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- What inspired you to become a realtor? I was a personal shopper in the past and sold things for friends & acquaintances and one of the last things I sold prior to becoming a realtor was a “Jaguar” for my neighbor! I made 3 phone calls, 2 came to see it, and 1 drove it away. She wanted to pay me, but I never took money, I did it to achieve a goal. So, I said she could invite me and my husband to dinner. She did and included two of her friends to join us. They were the recently retired broker for Saddlebrook and the President for Saddlebrook (Peg & Frank Stringer). We had a very nice evening that Saturday night where I mentioned all the other jobs I had had in my life, like owning a day care school for 10 years, a floral arranging business for 2 years, (to help a friend who needed a job to get her mind busy), a vision center receptionist teaching patients how to put on contacts (to help the doctor whose receptionist was away for a couple of months), and raising my 3 children along the way. The following Monday, I received a phone call from the retired broker, Margaret Peg Stringer, who told me I should go into real estate, because I could make a lot of money. She could tell I had what it took! I told her I appreciated her kind words, but if I made money, it would not be fun for me. I just liked seeing if I could make whatever the goal was to happen. Like buying jewelry for someone at a lower price than they had tried to buy, and I was able to find it for less…sometimes from the same store! I met my challenge, success! However, needless to say, I did go and took the 2-week course, went to Orlando, took the exam and passed. I next went to Peg Stringer’s front door and told her, “Ok, I passed my realtor exam, when do we start?” She had no intention of starting a real estate business, she had retired…But I guess I am a good salesperson, because we did start, Stringer & Associates. We worked successfully together for 24 years until she sadly passed. then I went to Century 21 Bill Nye Realty who lived across the street from her.
- How long have you been in real estate, and what’s your favorite part of the job? I have been a realtor for 34 years, and the favorite part of my job is meeting the buyers and sellers. They ultimately become my friends. I enjoy being able to work from home, listing and selling just my community and using my golf cart to get around.
- Do you specialize in a particular type of property or area? I specialize in selling Saddlebrook residential real estate. For many years I held an NASD and SEC license to sell the Saddlebrook rental pool condos because they are security condominiums. But then general real estate licensees were listing and selling these condos, and we asked the SEC and NASD to do something about it and they did nothing. It meant having to take a 3-hour computer exam in Atlanta, GA. at the time, and honestly the exam had nothing to do with selling condos. So, we dropped out… So, I am now selling all the residential community in Saddlebrook, which includes Lakeside Village. I do not sell the Rental Pool condos which are the Walking Village condos for 45-day hotel stays since 2024. I do not go outside the gates of Saddlebrook to sell or list properties and when I do get those requests, I always refer those out to my office.
- What’s one memorable moment from your real estate career that stands out? The most memorable moment in my real estate career was when I received a call at 7 am from a Buyer wanting to know what was available in Saddlebrook. I told him about all the properties in detail taking over an hour or more and our conversation ending by him telling me he would drive by them all and call me to show them to him. I said great! Every morning, Monday thru Friday, I went to my office, which was at Peg Stringer’s house (her home was not platted) from 8:30am to 8:00pm. When I returned home that evening, I saw my voice recorder blinking. It was the man from this morning, he wanted to see the homes I told him about this afternoon. I immediately called him, and he said, “I already saw the homes, when you did not return my call with Andy Nye, and I bought one of them!” I told him, “Congratulations, I apologized for not having received his call and immediately called my broker Peg and told her that in the morning when the stores opened, we were buying PAGERS! My advice to all realtors, get every possible new device that comes on the market to keep you and your buyers and sellers and the market in touch. You must never lose a customer because you missed a communication.
- What’s your best piece of advice for home buyers or sellers? I have received many phone calls from new realtors asking how they can do as well in real estate as I have. The best advice I can give is: 1. Always answer your phone, text, and emails when you receive them. 2. Find something different about yourself from other realtors working in the same neighborhoods and capitalize on it. When I first started and sold a home, I would prepare an entire dinner and deliver to my Buyers home on moving day. In the last few years, I now bake them one of my homemade cakes. It could be a pistachio, a blueberry banana cream breakfast cake, or a box of chocolate nut or pistachio bouchons. 3. And most important, for many years I did not know I could tell a client, “I was booked!”. Honestly, I left baby showers, birthday parties, not until 15 years ago, did I learn I could say I was booked, could we schedule another day? So, in the beginning of my real estate career, I never said I was booked. I was always available. Could this be why answering all calls and texts, if I don’t respond right away, they have sent the sheriff to check on me? (true story) And could it be that I always listed and sold a lot was because I was always available? Do you always respond right away? And are you always available?
- When you’re not helping clients, what do you love to do in your free time? I enjoy spending time with my family. I also like to plan family group gatherings for all of us so we can spend 4 to 5 days and nights together in the same house in a destination we have not been to before. My younger two great grandchildren call the house I rent a “castle” since it must be large enough for all 21 of us. We like to play all types of games together, paint ceramics, go bowling, eating, and do a lot of laughing and picture taking. Just being together is fun. I enjoy making photo albums for the grandchildren and for the annual gatherings too.
- Tell us a little about your family or your background? I grew up in Ybor City, Florida. My mother was a cigar maker, my father a bookkeeper, and my grandparents lived with us. We lived in a 3-bedroom home my grandmother’s brother built, a 3 bedroom/ 1 bath bungalow. The gangster, Charlie Wall, lived at the end of our street, and he was murdered while my parents still lived there. Every Saturday my grandfather took my sister and me to the movies on the streetcar. At intermission they called out your ticket number and mine was called and you picked a circle off the Big Board. I was called up 3 times. I won two bicycles and a gallon of Sealtest ice cream. At 19, I married my sweetheart of 5 years, after our second year of college at the University of Tampa. We had three children and were married for 31 years and built our home in Saddlebrook when we relocated back to Tampa from St Louis, Missouri where we had been for 5 years. We found Saddlebrook and built a home in Fairway Village and 2 years later we divorced on August 3,1991. In 1992, I met Stuart, to whom I sold the house I am now living in. After a courtship, Stuart took me to see over 32 countries and on December 25, 2011, he asked me to be his wife. We were married on April 12, 2012, in a private ceremony and we then flew to New York to a reception family gathering to celebrate his birthday, but to announce our marriage. We had announced our marriage to my family at a dinner gathering at Grillsmith Restaurant’s private dining room before we left. Stuart and I had a good life together playing golf, going to the horse races, the movies, entertaining friends on the weekend, going on cruises with friends, watching Seinfeld, and while I worked, he read and did the stock market. It was a very fulfilling life until Stuart became ill and passed on March 23, 2020.
- What’s one goal you’re working toward (personal or professional)? There are two things I am working on. Learning to not worry about everything all the time. Stress is a big part of my life. Learning not to let it control you is difficult, and I am trying. And, learning it is ok to say no. It is very hard for me to say no to someone, just like it was hard for me to say I am booked. But I am trying.
- If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why? I am happy where I am. I enjoy living in my home. I love everything about it. I love the yard and the people in the community. I am close to my children and where they live, and I have made friends with the neighbors and those I have sold to also.
- What’s one fun fact about you that most people don’t know? I have 10 grandchildren, and when they graduate from high school, I will make them an album of photos from infant to their 18 years. They also receive their 4-years of college paid and when they graduate from college, they receive a car of their choice, and we go together for the signing (my favorite part and the picture taking), and when they purchase their first home, or apartment, (their choice) I buy them the sofa of their choice from Pottery barn.
