TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014 On Realtor and broker-owner Patti Ketcham\u2019s business card, the title under her name once read: \u201cCreative Genius.\u201d It started as a wink, then stuck, because it fits. Ketcham solves real problems with empathy and precision. \u201cResidential real estate is about people,\u201d she says. \u201cBe empathetic. Be a problem solver. Understand the contract.\u201d The rest? Noise.<\/p>\n
Ketcham, broker-owner of Ketcham Realty Group, Inc., in Tallahassee, first earned her license in 1979 \u2013 two weeks before welcoming her third child. With three kids under five, she worked nights and weekends while her husband covered childcare. \u201cI\u2019ll always remember who extended me grace,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I\u2019ll remember who didn\u2019t.\u201d That early lesson fuels her insistence on kindness to newcomers.<\/p>\n
After several successful years of selling, Ketcham shifted into mortgage banking for about 15 years. Busy enough to miss her real estate continuing education, she restarted her licensure in 1999 and, at the turn of the century, launched Ketcham Realty Group. Today, she leads about 30 agents and still sells \u2013 all by design. \u201cThe buck stops here,\u201d she says. Independence is the perk she won\u2019t give up: She knows where her train is going, and the schedule hasn\u2019t changed, she says.<\/p>\n
Cycles don\u2019t rattle her. She\u2019s watched buyers close loans at 14% fixed rates. Her husband Clay (who is also a Realtor) likes to say \u2013 \u201cPeople like to eat and sleep indoors\u201d \u2013 a line that is both a joke and truth. Markets shift; human needs don\u2019t. That\u2019s why Ketcham rejects the industry\u2019s quick-fix obsessions. \u201cIf you don\u2019t like people, don\u2019t do residential,\u201d she says. \u201cYou can make a gazillion dollars and burn out. For a sustaining career, build relationships, know the contract, and care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because of a severely disabled grandson, the Ketcham family has close ties to a local school for children with disabilities. Each Christmas, they adopt a family. \u201cMy mother raised me not to be braggadocious,\u201d she says. The giving is the point.<\/p>\n
Her industry involvement wasn\u2019t instant. For years, she \u201cdidn\u2019t darken the door\u201d of the association. In 2006, colleagues nudged her in, and she realized she\u2019d been ignoring a gift. Teaching for Florida Realtors\u00ae\u00a0soon followed, which pushed her to delve deeper into the contract, the Code of Ethics, Chapters 475 and 61J2. That discipline elevates her service to buyers and sellers \u2013 and informs her six years of service on the Florida Real Estate Commission (FREC). On Tuesdays, the commission reviews a \u201csummary of applicants\u201d and often extends second chances. \u201cWe extend grace on Tuesday,\u201d she says. \u201cBut come Wednesday \u2013 if you\u2019re licensed and harming consumers \u2013 I don\u2019t play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Value, to Ketcham, isn\u2019t a speech. It\u2019s competence. She uses simple leave-behinds with her customers: contract samples, deadlines, and roles. She\u2019s direct about compensation (\u201cIf I\u2019m not a fit, set me free\u201d) and pragmatic about buyer-broker agreements \u2013 clarity and fit come first.<\/p>\n
Why pursue the Florida Realtors Board Certified Professional endorsement? She helped shape the program early on and pushed for a behavior component after seeing a viral video of a Realtor lacing expletives into a client rant. \u201cIt can\u2019t just be boxes checked and letters after your name,\u201d she says. She didn\u2019t do it for the pin. She did it to honor the standard.<\/p>\n
Two of her three children work in real estate \u2013 her husband Clay is a Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) and a Member, Appraisal Institute (MAI) \u2013 and she loves that the profession lets you step out when life calls, then catch right back up. Forty-plus years in, Patti Ketcham\u2019s \u201ccreative genius\u201d looks a lot like wisdom: people first, contracts tight, grace where it\u2019s due \u2013 and no need to post about it.<\/p>\n
Florida Realtors\u00ae serves as the voice for real estate in Florida. It provides programs, services, continuing education, research, and legislative representation\u00a0to\u00a0238,000 members in 50 boards\/associations. Florida Realtors\u00ae Newsroom website is available\u00a0at floridarealtors.org\/newsroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014 On Realtor and broker-owner Patti Ketcham\u2019s business card, the title under her name once read:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-38652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}