by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
No more termite sniffing dogs or updates on country clubs: the Northeast Florida Association of Realtor’s Ponte Vedra Council under the rein of Jack Hofstetter of Watson Realty is ready to get serious.
“My goals are to follow along with the goal of NEFAR, which is to enhance the education of the agents,” said Hofstetter. “Education could mean a number of things. I want to keep them informed of what is happening in current events. For example, our first meeting, I’m trying to set up a presentation by the Parc Group on Nocatee. As part of that scheme, I’d like to get to get the approved builders or representatives of those builders there also to talk about their plans. It is getting closer.”
Other ideas he has are to have TV anchor Donna Hicken or pro golfer Fred Funk as speakers.
“Because of the number of developments that are planned and will be started in the next year, we may have another meeting with other builders or developers,” he said. “It’s hard to keep abreast of this or to get a complete picture of what is going on at any given time.”
They may also have programs that help Realtors build on their skills in addition to those that keep them abreast of what is happening in the real estate industry.
Hofstetter’s second goal is to breed a good social environment.
“We all know each other since we are geographically close to each other,” he said. “To build on that, we would like to have time to interact socially.
“We used to have an annual event. We had a Christmas event, Halloween event or something to get everyone involved and that’s kind of gone away. I want to bring that back up again. We might have a summer event at a beach club. It would be purely a social thing.
“We want everyone to have a general sense about the council here and build up the attendance a little.”
Hofstetter has attended almost every meeting of the Ponte Vedra Council and felt he wanted to make it better.
“I just thought the programs needed some uplifting and a little pizzazz put into them,” he said. “And maybe some more interesting subjects. I figured the way to do that was to get involved.”
The Ponte Vedra Council chair is kind of a one-person show. The chair has to schedule the speakers, get the venue, negotiate the price and get the sponsors.
“It can be kind of time consuming,” he said. “I really didn’t have to prepare, I just talked with Babs Bowler, past chair and with Bob Ransom, who is intricately involved in everything. So, I’ve had enough mentors. Also, with my past businesses, I chaired a lot of organizations.”
The meetings have moved around in the past and Hofstetter said he would like to give the Sawgrass Marriott a chance.
“Now that they have their conference center, they have some nice facilities there,” he said. “From a meeting space, that is probably the best because they are set up for meetings.”
Hofstetter said agents and affiliates should attend the meetings to support the council. He said many don’t attend the regular NEFAR meetings because they don’t like to cross the ditch.
“It is an opportunity to meet other agents and affiliates,” he said. “They can socialize and learn as much as they can from other Realtors. There is a lot to be said for knowing the other Realtors. They can make your life a lot easier. We all try to help each other out. It’s also an opportunity to get educated on what is going on around here.”
Hofstetter has been an agent with Watson Realty for seven years.
Before he moved to Ponte Vedra Beach, he lived in Philadelphia and owned his own staffing company, Express Personnel. Before that he worked for Johnson & Johnson for 19 years in sales and marketing.
“I had owned property here since 1989,” he said. “I had a second home here so at some point I always knew I was going to come here.”
He has a bachelor’s degree in business with a focus on marketing from St. Edward’s University in Texas.
“I’ve always been in sales and marketing and when I decided to move here full-time, I looked at what was interesting to me and what had the most promise,” he said. “The real estate business was just booming. I talked to a few people, interviewed with Watson Realty and here I am.”