Realtor Lorna Chen of the Chen Agency was surprised when the Greater Fort Lee Chamber of Commerce (GFLCC) awarded her and her son, Nelson, the 2009 Persons of the Year award. The annual honor is awarded to those who have distinguished themselves through service benefiting both the business and civil communities in the greater Fort Lee area. "We never think of those things," Lorna Chen. "We're workaholics." Craig Weinstein, president of the GFLCC explained why the mother and son team was chosen. "Lorna and Nelson were chosen for outstanding contribution to the Fort Lee community and their knowledge of real estate, reputation, professionalism and their extreme attention to details," said Weinstein. "When I speak to clients involved in deals with them, they're always impressed." The Chen Agency completely renovated a dilapidated building at1392 Palisade Ave. in 1998. They made the building their office and later received a certificate of merit award from GFLCC after completion. Lorna Chen was born in Hong Kong and has ancestry in Shanghai. And she maintains a close connection to her culture by and speaks fluently in three Chinese dialects. She is a 30 year veteran in the industry. But she didn't aspire to work in real estate right away. Having studied computer science, Chen was database administrator for Columbia-Presbyterian and Cornell Hospitals before they merged. Lorna Chen's real estate career started in Fort Lee with Murphy Realty Better Homes and Gardens, but didn't follow traditional path. "I did a lot of condo investments in new construction,"Chen said. "Joe Murphy found out and asked me to take the spot to train his sales people about condos. I started at the top, scrambled to learn what agents were doing, and attended courses to make myself worthy." Lorna Chen became the regional vice president and director of condominium and co-op marketing for the company's 23 offices, and her Fort Lee office became the first realty in the borough that specialized in condominium and cooperative sales. "I made weekly training trips to train managers of other offices to introduce them to the physical, financial and legal differences between condos and coops." Lorna Chen said. "I also showed them how to sell them." Lorna Chen was eventually recruited by Hartz Mountain Industries, a Secaucus based company in Edgewater site. She was made vice president of residential development and started the Independence Harbor development. Nelson Chen eventually took over on-site sales and became known as the "King of Edgewater" in the early 90's. "We became actively involved in Edgewater real estate back when you had to pull people to buy in Edgewater because there was nothing there," Nelson Chen said. "The joke was, you had to drive out of town to buy bread. It's funny, we both live in Edgewater now." Nelson Chen was trained in the real estate business since adolescence. When his mother brought home floor plan designs and selection of materials, he was making suggestions. "As a child, [Nelson] read a lot," Lorna Chen said. "He was educated in Elizabeth Morrow School and learned spatial relationship. He's one of those young people that was great at it. I was VP, but he was helping." "I loved looking at floor plans," said Nelson Chen. "It was an absolute passion when I was 13 years old." When Nelson Chen was a junior at Dwight Morrow High School and looking at colleges, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania had just announced the start of a real estate program. "That's was it," said Nelson Chen. That where I wanted to go. I got licensed right after graduating from Dwight." In 1991, Lorna decided to return to local brokerage and six years later founded The Chen Agency with her son, Nelson. As for advice in a volatile real estate market today, "If you want to buy real estate for yourself, the time is now," Lorna said. "There's a lot of selection and mortgages are at a historic low. But if you wait too long in hopes that prices will go down, you won't have the selections." When asked what was the most valuable lesson learned through out his career was, Nelson Chen responded, "You have to earn people's trust. It's a short, sweet sentiment. And once you do, success is really automatic."