Noel Bittinger

A Reputation of Remarkable Resolve and Resilience

By Jane K. Asher, Ph.D.

Photos by Stylish Detroit

Noel Bittinger, broker/owner of Bittinger Team, REALTORS®, says that many local real estate professionals view her as a “tough babe who is detail-orientated, systematized and tough to work for,” and, although she’d love to erase that last characteristic, she admits that her reputation is not ill-founded. “Yes, I am all of those things, and that’s how I got to where I am,” Noel said. “I am tough, but, deep down, I care about everyone, and I would love for my colleagues to see my softer side.”

Behind Noel’s tough facade is a woman of great faith and resilience who has navigated and overcome a host of professional and personal hardships over the last few years, beginning in January of 2014 when she was diagnosed with stage 5 chronic kidney disease, also known as end-stage renal failure.

For over a year prior to her diagnosis, Noel experienced intense nausea and struggled to keep anything down. After undergoing “much prodding, poking and testing,” her doctors finally discovered the source of her symptoms: Noel’s kidneys had lost their filtering capabilities, resulting in dangerous levels of fluid and waste build-up in her body. A normal glomerular filtration rate (GFR) ranges between 90-120 — Noel’s was 11, which put her in the highest risk category for kidney failure.

“The doctors said my kidney disease was idiopathic, which means it came out of nowhere — no high blood pressure, no diabetes. It wasn’t until later that I found out that my father, aunt and uncle all have the same condition,” she said. “My nephrologist put me on a boatload of meds and a megadose of 80 gm of the dreaded Prednisone, which caused me to gain a ton of weight. However, with medication and a diligent diet, I got my GFR back up to 65.”

Then, in April of 2015, Noel began suffering from profuse night sweats and fatigue. These symptoms led to another daunting diagnosis: stage 3 Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. “I agonized over whether or not I should put chemo in my body as I was so concerned about what other harm it might do,” Noel said. “Finally, the doc told me that my choices were chemo or risk my cancer getting worse and killing me, so I had 20 radiation sessions and six eight-hour chemo sessions — the drugs had to be administered very slowly due to my kidney issues.”

To cope with the gravity of her situation throughout her treatment, Noel focused on her spiritual well-being and spent many of her chemo sessions in prayer, asking God for a good outcome and for the strength to overcome. “My rock is always to turn to God as there is no better healer,” she said. “Even while those radiation machines were whirring all around me, I remember thinking, ‘Yeah, yeah, this all is great, but the power of God is what will heal me.’ For 90 days, I committed to taking communion on my own at home and prayed that by His stripes I will be healed.”

During this time, Noel and her husband of 38 years, Lee Bittinger, were in the process of opening up their own real estate office and had just closed on a building in Canton. They moved into their new office in July of 2015, while Noel was still undergoing chemo. “I remember one day, after an eight-hour chemo session, I went right back to the office after Lee drove me home,” she said. “A few years prior, I even walked in the office the next day after I had four wisdom teeth pulled — the team put up a photo of me in a Wonder Woman outfit.”

Photo by Stan Shelton

Later in 2015, as Noel continued to deal with her kidney and cancer issues, she encountered another taxing obstacle in the form of a lawsuit from a former real estate team member. “We battled for over six months, and, believe it or not, the lawsuit was the most difficult situation of them all. It was one of betrayal, so it hurt the most,” Noel said. “I remember our final meeting: It was a three-hour, late-night session with both attorneys and parties, and I had to get up early the next morning for chemo.”

Then, in 2016, just as Noel’s professional situation began to return to normal, her personal life was upended when her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. In the two years that followed, Noel spent half of her time in New York City enduring “the very arduous and emotional process of getting very reluctant parents into a nursing home.”

Despite her many trials and tribulations, Noel says that she wouldn’t change a thing. “It was exactly what I feel God wanted me to do, and I did.” Noel is proud of how she bounced back each time she was knocked down. “I think the biggest lesson here was one of resilience,” she said. “I refused to allow myself to wallow in my issues — that’s how I have led my business all these years.”

Photo by Stan Shelton

During her 25-year tenure with RE/MAX, Noel was the top RE/MAX Metropolitan Detroit Region agent for 11 years in a row, as well as a Diamond Club, Hall of Fame and Circle Life awardee. Throughout her 37 years in the industry, she has served 4,448 families and sold $1.1 billion — $55 million of which she generated in 2019. Noel holds a multitude of designations — ABR, AWHD, CDPE, CRS, CRP, epro, GRI, PSA and SRS — and she’s remained in the top 0.5% of real estate agents in the Detroit Metropolitan area for the last 34 years.

Professionally speaking, Noel says the combination of her longevity and consistent top-producing status is unrivaled. On a personal level, in order to stay fit and healthy, Noel has also conquered some tough physical challenges: She ran two marathons and recently completed an intense 12-week SEALFIT athletic training led by a former Navy SEAL commander.

In life and in business, Noel possesses a type of stick-toitiveness that you don’t see every day, and it’s precisely what has fueled her top performance in the industry. Her systematic approach to making things happen — her ability to combat chaos and restore order to the toughest personal and professional situations — may initially seem a bit intimating, because, after all, Noel is a “tough mofo” and a “real badass.”

Yet, more importantly, behind Noel’s tough exterior lies a kind, giving and compassionate spirit, as well as a wealth of resolve, prudence and practical advice that we all can embrace at some point in our lives. “Always put your issues in perspective, and know that someone else has it a lot worse than you so that you don’t feel sorry for yourself,” Noel said. “Find what moves you spiritually, and seek that first: My faith in God is what gets me through everything. Then figure out how you’re going to get through this without even thinking, for a moment, that you won’t get through it. Focus on the outcome, not on what you are going through … and know there will be resolution.”

Noel Bittinger - Real Inspiration --Top Producer