by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Scott Williams, the new chair of the Ponte Vedra Council, knows a lot about management.
As the broker/manager of the Ponte Vedra Club Realty, he has grown the business from 9 to 32 people since he took over three years ago.
He also opened a second office in Sawgrass and is currently working on opening a third office in the Julington Creek office later this year.
“We will probably have 10 more agents in the new office, so that will take us to 42,” said Williams.
Now, he wants to grow the Ponte Vedra Council and make it more advantageous for the members to attend by giving the agents more opportunities to learn more about the business.
“I just wanted to help the agents with some educational things,” he said. “I want to get better programs in to better educate all the agents. I’m just trying to pick speakers in different industries that impact us and who the agents might want to learn a little more about what these folks do behind the scenes.”
At Williams’ first meeting this year, he spoke to the agents about changes in the home inspection industry and how it affects real estate agents.
“I had home inspectors come up to me after the meeting and we may be putting together some round table discussions and put the two industries together to try to make it more meaningful,” he said. “Right now, it’s evolved to where the inspectors are so far over the line with these inspection reports just protecting themselves. They are scared to death that they’ve kind of missed the opportunity of what they are supposed to be doing, which is helping a homeowner identify areas of major issues of concern in the house that need correction before the sale transpires.
“We just want the process to be more thoughtful so everyone understands what it is supposed to be about. It’s gotten so far out of whack. Some of the results are more nickpicky than they need to be about stuff that wouldn’t normally be a concern to most homeowners.”
Williams said the results of the discussions will be a program in one of his meetings this year.
Though he only has four meetings to plan, Williams is in charge of getting sponsors, speakers and locking in a good meeting place in the Ponte Vedra Beach area.
“I’d love to get more attendance,” he said. “We’d love to see 140 or 150 people rather than 80 or 90.”
Williams said he will continue to have the meetings as a breakfast and vary the locations.
Williams has been in real estate for 30 years. He moved here from Portland, Me. in 2001, where he was a general contractor because his wife, Robin, a senior vice president with Merrill Lynch, was offered a position in Jacksonville.
“We had to come down and see if we liked the area and we fell in love with it,” said Williams. “I was sort of retired when we moved her until Ponte Vedra Club Realty called and said they needed a manager.”
All three of his grown children, Scott Jr., Seth and Hillary, followed him and his wife here after the move.
As the manager of Ponte Vedra Club Realty, Williams trains the new agents, hire new agents and monitors everything that they do.
“I review everything that comes through here, oversee the advertising and manage the support people that work in the office,” he said. “I’m a busy guy. I help the agents with questions. I tell them I am on duty 24/7 and that they can call me at home if they need to. If they get into a situation where they need some consultation, I try to be there for them.”
Williams got his real estate license in 1975 after being laid off from the New England Telephone in Maine.
He started with Mark Stimson Associates and stayed with them for about 15 years before opening his own real estate company, Williams Realty. He then managed a company called Hutchins Realty.
He did residential real estate sales for about 20 years and then went into general contracting for the last few years.
“I had always been around new construction including single family and condominium,” he said. “I was kind of an expert. Every time a new developer came to town, they sought me out because I had a long reputation in new construction. It was a natural progression for me to go into general contracting.”
Williams has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Maine.
Moving here from Maine might seem like a big change, but Williams said there are many similarities.
“They are two great cities,” he said. “This place reminds me a lot of it [Portland], just in a different way. It’s Southern and the climate is different, but Ponte Vedra Beach is an awful lot like Portland. That’s why it has been such a win-win for us, because we love it here.”
Williams said the prices at the beach are going so far so fast.
“People worry so much about the area being overpriced, but the public is not stupid, they self regulate this industry all the time,” he said. “We cycle up and then we relax, we cycle up and then relax. The places that are more desirable keep going. This place is going to keep going. We are on a different path than other areas of the country.”