The office is located at 5 Sawgrass Village Drive in the Sawgrass Village Shopping Center. Jerry Smith is the broker.
His role
“Brokers of the Coldwell Banker Walter Williams offices are responsible for the day-to-day operations as well as normal broker/agent relationship part of the business as well. Not only do we assist in the development of new agents and handling of day-to-day agent issues, we also handle the operational side of the business including payroll, staffing and marketing.”
Before that
Smith left the wholesale footwear business in 1989 to go into real estate. He and his wife worked as a team with Prudential and Re/Max until 1997. He then went into the mortgage business for three years and then he decided to get back into real estate with Coldwell Banker Walter Williams Realty, Inc. as a manager in 2000.
Office history
The office was originally an Arvida Realty Services office and was open for 20 years. Arvida Realty Services, which was the residential re-sale side of Arvida, was purchased in its entirety by NRT in April 2002. Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate, Inc. is a member of the NRT family of companies, so NRT made the offices available to the franchise owners in the areas that they purchased offices. Walter Williams bought the Ponte Vedra Beach office and the St. Johns Golf and Country Club office.
Merging?
Coldwell Banker Walter Williams Realty had just opened an office at the beach on Corridor Road off CR 210 last December, so both offices are acting as one until renovations of the Ponte Vedra Beach office are complete. Renovations on the Ponte Vedra office will start soon and all should all be in one office by this Fall.
How many in office?
Smith said 95 percent of the Arvida agents stayed after the purchase and that the transition to a Coldwell Banker office was quite seamless. They hired a few more agents and currently have 41 between the two offices.
Who’s there?
Annette Page, Alice Nenigar, Alice Collins, Barbara Hubbard, Betsy Jones, Bob Svirsky, Brad Sterling, Carol McCowan, Carolyn Chelette, Connie Mabry, Dee Schwab, Frank Timmons, Gayle Fuller, George Newman, J. R. Rodermund, Jackie Dougherty, Jacquelyn Bates, Jean Gottuso, Jean Huffstetler, Jenny Fraser, Jette Philbert, Josiah Andrews, Julia Fromer, Kyle Svirsky, Lenny Hanapel, Malia Finger, Marge Haley, Marilyn Munyon, Mary Foley, Mary Ann Pierce, Pat Monypenny, Pauli Kirby, Rita Fincher, Sally Heuertz, Sandy Buchanan, Shannon Day Richards, Shuri Speed, Skylar Harlow, Sondra Smith, Susan Bechtold, Susan Mayer, Tammy Allison, Trey Herring and Vicki Stockton are the agents. Barbara Milazo, Etta Williams, Lora Hopkins, Mary Lee Westberry, Natalie von Bretzel and Stacey Shields are office staff.
Growing?
Smith said their goal is to reach a total of 48-50 agents when the merge is complete. “Part of our thought process is that once we get this building completely renovated and we are settled as one office in one space, it will be a little easier for us to hire agents. When you hire someone, you would like to be able to tell them, ‘This is your home’ and right now I can only tell them ‘This is your home for awhile, but that may change’. Once we get the consolidation complete, we will be hiring more agents.”
Specialization
The office specializes in the Ponte Vedra Beach area. “We have agents who have been in this market area for 15-20 years. We are very heavily entrenched in the Ponte Vedra Beach and Sawgrass area. We have a lot of agents who live on the other side of the Intracoastal so we still do a significant amount of business in the Intracoastal West area. We are not just limited to Ponte Vedra Beach area. We list everywhere from Atlantic Beach to Vilano Beach to Intracoastal West areas.”
Getting along
“Having developed the initial group from the original Coldwell Banker Walter Williams office, we were always aware of the meshing of work ethics and personality. People like to work with people that they like. It makes a harmonious atmosphere and we think that is very important. We are truly a blessed by the acquisition in finding another group of agents who seem to have the same cultural philosophies that we had at the other office. We have people who are professional, yet are fun-loving and enjoy working and playing. We all get along exceptionally well. I never expected it to be as harmonious of a merge as it is.”
Difference?
“Fifty-three percent of all the homes sold over $1 million in the United States are sold by Coldwell Banker. The quality of the agents speaks for itself. We have an agent base with longevity and a great reputation in the marketplace.”
Training?
Yes, they provide training for new agents in-house and Coldwell Banker Walter Williams has hired a director of education and development, Martha Dickerson, who also trains new agents and is a educational resource for current agents.
Large office advantages
“It certainly helps you with market share and with a presence in a certain market area. Also, having a large office of productive agents. It’s one thing to have a large office of agents, but it’s another thing to have a large office of productive agents and luckily that is what we have. There are some offices out here that have 75-80 agents and it is almost impossible to make everyone feel a part of the team when the team is that large. One of the biggest tasks that I perceive in my job is to make sure everyone feels a part of the team.”
Meetings
Smith holds weekly sales meetings with a caravan of properties afterward. They were considering stopping the caravans, but realized they really need to continue them to better serve their customers. “We have such a tremendous amount of walk-in traffic at this location. This is the original real estate office in Ponte Vedra Beach. It was here 20 years ago and people that were here 20 years ago still remember this physical location and they come back here. It is important for us to know what the inventory is.”
— by Michele Newbern Gillis