The person in charge at Premier Properties of Southwest Florida is a man of many mentors.
Mom and Dad. A congressman scholar from North Carolina. The U.S. Army. A Connecticut bank president. A good friend and business partner named Tony Parker. Sarasota real estate magnate Michael Saunders.
Steve Bailey has learned from them all.
His path to his post as vice president and Sarasota regional manager for Naples-based Premier Properties led through Miami, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, North Carolina, New Orleans and Connecticut.
Once it led from Jacksonville — right back to Jacksonville.
Bailey’s father was a Pratt & Whitney turbojet generator supervisor and moved from place to place to help clients build and maintain the machines. As often happened, the elder Bailey’s bosses told him to leave one job, in Jacksonville, and move on to the next one in Niagara Falls, N.Y.
Halfway there his dad checked in with the boss, who said the New York job had been cancelled and to head back to Jacksonville.
“I don’t remember it being a big problem. We just reversed directions and returned to Florida,” Bailey said. “My parent’s bought another home, and we enrolled in the same school system. The Realtors loved us.”
Bailey said situations like that helped set him up for success later in life, making it easier for him to move to new places as his education and career unfolded, and adjust to the new surroundings and people without being intimidated by either.
His father, a giving, fair man who stopped just short of letting anyone take advantage of him, taught Bailey one of the axioms he still lives by — and runs Premier with — today.
“This, too, will end,” Bailey said. “If you are on top of the world, it will end. And if you are at the bottom, it will change, too.“
Taking a risk
Since Premier opened its Five Points Plaza office in November 2006, the luxury real estate firm has consistently ranked No. 1 in average listing price ranging from $1.17 million so far this year to $1.34 million in 2007, according to data from California-based Trendgraphix.
Premier also is holding its own against some of Sarasota’s larger firms in terms of sales of properties for more than $5 million — Premier had nearly 10 percent of that market share during the last year with barely 30 agents.
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Filed under: Premier Property Agents, Real Estate Market
