by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
For a Realtor to stay in the same office at the same company for 22 years is almost unheard of in the real estate industry these days.
But, Jan Shields of Watson Realty’s Atlantic Beach office has done just that and it has paid off.
Shields never had designs on being a Realtor. As a housewife and mother, she was content to stay at home and take care of the children.
However, her husband had to get his real estate license for his job. Shields decided to join him for the class, which provided a much needed break from her home and children. The rest is history.
“I had never thought about working,” said Shields. “When my husband had to take the real estate class I asked him if I could go because I just needed to get out of the house. It was expensive and we didn’t have a lot of money. So I said I’d better sell at least one house to pay for all this. I loved it.”
Shield has been the top producer for Watson Realty six years in a row and routinely sells well in excess of $50 million in real estate annually.
How does she continue to stay on top?
“Basically, I work seven days a week,” said Shields. “I think, to be honest, that I was just in the right place at the right time. I started in real estate years and years ago and it was still kind of a sleepy market. I was able to do it with my kids and it was not a big deal. I didn’t work at night and didn’t often work on the weekends, but I established myself. When the market here took off, it was great for me because I was established and I worked for a great company.”
Though the local market has slowed down a bit, Shields has relied on her reputation to continue to thrive. As an experienced agent, she’s moving towards the mentoring end of the business.
“I’m doing more listing and really doing more education with sellers,” she said. “It’s painful. I try to be extremely honest. I tell them if you really want to sell, this is the reality and these are the facts.”
For several years, the local real estate market was so good the asking price of a home may not have mattered. Today, buyers and sellers are more cautious and Shields said she is being more careful with the pricing of her listings.
“When the market was so hot, if you were off a little bit, it didn’t matter,” she said. “If you overpriced it a little bit — which a lot of times sellers wanted — it would sell anyway. Now, you really just have to spend a lot more time researching and figuring out what the right price is. As far as aggressive, when sellers wanted to price it higher, we would just say ‘OK’ and see what happened. Now, I say ‘No, that is not going work.’ It would be a complete waste of everyone’s time.”
Shields said her main priority right now is to keep in contact with her buyers and sellers. Having an assistant, Kathy Ritter, allows Shields to have more personal contact with all of her clients.
“I focus on listing all the beaches and Intracoastal,” she said. “I focus on waterfront, but I sell everywhere.”
Shields said the prices at the beach are still very high despite the state of the current market. However, due to the high volume of houses for sale at the beach right now, homes that were unaffordable three years ago are within range of many looking to buy at the beach.
“There is definitely a lot more on the market and it is definitely a buyer’s market right now,” she said. “I think in January the activity really picked up.” Regardless of the market trends, Shields attributes her success to the fact she has remained with the same company in the same office for 22 years.
“I think it pays for someone to stay in one spot if they can,” she said. “My customers know I’m here. I’ve been through the bad and the good and you just have to adjust. I did fine in the 1980s when the market was bad. A certain amount of people still have to buy and sell.”