by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Lorri Reynolds of Re/Max Coastal Real Estate wants real estate agents to get along better.
As the new Ponte Vedra Beach Council vice president, she will have three opportunities to help facilitate better communication between those who attend the quarterly meetings.
“I would like to replace this competing broker attitude with a cooperative broker attitude,” said Reynolds. “There is an inherent notion that if there is an agent with Re/Max who has a listing and a Watson agent brings a contract the property, then there is going to be trouble, because they are of different brokerages. My attitude when I list a property is that every other agent is my best friend because they can bring me a contract, make me look good, we are both going to get the transaction pulled together, make some money and move on to the next.”
One way she is going to work on changing this attitude is to change the seating arrangements at the quarterly meetings.
Typically, Watson agents sit with Watson agents, Prudential agents sit with Prudential agents and so on.
What Reynolds is going to do is mix up the seating by having people sit together according to their birthday.
“There is no reason for all of us not to be in a really good mood, pass that on to each other and be very respectful of each other,” said Reynolds. “We all have the same things happening to us. This new seating arrangement forces you to mingle and talk to other people that are outside of your company. We are all in this together.”
In addition to mixing up the seating, she is also looking at changing the location, which was previously Marsh Landing Country Club. The new location has not been chosen yet.
As the vice president, she has to plan one meeting a quarter, choose a topic and a sponsor for each.
The first tentative upcoming topic for the meeting in March will be how much will mold cost Ponte Vedra Beach homeowners.
“Mold is the radon gas of the 21st century,” said Reynolds.
“If we want to continue to be the experts in buying and selling real estate, then we have to know generally what it is that happens with mold. There is good mold and bad mold. Ponte Vedra Beach has a very large inventory of aging homes. This isn’t something they have to be afraid of and the only way not to be afraid of something is to educate and know about it.”
The next topic she will have covered is the upcoming construction to remove the septic tanks in Ponte Vedra Beach.
“The sewers are coming,” said Reynolds. “We will give an update about what is going to be involved and what literally will happen. They will be tearing up streets and there is going to be a whole series of events that will be going on. I will be doing research to get the most accurate times of when this will start. It will impact about 900 homes. It’s a good base of knowledge for everyone.”
The final topic will be planning and zoning information for St. Johns County.
“There are so many basic areas of planning and zoning that impact St. Johns County, which will impact what we sell and how we sell,” said Reynolds.
She said her goal is to allow the less experienced agents who come to the Council meetings to learn some information they wouldn’t necessarily pick up hanging around the office.
Reynolds was asked by her broker, Eileen McVeigh, to be involved with the Council.
“I was asked because I’ve been here [with Re/Max] for almost three years and I have made it known that I would like to be involved politically at some point,” said Reynolds. “She told me she thought I would be very good at it because I really enjoy the business. And I do and I can project that to other people.”
She ultimately chose to take the position because she is in real estate for the long haul and wanted to be involved in helping make the council be as helpful to those attending as possible.
She said that she will be looking to the past vice president Rob Kearney for guidance as well as to Debbie Dermody, the NEFAR Beaches manager for help.
“They want to inject some newer, younger blood into the Council,” said Reynolds. “That doesn’t have to do with age; it has to do with ideas and how we perceive this business. I’ve had a lot of fun. I’ve had 12 people that I’ve worked with get their license because they look at me and say that I have too much fun.”
Reynolds has a secondary education degree from Armstrong State University in Savannah. After college she taught high school for one year, but found it wasn’t for her at that time.
Reynolds then got an internship with a U.S. Lines, a maritime company. When that company went out of business, she was picked up by Crowley Maritime which brought her to Jacksonville.
She got married and decided to be a stay-at-home mom for a few years before getting into real estate.
She started out with Watson Realty and then moved over to Prudential Network Realty when the Atlantic Beach office opened. She joined Re/Max Coastal Real Estate three years ago.
Reynolds, who has her broker’s license, sells primarily the Beaches, Ponte Vedra Beach and the West Beaches. Her business is primarily from referrals, so she will go where ever she needs to to help her customers.
She lives with her husband of 13 years, Bard, who works for LandMar Group, Inc. in Ponte Vedra. They have two children, Chase, 12 and Carsen, 9.