Kea Blalock is a real estate agent with New World Realty in St. Augustine and is president-elect of the St. Augustine/St. Johns County Board of REALTORS.
HOW LONG HAS SHE BEEN A REALTOR?
She started in real estate at New World Realty six years ago.
WHAT DID SHE DO BEFORE REAL ESTATE?
She was a legal secretary for Upchurch & Parsons in St. Augustine.
HOW DID SHE GET INTO REAL ESTATE?
In 1992, she and her husband had met Marcus Wally, who’s now the broker of New World Realty. They had decided to start buying investment properties.
“We hooked up with Marcus and my husband ended up getting his real estate license and was doing it part-time while Marcus was still at Olde Carriage Realty. When my husband got too involved with his job, he told me I should get my license, so I took a vacation from work and got my license. Marcus had talked to me on and off about joining his company. His high energy is contagious and even though I loved being a legal secretary and had the two best bosses in the world, real estate would give me the freedom to be able to have a little more control over my schedule.”
WHAT MADE HER DECIDE TO CONTINUE ON TO BECOME PRESIDENT?
While she was secretary of the association, Wally approached her and asked if she was interested in continuing on. “He said, ‘You have been in this business and you are good at what you do so why don’t you go ahead and think about it?’ So I did. I also talked to Marion Blanchard [executive director of the board] and decided, ‘What the heck?’”
WHY SERVE
THE BOARD?
“I feel I have a duty to be involved with my profession. If this is the profession that I choose, I feel I need to be involved with the board. I want see what direction the profession is going, stay involved with it and try to have some say in that direction.”
FAVORITE THING ABOUT REAL ESTATE?
“The pace, change and the people.”
WHAT AREA
DOES SHE COVER?
She localized in St. Augustine, but she is trying to spread out to the Ponte Vedra Beach area and Julington Creek area.
WHAT WILL SHE DO AS PRESIDENT-ELECT?
She will accompany the president, John Chapman, to some of the meetings that go on around the state. “I’m really excited about getting involved in what is going on at the Florida level and nationally.” She also will be attending a speaking program so she can learn to speak more professionally. Locally, she will be working with Chapman on affordable housing issues.
FUTURE GOALS AS PRESIDENT?
“That is something that I am sitting down with Marion and we are trying to go over. I’m sure that I will tag along with John’s agenda of affordable housing because it is such a huge issue. I’m sure that part of what I’m going to do is to continue on with what John starts.”
ADVICE FOR NEW AGENTS?
Blalock has her own personal coach to help her with her real estate business. She is involved with a company called Providence Systems which creates schedules, goals and coaches her in every aspect of her life. She meets with a coach twice a month to help her to set goals and keep her business at a certain level while continuing to grow her business. “I wish I had been involved with the company from the beginning. You truly need to tap into your sphere of influence and do your business by referrals and you do that by turning to the people that you are associated with at church, school or wherever. That is how you build a business. You need to treat this as a business because it is.”
RESIDES
Anastasia Island.
FAMILY
She has been married to Steve, a manager for Northrup Grumman, for 10 years. They have two children, Kalei, 9 and Steven, 7.
WHERE DID SHE GET THE NAME KALEI?
Kea is Polynesian, so she named her daughter Kalei, also a Polynesian name. “I liked having a different name, so we wanted to do the same with my daughter.”
—by Michele Newbern Gillis