by Michele Gillis
Staff Writer
Keller Williams Atlantic Partners has expanded to Amelia Island.
The new office, which will be located in the Shoppes of Amelia, should be open mid-November.
“We’re up and running with the state and the Amelia Island Multiple Listing Service,” said Mark Dilworth, who has been has been the managing partner of the Jacksonville Beach office since 2009. “We are just waiting on the buildouts occurring right now.”
Many may wonder why anyone would open an office in this economy, but Keller Williams believes in leading with revenue, not expenses.
The local office opened in 2006 and, said Dilworth, “we’ve done very well. We are a profitable, which we are very proud to say. We tend to lead with revenue and not expenses. Keller Williams is not the type of company to spend thousands of dollars on an advertising campaign hoping people will come. We are going to be smart about it and we have over the last four years and it has enabled us to say ‘Hey let’s put our foot on the gas pedal right now’ while there might be others out there saying ‘Whoa, whoa.’”
Dilworth said that nobody can know when the market going to come back or when the market is going to improve somewhat.
“But certainly when it does, we want to take advantage of the fact that office rates are lower right now and real estate agents are frustrated with the market right now, so why not come in and create an excitement factor when we can do it?” said Dilworth.
Dilworth is the team leader of the new office as well and will split his time between the two offices.
The Jacksonville Beach office has 130 agents, many working from home, and holds weekly meetings and Dilworth intends to do the same in Amelia.
“I want to bring the same value that we are doing here up there as well,” said Dilworth.
Currently, he travels there two days a week and meets with the agents. They have a weekly meeting on Thursdays as various locations around the island until the new office opens. In this day and age, making use of technology is very important and Dilworth recognizes that and is using that to help the new venture.
Angela Bradley, Keller Williams Atlantic Partners education director, is also there often working with the agents getting them trained on Keller Williams software and practices.
Dilworth said Amelia Island is a natural extension of where they are right now. They were getting calls from customers interested in Amelia Island and sending referrals there.
“Amelia Island is a different market,” said Dilworth. “Everyone says real estate is local, but real estate is really local there. We want to respect that it’s its own market. We were getting referrals that we were having to refer them to other companies and that just didn’t make sense. We can go into that market right now at a price point that makes sense.”
Even though they’ve only been in the market for a little over a month, they have 13 agents and are looking for more.
Agents in the new office include Gay Browne, Gulsevil Bridges, Ken Bridges, Lisa Chaffman, Tracy Fendig, Anne Friend, Brandon Gill, Susan Hughes, Kathy Levy, Dorothy Morelli, Pam Nall-Haskett, Mia Purins and Judi Seay.
Dilworth said they started spreading the word about the opening through focus groups and talking with agents in Amelia Island.
“We sent agents here who know agents there and got our message out through presentations and individual phone calls,” said Dilworth.
Keller Williams Atlantic Partners also has offices in St. Augustine, Palm Coast, Daytona Beach and Melbourne.
“If you take a look at Florida’s east coast from North Central Florida and up to Georgia, we have a good presence,” said Dilworth. “There has been a strategic aspect to this as well.”