2021 Women in Business

"They just sit behind their computer, and sit and hope and pray at an open house that they are going to get a client or a customer. I don't do open houses. I work in a private off ice (at 211 Tamiami Trail, on the island of Venice). Most definitely I'm a pit bull. I'm a Type-A personality. There's no two ways about that. But it's a fun job." The Great Recession of the late 2000s was an important milestone in real estate. It had a tremendously negative impact on sales. But Wood said she wasn't particularly impacted because of another practice. "I primarily stay in my box," she said. "I don't go all over the place. I don't go to North Port. I don't go to Port Charlotte. I don't go to Siesta Key. My box is where I live, which is Venice." The market is undergoing tremendous change again. Interest rates are low. Residents of other states already were moving to Florida at a high rate when the coronavirus pandemic shone a bright light on the migration. Under these conditions, a Realtor's goals for 2021 might look quite diff erent as the year progresses. Wood says she practices management by objective, a model that strives to increase performance by clearly defining one's goals. "My background, with the businesses that I've owned and run, I've absolutely had an MBO," she said. "But the marketplace is crazy right now. Never before have I seen people paying the prices that they are paying. (The MBO) changes constantly. "You've got COVID, you've got red tide, and you're in the hurricane season. You've got three things against you right now. None of that has any bearing on anything because people want to move here. There's a thousand people a day moving to the state of Florida. We have no inventory. People are paying significantly over list price for homes in Pelican Pointe (Center Road) and Sawgrass (Auburn Road). They're getting away primarily from the Midwest, California, unfortunately, because of the forest fires and all of the natural disasters that are there." Wood says data shows that new Florida residents are much younger than before. "The people who are coming here are making a lifestyle change," she said. "Older people are now, primarily, seasonally renting. So what's happening now is the client base that I have is no longer an older clientele. I've got people in their 30s and 40s moving here, with young families. They're leaving areas like the Washington, D..C. area, Virginia area, and they are moving here for lifestyle change. That's the biggest change I've seen in the business." But as the market evolves and she adjusts to the new buyers, she's not changing her practices "one iota." "I consistently do the same thing," she said. "I believe in positive fairy dust, every day. I say that every day." CONSISTENCY continued from page 7 Women In Business September 2021 8

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