She has been a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Walter Williams for 15 years and a long-time volunteer in PGA Tour events here. She has been a real estate agent since 1980. She started with Sam Folds Real Estate and then moved over to Universal Buildings and H. Smith Inc. on a joint venture as a sales agent. “I decided that site work wasn’t what I wanted to do and that I wanted to go to a bigger company, so I went with Walter [Williams].”
SPECIALITY?
Residential leasing and sales.
AREA SHE WORKS?
“I try to keep it in a circumference of San Marco through St. Johns County and then east to the beaches. I will do some Westside and Orange Park but not as much. It’s a really big town.”
WHY DID SHE GET
INTO REAL ESTATE?
“It looked interesting and like something that had flexible hours. My children were going into high school at the time and I had some extra time. I thought I could be real flexible and work part time, which is not true.”
HOW DO YOU LIKE IT?
“I enjoy it. I enjoy meeting people and getting to know them.”
BEFORE REAL ESTATE
“I worked at a television and radio station in the public relations, promotions and music department part time in Michigan before we moved to Jacksonville. After we moved to Jacksonville I was a housewife.”
MOVED TO
JACKSONVILLE?
In 1975.
RESIDES
Deercreek.
VOLUNTEERING
FOR GOLF?
She has been volunteering for The Players Championship since 1976 when it was the Greater Jacksonville Open. 1976 was the last year it was played at Deerwood and then it was replaced by the PGA Tour’s Players Championship and moved to Ponte Vedra, first at Sawgrass and then at the TPC. She is currently the chairman of The Island Club, a special ticket package.
WHAT DO THEY GET
FOR THEIR PACKAGE PURCHASE?
“They get so many badges and parking passes and then they give them to their clients. The Island Club is the area where they can bring their clients to eat, drink and entertain them. It’s more of a corporate hospitality area.”
WHAT DOES SHE DO?
She’s there every day. “I hostess more than anything else. I make sure all The Island Club people are happy. There are a lot of people who come in and want to know where to go. We keep pairing sheets and corporate hospitality maps for them. It’s more of an information center.”
HOW DOES SHE
WORK REAL
ESTATE THAT WEEK?
“I work real estate in the mornings and then go out there in the afternoon. I have a couple other real estate agents, Nancy Pearson of Prudential and Sandy Wagner of Watson Realty, who also work there and they understand the situation. They just happened to sign up on my committee and actually Pearson is my co-chairman.”
NETWORKING
OPPORTUNITY?
“It’s a great place to network. It’s wonderful. I always come away with two or three contacts of some sort. You meet a lot of real interesting people and you also see people that you haven’t seen in a long time and they are always impressed that you are doing something different besides selling real estate.”
FAVORITE THING
ABOUT REAL ESTATE?
“It’s an ego builder for me when people to say they saw my name or my picture in the paper or that someone recommended me to them. I like building long-term relationships which in turn give great referral business. I pretty much do referral business than anything else.”
LEAST FAVORITE THING?
“Being on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
WHAT IS THE HARDEST AND EASIEST THING ABOUT SELLING REAL ESTATE IN GOLF COURSE COMMUNITIES?
“The easiest thing is that it is a lifestyle in itself. You have instant friendships, places to go and it is just the way of the young families coming into town because there are set activities for the adults and the children. The hardest thing is the people that are used to wide open spaces and not living under covenants and restrictions. Either you want that type of lifestyle or you don’t.”
WHAT ADVICE
WOULD YOU GIVE
TO A NEW AGENT?
“Hang in there. If you can give yourself two to three years hard years, you are set. Work hard initially and don’t try to take the easy way out. So many young agents come in with stars in their eyes and they think it’s going to happen overnight and it doesn’t. Referrals start coming back to you in two or three years.”
BIRTHPLACE
Ohio.
FAMILY
Married to Bill for 16 years. Together they have five children: Todd, 35; Amy, 33; Mike 32; Emily 30 and Michael, 25. They also have five and a half grandchildren: Mikey, 12; Auden, 7, Logan, 5; Caroline, 1 and a half, Olivia also 1 and a half and a baby due in September. “Olivia and Caroline were born two days apart. It was interesting.”
HOBBIES
She enjoys traveling, snow skiing, golf, tennis and attending football games.
FAVORITES
The most recent movie she saw was “A Perfect Mind.” A book she would recommend is “Along Came a Spider” by James Patterson. Her favorite restaurant is The Wine Cellar and when relaxing at home, she enjoys tuning into Judging Amy and ER.
—by Michele Newbern Gillis