by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Since opening its doors 25 years ago, the Amelia Island/Nassau County Association of Realtors has made three moves, become automated and added two employees to create a smooth-running, successful board of Realtors.
The Jacksonville Association of Realtors sponsored AINCAR in 1980 so the organization could start its own board.
“The board started with about 19 to 25 local Realtors who banded together to create the board,” said Clyde Goodbread, the executive vice president since 1985.
The association has grown steadily over the years and now includes 500 members.
The first office was located on Fifth Street in the Florida Abstract Title office. It then relocated to an office on Atlantic Avenue in the Old School House. In 1985, the association purchased its current building on 14th Street.
When the association first started, the Multiple Listing Service was manual. With the purchase of the new building, Goodbread had room to install computers and get the association automated.
“We’ve grown and grown and grown,” said Goodbread. “There are more agents, listings and educational requirements. Part of the function of the board is to try to educate the membership and keep them abreast of what is going on in the real estate world. There is just a lot more going on now.”
Among the changes that Goodbread has seen over the years is the inception of discount brokers, buyers’ agents and the automation of the MLS.
In recognition of AINCAR’s 25th anniversary, association officials appeared before the Nassau County and City Commissioners to receive a proclamation that recognized the contributions that AINCAR has made over the last 25 years.
“They gave us a proclamation congratulating us for surviving 25 years,” said Goodbread.
Since the association started, the title “Realtor” has evolved along with the association.
“We have more professional Realtors now,” said Goodbread. “They have more education offered to them and just the general education level of the real estate practitioners has been raised.”
Because the board has grown so much since its current building was purchased, the board is looking at several options to meet the demands of its membership.
“One of the possibilities is building an auditorium/multi-purpose building on our lot next door with a breezeway connecting the two buildings,” he said. “The other possibility is selling all of this, move somewhere else and building a bigger office.”
No decisions have been made on either option.
“We won’t do anything for about four or five years until plans can be made and money can be raised,” said Goodbread.
Though the association is small compared to other local real estate associations, it is big in heart. That, said Goodbread, is one of the main things that have kept the board alive and kicking for 25 years.
“The fact that we are small means that when you do a transaction you are going to reach out and touch the other agents,” he said. “In Jacksonville, for example, with 5,000 agents, it’s impossible for everyone to know everyone and you have a real good chance of getting lost in the cracks. Here, we are so small that everyone kind of knows everyone and our market is pretty much the same. A lot of our older agents have sold the same property three or four times. They know the properties, can help the new agents with them and give them background history.”
The board’s small-town atmosphere reflects the community’s small-town feel.
“If you go into Yulee or Callahan, it’s the same attitude within the community itself,” he said. “Everyone tries to know everyone and tries to do unto others as you want them to do unto you.”
Goodbread said the association has survived 25 years by providing dynamic leadership to its members.
“Being small has a lot of advantages,” he said. “Our Realtors are good people. Sometimes Realtors make me so mad I could choke them and sometimes they do something and it makes me want to hug them. They are just good people. They do a good job and respect each other.”
The AINCAR president is Presley Hollingsworth of Watson Realty in Fernandina Beach. There are four committees: education, communication, affiliates and activities.
These are the people who make it happen:
Clyde Goodbread
Goodbread has been a member of the board since 1982, when he was a Realtor with Vera Boner & Associates. When the executive vice president, Dora Patterson, retired, Goodbread saw it as an opportunity to get things in order. An Army retiree, Goodbread liked order and didn’t think things were running quite as smoothly as they could at the board, so he took the job.
“I started out as a one-man office,” said Goodbread. “I did it all. We were smaller, so ‘all’ wasn’t that much. I had a lot of heartburn with the way the MLS was set up. I didn’t like it. I thought it needed a little more structure. The main reason was so I could straighten the MLS out to where it made more sense. I took the job for three years and I’m still here.”
Goodbread was in charge of the finances, MLS, membership, education, governmental affairs, professional standards and communication. In 1989, he hired Wendy Sapp, an administrative assistant.
Now he has overall supervision of the finances of the board.
“Right now we are working very hard on working me out of a job,” said Goodbread. “By that I mean allowing me the ability to work on strategic thinking and provide supervision without having to be involved in the nuts and bolts of things.”
Goodbread has been married to his wife Jutta for 34 years. They have four children: Butch, Stefan, Thomas and Francis.
Wendy Sapp
Sapp has been employed with the board since 1989 as an administrative assistant. She was first hired to handle the MLS and MLS billing, but her job has evolved over the years and now she is in charge of the MLS, membership, Supra lockboxes, collecting money, overseeing the monthly meetings and education.
Sapp worked for Ed Wilson Morrow Insurance as a secretary right out of high school. When the company downsized, she was let go and Mike Hickox of Hickox Appraisal Services, who was then-president of the AINCAR, and Ed Wilson set out to find her a job.
“They let me know that Clyde was looking for someone to help him,” she said. “When I first started here, I thought maybe I’d sell real estate, but after working here a few months, I said ‘There’s no way I’d sell real estate.’ I love working for them and with them. The Realtors are like my family. I really enjoy it. In times of need, they have really come through for me. I love being on this side of the desk. I wouldn’t want to be out there competing with them or trying to sell real estate. I really enjoy this side.”
Sapp is single, but has a long-time boyfriend, Tommy. Though she recently gave it up, she coached cheerleading for the Yulee Pop Warner for 10 years.
“I love being able to say that I’ve been at the association for 17 years,” said Sapp. “It makes me very proud to be a part of the association. My job description to me is to make everything run smooth no matter what it is.”
Sherry Stein
Stein, the governmental affairs director, is the newest employee of the AINCAR and has been with the organization at a little more than a year.
“It was a newly created position,” said Stein. “I monitor all of the state and local legislation and help coordinate the annual Realtor Day in Tallahassee. I’m the liaison with the Florida Association of Realtors office of public policy in Tallahassee. I go over strategy meetings before the session, meet with them during the session just in case there are issues that have far-reaching effects that would affect Realtors statewide. We get coalitions together on stands that we are going to take.”
She is in charge of the governmental affairs, communication and professional standards.
“On a local level, I monitor the city and county commission meetings to see what items of interest might have a direct or indirect effect on us,” she said.
Stein said the association purchased a software system recently, Voter Voice, which has helped keep the members informed of governmental affairs.
“It allows us to send an alert/call to action to our members where with a keystroke they can send a letter to the local commissioners or the local school board,” said Stein. “Or an alert that an issue is coming up and that they need to know about it, be there and monitor it. It is something to give them a heads-up on something critical coming along. The software also allows me to survey the members. It is extremely effective.”
Stein has a bachelor’s degree in public relations from the University of Florida.
Another part of her job is to create “The Communicator,” the association’s newsletter.
Most recently, the association has added professional standards to her job description.
When a Realtor is sworn in, they agree to adhere to a Code of Ethics.
“They say they are going to do certain things and not do certain things and this is kind of the watchdog for that,” said Stein. “If someone files a grievance, they will come to the association and we have a standing committee who oversees that. I am that staff liaison to that.”
Prior to joining the board, Stein was a paralegal for a family law attorney. She saw the advertisement for the position with the board and because she had a history in public relations, she thought the position suited her well.
“This position allows the board to reach out further in areas that they need to keep an eye on,” she said. “It allows them to keep track of things, watchdog things and alert the membership when needed. The membership is very good at responding to things. Part of my communications job is to ensure the enhancement and constant name recognition of the association, which includes branding them as an active, vibrant board.”