The legal documents to buy a home look the same every time.
But Keith Crockett never tires of helping a client through them.
“With commercial deals, it’s sign-and-go, sign-and-go,” Crockett said. “With homeowners, it’s more personal. It’s signing and laughing. There’s always laughing when it’s a residential homebuyer.”
Crockett, a Ponte Vedra Beach residential real estate attorney, opened his law practice two years ago.
The idea was to break from his corporate beginnings, where 50 title transactions per month were common. Instead, he opted for a business model a little more Jerry Maguire: Fewer clients, better service.
His office performs real estate closings and consults on issues of landlord tenant law, HOA/condominium association law, business formation and foreclosures and short sales.
Typically, residential real estate lawyers stick with transaction-type services. Crockett decided early he would handle litigation as well — a choice that keeps him well-versed in case law.
The suits he takes on aren’t big corporate ones that win huge settlements. Mainly he’s been helping homeowners negotiate short sales, a challenge faced by the everyman during what has been a historic housing downturn.
“You take an oath when you become an attorney to help people,” Crockett said.
In one case, Crockett represented a man with a large family, a low-wage job at a garage and a series of personal misfortunes.
“He couldn’t pay the mortgage. He worked hard, but he just couldn’t afford it anymore,” Crockett said.
He defended the man in court and closed the case without him owing more payments. The client was shocked.
“He said, ‘You’ve done more for my family than anyone,’” Crockett said. “You could see the emotion in his face.”
Championing the little guy is a fight that fits Crockett’s roots.
Crockett grew up in Onley, Va., a town with barely 500 residents lying on a peninsula off the state’s eastern shore.
It was Chesapeake Bay blue crab territory and Crockett’s father ran a family seafood business. From an early age, Crockett spent hot weekends and summers picking and packaging crabs caught by local fisherman. The work taught Crockett how hard it could be to run a business and make a dollar.
The area was rural, but was connected to bigger things. Virginia was the state of Jamestown, Williamsburg and Thomas Jefferson.
It’s why Crockett wanted to attend the University of Virginia, the school the founding father had established. He was encouraged by his grandfather, a high school teacher, principal and basketball coach who took him to breakfast every Friday and paid attention to how he was doing in school.
But, the decision to pursue law did not come immediately. Crockett studied biology as an undergraduate, thinking it would lead to a decent job.
By his senior year he realized he didn’t want to work in a lab. His love of history led him to continue school as a law student.
Looking back, he realized it was his sixth-grade teacher who first put the idea in his head.
“She said I’d make a good lawyer, probably because I was very outspoken and I talked a lot when I was not supposed to,” he said with a laugh.
Crockett came to Jacksonville on a scholarship from Florida Coastal School of Law. It was a big step for a young man whose family had lived on the Virginia coast since the 1600s.
A few years later he would leave a secure corporate job to open his own law firm — a step folks back home also thought risky.
One person who never doubted him was his grandfather.
“He would always be the one to say, ‘No, you need to do it,’” Crockett said.
He told Crockett it was a privilege to work in a profession that made a difference. He died two years ago, the same year Crockett opened his business.
“He would have loved to see all of this,” Crockett said. “He never saw it.”
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