Our Team

Melissa was born and raised on Long Island in New York and is of Puerto Rican and Portuguese decent.  Being trilingual, she is uniquely posed to assist non-native speakers in the homebuying process.  She attended CW Post Long Island University and graduated magna cum laude with honors. After graduating University, she attended Hofstra Law School and was admitted to the Bar May 2001 in New York’s 2nd Judicial District.

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Following a few years as an Associate in a boutique real estate firm on Long Island, Melissa decided to branch out on her own.  She spent over a decade as a solo practitioner in private practice with a focus on transactional residential real estate, bank settlement, and landlord/tenant summary litigation.  In addition, she regularly practiced of counsel in her areas of expertise for a number of large New York law firms.  She had the honor of being published in the New York Law Journal on an interesting and precedent strengthening Landlord/Tenant case in 2013.

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Melissa and her family relocated to NC in 2015,   She spends her free time encouraging her children’s ever expanding sports and educational interests, exploring our State Parks, and practicing Pilates & Yoga.  In addition, as a Board member of NAHREP Raleigh-Durham Chapter, Melissa spends much of her free time involved in a cause near and dear to her heart...expanding the goal of mentorship, education, and homeownership for the Latino Community.   You’ll find her most weekends out and about in jeans and a New York Yankee ball cap. Go Yankees!!!

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Licenses

• New York State Bar (2001)
• North Carolina Bar (2017)

Gabrielle was born in Jamaica Queens, New York and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina.  She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Asheville with a Bachelors in Sociology and Minor in Legal Studies obtained in 2019. She shares her Hispanic heritage with the rest of TPL and hails from the Dominican Republic.

She joins TPL with over 3 years of Real Estate and Criminal paralegal experience and a background in Home Insurance. Gabby comes from a long line of real estate professionals and inherited her passion for real estate from her family, many of whom have been involved in real estate for decades.  

She and her family recently became local Wendell residents, purchasing their first home in Johnston County.  In her free time,  she enjoys hiking with her husband and two pups, reading mystery novels, and baking.