SEATTLE (April 2010) – Joan Thomson, Broker/Owner of Waterfront Properties & Club Communities, will be recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award at LuxuryRealEstate.com’s Annual Spring Retreat (May 4th-7th in South Beach, Florida). The Luxury Real Estate Lifetime Achievement Award is based on peer recognition, hard work and acknowledgement of success. This prestigious award is given twice annually to the Luxury Real Estate member who has set an example for the real estate industry, displayed excellence throughout their career and is truly a legend.
Joan Thomson has grown Waterfront Properties and Club Communities to become a dominant Florida luxury real estate firm through generous teaching, infectious learning and solid leadership.
A kindergarten teacher and mother of five, Joan, and her husband Paul moved to Palm Beach County from Buffalo, NY in 1962. They didn't know exactly where they would settle but they surely weren’t going to spend another winter in Buffalo, NY. With kids between four months and seven years, the Thomson’s loaded up a moving van and headed to Florida.
With little more than her own initiative and a desire to learn, Joan took to studying real estate. It was one of the few career paths that suited her work ethic: doubling your time and effort could bring double the sales and double the rewards. In 1969 she earned her real estate license.
Joan showed amazing persistence in the volatile real estate industry. There were profitable months and lean months but Joan just wouldn't quit. She worked 100-hour weeks while at the same time raising her boys. When times were tough Joan would be driven to the office at 5:00 a.m. by her neighbor, who was the produce manager at the local grocery store. When clients would come in to the small office she would say "I don't have a car today, can you drive?" The lack of a car didn't stop her from being the area's top agent.
Joan founded Waterfront Properties in 1986 as an owner, broker and mentor. The same skills required to lead a class of kindergarteners—attention to detail, patience and firm hand—helped prepare Joan to lead four offices, a dozen staff members and more than 30 agents. Joan has left an indelible mark on real estate.
Finding the best people, teaching them real estate and helping them reach their full potential are key factors to Joan's success. For example, she met a waiter, saw great potential and hired him. For the past 20 years, that waiter has been Stuart, Florida's top real estate agent.
Never content to stand still, Joan has embraced technology and reasoned modernization. Even at 77 years old, with 15 grandchildren and a great-grandchild on the way, she has actively been involved in the development of the Waterfront Properties web presence and internet marketing strategy.
Joan's perseverance will help you understand why she has been a leader in Jupiter Island real estate for almost 40 years. Jupiter Island, aside from being a beautiful place to live, is one of America's most affluent zip codes.
Joan shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, her crown jewel listing is a 26,000-square-foot, $30 million oceanfront estate. Joan's mother, Esther, was active over 100 years, so look forward to competing with Joan in the Florida luxury real estate market for years to come.
Keep an eye on Joan: you just might learn something.
For more information on Waterfront Properties & Club Communities, please visit www.waterfront-properties.com. For more information on the 8th Annual Luxury Real Estate Spring Conference, visit www.luxuryrealestate.com/conference. About LuxuryRealEstate.com
LuxuryRealEstate.com, a 2009 Webby Award Honoree, has been voted ‘Best of the Web’ by Forbes magazine multiple times, praised by the International Herald Tribune, Town & Country, the Wall Street Journal and has been ranked ‘Best Website’ by consumers according to surveys by the Luxury Institute. Since its debut in 1995, LuxuryRealEstate.com has remained the #1 portal for luxury properties on the internet, consistently driving more traffic to member websites and generating more qualified inquiries than any other website. LuxuryRealEstate.com has several times more $1,000,000+ content of any near-peer.
Also known in the industry as the Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate network, a global collection of the finest luxury real estate brokers in the world, this group of more than 1000 brokerage firms and 95,000 professionals in more than 65 countries collectively sells in excess of $190 billion of real estate annually, with an average sale price of $2,450,000. Members sell homes for record prices and handle transactions of incredible complexity and magnitude with complete discretion. Every member is carefully selected by CEO/Publisher John Brian Losh, one of REALTOR Magazine’s 25 Most Influential People in Real Estate and broker of fine properties and estates through his Seattle-based brokerage firm, Ewing & Clark, Inc.