by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Some identical twins spend most of their life trying to assert their individuality, but not Donna Sandiford and Diane Barr of The Condo Connection, a division of Lifestyles Realty at the beach.
“Anything we’ve ever done, we’ve done together since we were born,” said Sandiford. “We are pretty much the same in every way.”
Since they are so much alike and have the same strengths, it allows them to be flexible on who does what during the deal.
Their cards read “The Twin Team” and their advertisements read “Talk to the Twins”.
They are not really concerned with who people talk to as long as it’s one of them.
“If we give one of our names, they don’t know who we are,” said Barr. “So we just say ‘We’re the twins and they say ‘Ohhh’.”
When contacted the twins work in tandem on a transaction.
“If I work with the clients, she works the backend and vice versa on the next deal,” said Sandiford. “People don’t know this; they just know they are talking to one of us.”
Since they are identical, many people have trouble telling them apart.
“Some people just cannot tell us apart,” said Barr. “Our best friends in Cleveland can’t tell us apart.”
Sometimes twins play tricks on people and try to confuse people, but not these two.
“We didn’t have to do anything,” said Sandiford. “We could stand in the same spot and not do anything and people could get confused. They do it to themselves.”
The “twins” as they are referred to often, started as a team at Lifestyles Realty/The Condo Connection January 2005.
“We didn’t decide to be a team, it’s just a second nature,” said Sandiford. “We always loved to see what was being built and what was going on in real estate. We loved houses and condominiums and we always knew what was going on. We decided we might as well start selling this stuff because we know everything that is happening already. It was a good fit for us.”
They must be doing something right since they won the “Rookie of the Year” award from Lifestyles Realtors this year.
Sandiford and Barr went to Ohio University together, were roommates and even earned a degree in the same major, merchandising.
After college, they both managed clothing stores in Cleveland.
“Two different stores, same company,” said Sandiford. “We were in retail for a long time.”
Next, they opened up a Häagen-Dazs franchise named “Absolutely Nuts” and ran that for a few years.
Sandiford and Barr and their families moved to Jacksonville 15 years ago from Cleveland.
While here, they did network marketing and sold long distance before deciding to go into real estate.
Sandiford lives in Atlantic Beach, while Barr lives in Ponte Vedra Beach.
“We have the whole beach covered,” said Sandiford.
Sandiford has been married to Paul, a Realtor with Stockton Realty Group, for 25 years. They have two children, Chad, 19 and Hayley, 17. Barr has been married to Buddy, an account executive at an advertising agency, for 34 years. They have three children, Ben 24; Brittany, 23 and Bree, 16.
When they are not working, they enjoy going to the beach, shopping and exercising.