By Fred Seely
Editor
After 21 years, “it just felt right to do something else,” said Janie Boyd. So she did: “something else” is called Janie Boyd & Associates.
The veteran top producer and office manager at Norville Realty is off on her own, setting up shop in the already-crowded real estate sales area of Avondale and Ortega.
“It was time for a change,” said Boyd. ‘I started thinking about it last year and all of a sudden the light clicked on. It was time to go on my own. I’m 55 and I have 10-15-20 years left, so let’s go.”
She started the paperwork in April and the process went reasonably well other than a Tallahassee goof that located her office in Broward County (“That cost a week.”). She’s leased a former chiropractor’s office in Fairfax, the little area that separates Avondale and Ortega, and has settled in with agents Linda Strickland and Jamie Goodroe.
The office still is mostly bare and they celebrated one day recently when the copy machine showed up. “Everyone who has done this knows what we’ve been through. No matter how much planning, it still takes time,” said Boyd.
The key is planning. “Plan, and then plan some more,” she said. “You know what you have to do, so that’s out of the way. Now you have to figure how to get it done.”
It’s the next step in a successful career that started when she wanted to clean the desk of husband Chuck.
“He’s a real estate appraiser,” said Boyd. “I wanted to straighten out his desk and he said I should get a real estate license if I wanted to do that. So I did. Didn’t do anything with it because of the kids” - she’s mother of three - “but then the market turned and Chuck said, ‘Maybe you better get out and bring some money in.’”
She signed on with Lee Norville. She did well in sales and took on more responsibilities in the office.
“That was invaluable and it was a big part of my decision to go it alone,” said Boyd. “I’ve been doing this for years.”
She contracted with Holland Creative to handle the marketing, and the office space was fixed up by building co-owner Tom Turnage, a former NEFBA Remodeler of the Year. The office is in the St. Johns Professional Center at the intersection of St. Johns Avenue and busy Herschel Street.
There’s ample parking despite the collection of tenants that includes the other owners, dentists Keith and Jon Rob Holland, Turnage’s construction company, a psychologist and the Colonial Dames of America’s local office.
“I have room for six more agents,” said Boyd, showing a large room that’s empty except for a sofa, “but that’s down the road. We need to get established with what we have.”