Linda Bayles has been a Realtor with Re/Max Specialists in Orange Park for ten years.
BEFORE THERE?
She was a real estate agent in Huntsville, Ala. for about 10 months.
BEFORE REAL ESTATE?
Bayles started her working career in California in the corporate world working for TRW as an internal consultant for efficiency. She also bought and renovated houses on the side. After she married, she moved to Pennsylvania where she worked with her husband who was a homebuilder as an architect/designer on the homes he built. When the real estate market took a dive in the 1980’s, they decided to move to Alabama, where she opened an ice cream/coffee house and then later become a real estate agent.
WHAT MADE HER GO INTO REAL ESTATE?
“My father was a small business man but he made all his money in real estate. So, my whole life I’ve known real estate and every one in my family went into real estate.” She said over the years, she had less than great experiences with real estate agents, so she decided to get into it, so she could practice real estate the way she thought it needed to be practiced.
“I came into it from a user prospective. Everyone in my family said I needed to go into real estate, so I thought ‘Why not?’ But, if I’m going to go into real estate, I’m going to become a Realtor the way I think they should be. I was coming in from a different attitude. So, when I was in real estate school, I disagreed with everything they taught me on how to be a Realtor.” Bayles works primarily as single agency. “So I work for one person. If I work with a seller, I’m only trying to sell their house. When I work for a buyer, I am all out buyer.”
COLLEGE
She has a bachelor’s degree in art history from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree in management science from Miami University.
HOW DOES YOUR PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE HELP YOU NOW?
“I’m extremely self-motivated. I am a problem solver and I am an artist at heart. If I didn’t have to work to make money, I’d be an artist. I’m good at design for fliers and advertising.”
AREA SHE COVERS?
Duval, Clay, St. Johns and Nassau counties.
THE ORANGE PARK/FLEMING
ISLAND MARKET?
“For the past 10 years, Eagle Harbor, in my opinion, has been the best new market but now it is almost sold out. So, now Eagle Landing at OakLeaf Plantation is the new Eagle Harbor. It is gorgeous and flashier than Eagle Harbor. It has 50 percent more land and I’m not sure how it is all going to be developed, but it is huge. It will have about 1,800 homes. The market did die down for a bit. Now you have to do follow-up. I still have the same amount of people coming to town, but they just don’t buy like they used to. They are scared of the market. But, last month I sold four houses. In my opinion, I think the market is kind of back as far as buying. We have a tremendous over-inventory. In my world, we used to have about 6,000 homes on the market, now we have 12,000.”
WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT REAL ESTATE?
Bayles said she likes the independence.
BEST ADVICE YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED FROM A CO-WORKER?
“Have a life. There’s more to life than work.”
ADVICE FOR A NEW AGENT?
Bayles said they should listen to sales tapes as they drive around to learn how to sell, now that they are actually in the business. “They help you learn what to specifically do now that you are in real estate.”
PET PEEVES?
“When you try to make showing appointments on the weekends with larger real estate companies, you can’t even make an appointment or get a hold of anyone. When you list a home, I feel you have a responsibility to answer the phone so that a Realtor can show that house.”
LESSONS LEARNED?
“The market is cyclical.”
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS?
She is a member of the St. Augustine/St. Johns County Board of Realtors and the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors and its Southwest Council.
-by Michele Newbern Gillis