Sherry Dennard has been a real estate agent with Chaplin-Williams Real Estate, Inc. on Amelia Island for four years.
WHAT DOES SHE DO?
She lists and sells residential real estate in Nassau County.
HER HISTORY?
Dennard was in the mortgage business for 12 years in Jacksonville. She worked for several companies including Stockton, Whatley, Davin & Co., Tucker Brothers and Duval Federal. She decided to take some time off to raise her children before returning to work. In 1998, she visited Amelia Island and loved the area so much that she moved there. After she moved she got a job as a sales assistant at Amelia Island Plantation and then decided to get her real estate license and joined Chaplin-Williams.
WHY GO INTO REAL ESTATE?
“I just decided that I wanted to do it. I knew that I had enough experience in the mortgage business that I could understand it fairly quickly.”
INVOLVEMENT WITH THE AMELIA ISLAND NASSAU COUNTY ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS?
Dennard is the activities chair for the board. “It’s a small board and I love a small town. That’s why I love Fernandina. I feel really close to a lot of people at the board. This board really encourages you to get involved and my broker is definitely interested in her agents getting involved in the community and the board. Last year I was co-chair of the activities committee and so this year they just kind of told me I was going to be the chair.”
WHAT DOES SHE DO AS CHAIR?
Dennard and her committee got together a few times early in the year and got the schedule set for the entire year. So, her job now is to make sure the activities happen at each monthly meeting and to take care of any problems that might come up in regard to the meetings.
SPEAKERS?
“We got together to decide who we wanted to invite to speak and why we wanted them to speak. We generally do not invite people to speak who have something to sell. We ask those people to be our sponsors. We want our speakers to benefit the Realtor by informing them of what is going on in our county and what they need to know.” Dennard said sometimes the speakers are repeated the next year because they want to hear from certain speakers such as their legislative representatives and the Florida Association of Realtors at least once a year.
WHY SHOULD OTHERS GET INVOLVED?
“You can never feel like you are a part of something unless you are right in the middle of it. It makes you feel like you are part of this very small select group. You are dealing with people in your industry, you are learning the players, you are getting to know people and how things function. You learn how the board works and who is associated with it. I still have a lot to learn, it’s only my second year on the board. Someone once said that you can never say you belong to a community unless you actively participate in that community.”
ADVICE FOR NEW AGENTS?
“Don’t give up. Keep on doing it. There are going to be times when it is just dead in the water. Also, always treat your customers right because they will come back. I’m starting to see a lot of referral business and some of my people have sent me three or four customers. If your service is good and you treat your people right, they will stay with you.”
LESSONS LEARNED?
“People aren’t always faithful or loyal. It’s never done until it’s done. You just don’t know. I also have learned how to manage time and money. When you have someone hand you a paycheck once a week, they are managing it for you. It comes in increments and you don’t spend it too fast. But when someone hands you a check for $32,000, that’s like winning the lottery.” So, Dennard said, new Realtors need to learn how to manage their money to make sure they have it when they need it.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT REAL ESTATE?
“I like the freedom of real estate. If there is something that I have to do personally, this is my business. I just work under someone else’s sign. You are self-employed. That is something new Realtors need to understand that you own your own business, so whatever you put into it is what you are going to get out of it. It’s not luck; it’s really hard work.”
WHAT HAS HELPED YOU MOST TO GET YOU WHERE YOU ARE TODAY?
“I really think Chaplin-Williams has helped me the most. They let me do what I wanted to do. They let me do my business and do it well. I’ve learned a lot from Dee [Chaplin]. She is a great mentor. Also, I guess old fashioned stubbornness. I just don’t give up. I just sold a property to a lady who has been on my list of customers for four years.”
BIRTHPLACE?
Michigan, but she moved all over since then because her father was in the military.
MOVED TO JACKSONVILLE?
In 1979 from Germany. She then relocated to Fernandina Beach in 1998.
WHERE DOES
SHE LIVE NOW?
She moved back to Jacksonville this past December because her daughters attend Paxon School for Advanced Studies and it just became too much of a drive. When they graduate in three years, she will move back to Amelia Island.
WHAT DOES SHE LIKE TO DO WHEN NOT WORKING?
Cook, watch movies and spend time with her daughters. “We are like The Three Musketeers.”
FAMILY
Dennard has two daughters, Michelle, 15 and Christa, 16.
CHURCH
First Baptist Church.
FAVORITES
Her favorite is “The Road Less Traveled” by M. Scott Peck. When relaxing at home, she enjoys turning into “Friends” and the A&E channel, sometimes. “I really don’t watch a lot of television now.” When traveling, she enjoys San Francisco. A movie she saw recently and would recommend was “Sweet Home Alabama.” When dining out, she said Horizons in Fernandina is her favorite restaurant.
— by Michele Newbern Gillis