asking the receptionist to direct him to his office.<\/p>\n \u201cMy \u2018office\u2019 turned out to be a cubicle the size of this table with a phone and a single chair,\u201d Peeler says, calling the moment an eye-opener for a person who, despite his then-lot in life, continued to have an ego \u201cthis big.\u201d (Here he spreads his arms out fully.)<\/p>\n Without any clients or leads, Peeler spent the first few weeks scanning the classified section of the Free Press, hunting for parties who were selling their home privately. He called every listed number, guaranteeing the person at the other end of the line that he could get them more than their asking price, \u201cwhether that was true or not.\u201d<\/p>\n Everybody kept telling him thanks, but no thanks, until he finally convinced a person on Academy Road \u2014 here he cites the precise address, promising never to forget it \u2014 to let him handle the sale.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got close to $100,000 and suddenly, I was off to the races,\u201d he beams. \u201cGoing in, I thought I\u2019d be lucky to take home $30,000 in my first year but after seven months, I was already close to $100,000 in commissions, thanks to phone calls, phone calls and more phone calls.\u201d (Before cellphones came along, he knew the location of every public phone booth in town.)<\/p>\n Peeler, who believes he was one of the first real estate agents in the country to plaster their face on \u201cfor sale\u201d signs, was visiting San Francisco in the late 1980s when he spotted a billboard for a person who claimed to live and work in a city that never sleeps. As soon as he returned to Winnipeg, he told a colleague that, going forward, he was going to use the catchphrase \u201cI never sleep\u201d on all of his advertising material.<\/p>\n \u201cHe told me, \u2018don\u2019t do that, it sounds stupid.\u2019 I did it anyway and let\u2019s just say it stuck,\u201d he says, adding his phone used to ring at all hours of the night, mostly from prank callers wondering if his nocturnal motto was true or not.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t SUPPLIED<\/p>\n Peeler was an early adopter of including his face Peeler guesses he was around 50 when people began remarking that besides sharing a given name with Rod Stewart, he bore an uncanny resemblance to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, too, thanks in large part to his shaggy do. Soon, he began appearing at charitable functions as Rod the Mod, strumming a guitar and offering renditions of hits such as Maggie May, Do Ya Think I\u2019m Sexy and Hot Legs. He has yet to meet Stewart in the flesh, though he did create a bit of a stir in 2014, ahead of a sold-out Stewart concert at Canada Life Centre.<\/p>\n \u201cI got all dressed up and arrived at the arena in a limo. I was waving my hand out the window to people in line and they started yelling \u2018look, it\u2019s Rod,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cEven after they realized I wasn\u2019t him, they still wanted to get their picture taken with me.\u201d<\/p>\n Now married to his second wife, the grandfather of five remains professionally active despite a couple of health scares \u2014 a stroke in 2008 and a heart attack in 2014.<\/p>\n His goal is to work until he\u2019s 90 \u2014 \u201ca nice round number.\u201d He presently sells around 20 homes a year \u2014 during his prime, that number regularly topped a hundred \u2014 which allows him ample time to travel as well as explore his newfound artistic side.<\/p>\n Most nights, he can be found painting away in the basement of his River Park South home, while his wife is upstairs watching TV, something he rarely does aside from programs such as \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 Love It or List It.<\/p>\n Finally, if you\u2019re wondering how much shut-eye Peeler gets nowadays, you\u2019ll be pleased to learn it\u2019s well within the realm recommended by sleep experts.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS <\/p>\n Rod Peeler has long been Winnipeg-famous for his \u201cI never sleep\u201d slogan and for his mop of hair, reminiscent of Rod Stewart. <\/p>\n \u201cBed about 10:30 (p.m.), up at 7 (a.m.), no naps. I\u2019m always available but usually don\u2019t respond to calls after 10 or so.\u201d<\/p>\n winnipegfreepress.com\/davidsanderson<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\tWinnipeg Gardener<\/p>\n Monthly<\/p>\n What you need to know now about gardening in Winnipeg. An email with advice, ideas and tips to keep your outdoor and indoor plants growing.<\/p>\n \t\t\tSign up for Winnipeg Gardener<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t
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\non \u2018for sale\u2019 signs.<\/p>\n
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