Known as the "Smile of 30-A", Linda M. Miller, vice president and broker at Rosemary Beach Realty discusses the path her career has taken, what makes her company so successful and what she enjoys doing outside of work. Linda attended the 12th Annual Luxury Real Estate Spring Retreat this past April and was most recently inducted into the Luxury Real Estate Board of Regents, which celebrates its 10 year anniversary in 2014.
How did you get your start in real estate? I got my license in 1998 when I FINALLY got to move to "Paradise" – beautiful SCENIC HIGHWAY 30-A, where the beaches are sugar white sand & the gulf water is turquoise-clear most of the time. I had always loved this beach, so I believed in the product & that made it very easy to sell! A friend knew the first female Broker on SCENIC HIGHWAY 30-A, Sandi Nichols, who mentored me in her real estate & rental company. I sat on-site & met the customers who rented weekly vacation homes from her. They wanted to buy their own piece of "Paradise" after a couple of visits, so I got to help them. She taught me how to show them that they could own investment property & rent it short-term for vacations & let other people help them pay for it.
What path has your career taken? I have moved from one company to another a couple of times…but always moving UPWARD! My sales volume doubled every year and during the “boom”, and I had a team with 2 Assistants doing $55 million a year. I thought I enjoyed “training & developing” young agents until I figured out they grow up & become your competition…ha! I started working with developers of communities & sitting on-site for new communities. I established myself as the “authority” in each new development & therefore got listings when owners decided to sell. The new buyers were led to my model home when they wanted to buy.
Why is your company successful? We have the best Traditional Neighborhood Development on Scenic Highway 30-A, so our product is top notch. My 11 agents work as a TEAM to establish ourselves as the “experts” in our community, and our 123 years of combined experience and over $700,000,000 in combined sales speaks for itself! The standards for architectural excellence and the lifestyle of our community make people want to own property here. We have the exclusive on-site real estate office in Rosemary Beach, Florida, which is the 2nd Traditional Neighborhood Development that was planned by Andres Duany of DPZ from Miami (the 1st was Seaside, Florida located on SCENIC HWY 30-A as well). Traditional neighborhoods have given birth to New Urbanism, which is now a national movement in planning communities.
What are the favorite parts of your job? Making families happy when they purchase their “legacy” homes & they begin making memories with their families! They know that every vacation, they will come back to the same home & enjoy a familiar place & friendly faces. I also like to sell a property to an investor who has bought when the time is right so they make the ROI they expected, and are ready to buy another one. We have many homeowners who start at entry level home prices, then “move up” to gulf front eventually….that’s when they SMILE!!
What do you enjoy doing outside of work? Spending time with my family! I am so blessed to still have both of my parents, two children & six grandchildren. The “GRANDS” always want to come see “Mimi” at the beach! I like Crystal cruises with a group of friends. Traveling to Luxury Real Estate meetings have become a new hobby & meeting new friends there is really fun.
For more information on Linda M. Miller, please visit www.rosemarybeachrealty.com or www.thesmileof30a.com.