by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Evelyn Houck loves horses. “It just gets into your blood,” she said. “You enjoy taking care of them, having them, watching them, grooming them, playing with them and riding them.”
That love has propelled her into a lucrative career as a horse farm specialist, which recently gave her her biggest payoff yet.
Houck, a Realtor at Watson Realty Corp.’s Mandarin North Office, recently closed one of the company’s largest single transactions ever - a multi-million dollar, 180-acre waterfront cattle farm in North Jacksonville.
“I was the listing agent and the selling agent, so it was a double profit for me,” said Houck.
Her name has become synonymous with successful horse farm sales in Northern Florida.
“My name is just out there and when people think horse farms, they call me,” said Houck.
She told of one customer who was looking for 70 acres for his tigers and another multi-million buyer who wanted a horse farm in Mandarin. She also has several repeat customers who call her to list their horse farm when they are ready to sell.
“Horses have always been a part of my life. My mother was a horse lover as well, so we always had horses. I started showing residential properties and kept finding myself shifting into the horse scene by listing and selling horse properties. I really enjoyed it so, after five years or so, I found myself just doing horse properties.”
Houck has sold horse farms all over Northeast Florida.
“If you have a horse and you don’t have a place to keep them, the going rate is $400-500 a month,” she said. “So if you buy a horse farm, you could just put that money right into your mortgage and have your horse right in your back yard. It’s a lot more sensible and fun to be able to take care of them yourself.”
She said there is plenty of land available to keep her busy for a while.
“The typical person is looking for a 5-acre to 20-acre farm,” said Houck. “St. Johns County, Northside, Westside, Middleburg and Orange Park are very popular areas. Jacksonville is becoming more aware of the equestrians.”
Houck currently lives on an 8-acre horse farm of her own and is raising 10 miniature horses.
“I put in a new barn and I have a riding horse,” she said. “I have two miniature stallion horses that are 26 inches tall and the rest are mares. My dog is so big that he is bigger than my horses. I enjoy the baby miniature horses so much. They weigh about 15 pounds when they are born. They give me so much enjoyment.”
Houck was born and raised in Jacksonville. She moved away and eventually started her real estate career in New England in 1976.
Before real estate, she spent her time raising her two sons, Don and Phillip Ulsch.
Her husband, who is now deceased, wanted her to get into real estate in the hopes that they might run a real estate office together when he retired. When he retired they opened a real estate office in New England and ran it until they moved back to Jacksonville.
She moved back to Jacksonville in 1983 when she joined Watson Realty. Twenty years later, she’s still there.