By Staff
NEFAR’s Realtor of the Year? Probably a slam dunk. It would be Dane Leslie, as soon as he was eligible.
The award, according to NEFAR policy, “recognizes a NEFAR Realtor member who has demonstrated continued personal involvement and support to NEFAR and to the real estate profession for the past three years. The current NEFAR President is not eligible.”
The honor probably would have happened last year because Leslie was the association’s leader in 2011.
Turned out that one year wasn’t enough. The Watson Mandarin South broker ended up as the 2012 president because Stephanie White of Magnolia Properties, the president-elect, took a job in Florida’s Panhandle. Her decision came so late that the best alternative was to ask Leslie to stay in the chair, and he agreed.
That meant he wasn’t eligible until now and most of the 400 or so who attended the annual meeting at the Jacksonville Marriott last month probably weren’t surprised when his name was announced as the local association’s Realtor of the Year.
Two years earlier, in the same banquet room, he let everyone know right away that he wouldn’t be cruising through a second year as president.
After entering the annual meeting room with a roar — he drove in on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle — he went after the naysayers who didn’t see the market recovering:
“There are good things going on in our industry and we need to tell our story. We cannot let others tell it because they will dwell on the negative,” he said. “It’s up to us. The media will tell it their way. We see a good future. Inventory (of homes) is down and sales are up. Mortgage rates continue at record lows. The only reason that the median price is down is because the lower-priced homes are the first to sell.”
The honor, according to the Nominating Committee’s report, was based on more than the extra year. They cited a number of Leslie’s initiatives, including unlicensed activity in both the real estate and construction industries, and work on ordinances in the area that would restrict home sales signage.
The award winners got more recognition than just being handed an attractive glass plaque: Each walked down a large runway installed in the hotel’s banquet hall.