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Spotlight Carolyn Krug Realtor (813) 376-1336 Pency Owens Realty, Inc. We are your trusted source for innovative real estate solutions Cynthia Craig Realtor (813) 778-2204 Karol Geddes-Sealander Realtor (813) 997-3825 Roxann Owens-Tanner Realtor (813) 997-0406 Gerald Novak Realtor (813) 713-7615 Julie Ciociola Realtor (813) 546-3050 COLDWELL BANKER since 1906 5710 Gall Blvd• Zephyrhills PENCY OWENS REALTY, INC. since 1984 © 2015 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. All Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Logo are registered service marks owned by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. Real Estate Agent Recalls Firm’s Beginnings By Gary S. Hatrick Coldwell Banker, Pency Owens Realty, Inc. has been helping people buy and sell homes through good economic times and bad in Zephyrhills for 33 years. The firm was opened in 1984 by the man whose name is still on the door: Pency Owens. “It was the spring of 1984,” recalls owner Roxann Tanner. “He and my mom opened, and I had been to real estate school but I hadn’t sat for my state exam yet and I was pregnant at the time with my daughter. So, we opened and right after I had my daughter I sat for my state exam and got my license and I worked with my parents primarily at the front desk, but I was licensed. I did the secretarial stuff and attended all the board meeting and made sure we had the right forms and all that kind of stuff. In 1995 is when I took over as the broker because dad had been sick and he thought we’d go ahead and do that. When I took over in ‘95 that’s when we took on the franchise of Coldwell Banker.” The Owens, Pency, Gracie and Roxann moved to Zephyrhills in 1973 from Lavonia, Michigan in the middle of Tanner’s sophomore year and she finished high school at Zephyrhills High School. Pency was a landscape contractor up north and around March they would always come to visit Zephyrhills. “He always wanted to come down here,” Tanner said. In 1973 things worked out for them to come. “I liked Zephyrhills and it has changed tremendously I remember when I was in high school - that was when McDonald’s got built and of course that was the big place to be after the games and at the time they gave all the sports teams free quarter-pounders. “ There wasn’t much to do in Zephyrhills,” Tanner chuckled. “and you did ‘the loop.” You drove around town and saw who you saw. You’d go up 5th Avenue and, then you could drive through Zephyr Park, so you’d drive through Zephyr Park, come out on South Avenue, make a loop up, go back on 5th Avenue, come around and make a cruise up 54 east. You’d just cruise - it was very “American Graffiti” when we moved here in ’73. That was kind of neat.” Perhaps it was getting around Zephyrhills by cruising around so much that prepared her for selling real estate. In 1995, Tanner felt it was time to stop going it alone as an independent company. “We had done very well nut the industry was changing and it was consolidating and you had the beginning of the mega brokers and it became harder to offer the same services to the customer especially with computer coming into the industry and all of that. I spoke with just about every franchise out there …out of them Caldwell Banker was on the edge of trying to really embrace the Internet and how it could be used for real estate and all of that. They seemed to be the most forward looking as far as what was coming down the pike and I think they still are.” Tanner likes the fact that the real estate business is different every day. “There’s always a lot of things to learn and I like that it’s an ever changing cast of characters,” she said. She also likes that brokers work together. “It’s an odd business because your competitor is also your business partner because we co-broke so you really have this big family of other realtor even though they are at a competing company, but your still doing business together. I like that.” “I also like the fact that when you have done your job - your customer is pleased and that could be a seller or buyer,” Tanner said. To be able to do that, Tanner said honesty is key. “We are very responsive to our people whether they are sellers or buyers and we want to be brutally honest with them. We work with people to try to satisfy what they need but at the same time, we’re the professionals and it’s our job to tell them the truth. I can’t go in and tell somebody that your house is worth $50,000 more than the market indicates. I can say ‘if you want to try – we’ll try and we’ll use our best efforts but I can’t tell you that you are going to get that. We always want be optimistic, but you’ve got to know where you’re standing.” So how is the market? The market is very active right now, Tanner said noting that prices have risen some in the last 10 years, but currently there’s a lot of buyers in the marketplace, but not a lot of sellers. “We need more inventory,” she said. “A lot of sellers ask me “well that should mean that it is a seller’s market and we can start getting more money,” and that should mean that, but right now it seems that buyers are still very price sensitive.” Coldwell Banker, Pency Owens Realty, Inc. is located at 5710 Gall Blvd. in Zephyrhills. It is a friendly environment she said and encourages buyers and sellers to come see her and her agents. Roxanne Tanner can be reached at (813) 780.7500 or by e-mail at roxanne@coldwellbanker.com. 20 Community Magazine April 2017


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