Column: After a supercharged year, Palm Beach Realtors gather for lunch, board installation

Darrell Hofheinz, Palm Beach Daily News

December 24, 2021 at 6:01 AM·3 min read

Like so many events this holiday season, the annual luncheon hosted by the Palm Beach Board of Realtors returned to the calendar after being canceled last year out of caution sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.

Real estate agents, brokers and their guests gathered Dec. 8 at the Sailfish Club of Florida to mark the organization’s 72nd anniversary and install a new slate of officers and directors. Friends and colleagues also used the occasion to compare notes and share stories about a year of sales that shattered records on the island.

“Can you believe this?” was the opening phrase of more than one overheard conversation regarding the real estate market. Even agents with several decades of experience said they had never seen anything like it.

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Newly installed board President John Pinson and outgoing President Karen Donnelly attended the Palm Beach Board of Realtors’ holiday luncheon at the Sailfish Club of Florida on Dec. 8.

At the beginning of the program, outgoing President Karen Donnelly asked attendees to switch off their cellphones — a request that was sort of like asking racecar drivers to turn off their engines in the middle of a heat. Not only does the Sailfish Club prohibit mobile phones, she said, but turning them off would give the agents a break from work for at least an hour, a welcome if brief respite after what seemed like a sale-every-minute year.

Donnelly, an agent with William Raveis South Florida, said the board had entered 1,600 new sales listings in its multiple listing service between Jan.1 and Nov. 15. Addressing the restraints of the pandemic, she said the organization had held 35 virtual education programs for its members over the past year and had been pleased to finally hold its first in-person gathering since the pandemic began — an August networking event at the Meat Market.

The 150 attendees at the luncheon saw new officers and directors get sworn in by the organization’s attorney of 44 years, the always dry-witted Gary Nagle. “By the power invested in me by nobody in particular, you are officially installed,” Nagle told the newly sworn board.

Incoming President John Pinson, broker at John D. Pinson Inc., acknowledged he has led the organization as president before, in 2017 and 2004. “This is like déjà vu,” he said in his remarks.

Pinson mentioned how real estate agents had been declared “essential workers” during the early days of the pandemic last year and discussed a recent lobbying effort in Tallahassee, which helped defeat a measure to require real estate agents to pay sales tax on their commissions.

Those who buy and sell real estate on the island, Pinson added, are fortunate to do so. “For those of us in Palm Beach, the best is yet to come,” he said.

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Nagle also installed Vice President Jim McCann of Premier Estate Properties, Secretary Suzanne Frisbie of the Corcoran Group, Treasurer John F. Cregan of Sotheby's International Realty and President-Elect John O. Pickett III of Brown Harris Stevens. Donnelly will serve as immediate past president.

Board members for 2022 include agents Andrew G. Barbar of Keller Williams Palm Beach Island, Heather Bretzlaff of Douglas Elliman Real Estate, Christine Cox of Douglas Elliman, J.B. Edwards of Sotheby’s International Realty and Sabra Kirkpatrick of Brown Harris Stevens.

At the Dec. 8 Palm Beach Board of Realtors’ holiday luncheon at the Sailfish Club of Florida in Palm Beach were newly installed board directors Chris Cox, Andrew Barbar and Heather Bretzlaff.

Special guests at the luncheon included John Gonzalez, the incoming Florida Realtors District 3 vice president, and two representatives of the Martin County Realtors of the Treasure Coast, President Andy Spears and CEO Janet O’Brien. Representing the Okeechobee County Board of Realtors were President Vicki Anderson and Association Executive Judy Noel. Attending from the Realtors Association of Indian River County were President Cheryl Goff and CEO Carol Hawk.

Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes tips about real estate news on the island. Email dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com, call (561) 820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Column: Palm Beach Realtors install new officers at holiday luncheon

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