After landing Northeast Florida’s top residential real estate sale for three weeks in a row, Realtor Jennifer White said a gritty approach led to the glittery achievement.
“Answer your phone, be present, return all calls daily, all emails daily, all texts. Dot your i’s, cross your t’s,” she said after topping the market from Nov. 24 through Dec. 14 with the sale of three homes for $4.9 million, $18.75 million and $8.75 million. “The younger kids are used to instant gratification on their feeds, TikTok, Instagram and all that. Slow down. Stop. Take the time to read everything. Double-, triple-check.”
White, an agent with Ponte Vedra Club Realty, set the firm’s sales record for a single month in November, closing on $25.58 million in sales. At the end of 2025, she totaled $90.36 million in properties sold. Her three-week streak of top sales, totaling $32.4 million, was measured in the Daily Record’s weekly Top 10 list of residential sales in Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties.
White's start
White has been a Realtor in Florida for 24 years, starting with a part-time job doing office work and some marketing for Jacksonville-based development firm Fletcher Management Co. The firm, led by brothers Paul and Jerome Fletcher, developed golf course communities including Marsh Landing and Baymeadows.
White said she caught the eye of Paul Fletcher when she edited his letters without being asked.
He reminded her that he was a Yale graduate. She told him his letters still needed editing.
He asked her to bring her resume the next time she was in the office. She forgot. She forgot again. Then a co-worker offered her advice.
“She said, ‘Honey, I’m gonna give you a break. I know you’re new around here and you have no idea who Paul Fletcher is, but when Paul Fletcher tells you to bring your resume, you bring your resume.’ ”
After finally seeing her resume, Paul Fletcher offered her a full-time real estate sales job selling exclusively in Serenata Beach Club and later Palencia in St. Johns County.
She declined the offer. She didn’t want to work nights and weekends.
The co-worker stepped in again, telling her the job was a great opportunity.
White got her real estate license in less than two weeks after taking a cram course.
Her simple rule
She left Fletcher Management Co. after the birth of her first child, Peyton, in 2007. She joined WCI Realty, where her grind-it-out approach took shape through working nights and weekends, attending networking events and hustling to start her business from scratch.
She said she followed a simple rule.
“I took every lead that came my way, even if it was a rental lead. I took it because I was relearning the streets, I was learning inventory, I was meeting people. And some of those rental leads actually ended up buying down the road,” she said.
These days, almost all of her clients are referred to her, including the grown children of some individuals she worked with early in her career.
She says she still takes on any real estate opportunity, such as a modest West Jacksonville home where a client asked her to test a toilet in what looked like a do-it-yourself bathroom near a decaying pool.
“It flushed, but I have no idea where the water went,” she said.
White, a solo agent, says she takes pride in talking clients out of a “dream home” that she knows will become a nightmare. Houses of a certain age need a new roof. Oceanfront houses often have window issues. Interior details provide her with clues of future costly repairs.
She says she dissuades sales if she thinks a property is overpriced, suffers from substandard construction, has been poorly renovated or otherwise is lacking in value.
“I am 95% repeat referral business. I would not have that if I was just going for the quick sale,” she said.
White's motivation
Her motivation isn’t the money, she said. It comes from her drive to be the best at something.
As the only daughter in a family with four boys who played sports, she said she was unable to measure success with her brothers through athletic achievements and instead set an objective to improve herself every year.
“I wanted to compete with my brothers, and I wanted my dad to be proud of me,” she said.
Her father supported her, including driving her to appointments in her real estate career so she could work while en route.
As for measuring success by money, White said that although she made a good income in 2025, commissions on high-priced homes tend to be less than those for lower-priced properties. A normal 3% or 2.5% commission may be around 1% in Ponte Vedra Beach.
“Typically, the higher the price point, you come down on your commission level. The sellers, they didn’t get to that point by giving away all their money, right?” she said.
Heading into 2026, she has no big plans to celebrate her best sales year ever. She’ll spend some time with family and perhaps take a vacation.
Not right away, though, because 2026 will start just like 2025 did. The tally sheet will be at $0.