Roger Pettingell is top Sarasota-area Realtor in 2019

Longboat Key-based Roger Pettingell is ending the 2010s the same way he spent much of the decade: As number one.  

The Sarasota-area Coldwell Banker Realtor has topped the list of top agents in the region for the 10th year and wrapped up 2019 with more than $117 million in closed sales, breaking his previous record of $106 million set in 2018, according to Coldwell Banker public relations specialist Matthew Lipani. Pettingell has been selling Sarasota, Longboat Key and its surrounding areas for 33 years. 

The full 2019 Agent Awards Report from the Multiple Listing Service is expected later this month.

“It really feels like we understand the business,” Pettingell said. “When I go in and talk to somebody about what we're going to do for him, I know it's going to work. That's what really feels great about it, to just know that the way we've set up our business to run is working, that it's not a fluke.”

Rather than spread listings out over multiple Realtors in his group, Pettingell stands as the lone agent with six employees helping fine tune the approach. Pettingell has employees who stick to a specialty, like marketing, while he sticks to the sales. This creates a focused, skilled team that Pettingell says is critical to producing the volume they do every year. 

“It's still a very hands-on customer interactive business,” Pettingell said. “I don't think it's going to be taken over by an app. But that's the part that I do, and there are a lot of things that are behind the scenes that just have to be done.”

As for what keeps drawing potential buyers to the area, Pettingell says that the weather is always a factor, but the lack of income tax in the state of Florida is a big attractor as well. 

Recently, Pettingell noticed that he’s now beginning to serve a new generation of Florida newcomers. The same profile of customer he was serving 25 years ago — folks in their 50s and 60s looking for a second home in Florida — has begun to crop up again in a second wave of buyers. He’s also been helping that first generation transition to different types of homes in the area, or the children of that first generation move down to the Sunshine State. 

“One of the big things that a business like ours is almost required to do to sustain itself is to stay in touch with past customers,” Pettingell said. “So, we've been, we've been doing follow-up with our customers basically every month for the last 25 years. It really is kind of fun to see the kids come to come back in as follow-up buyers.”

Pettingell topped the 2010s and hopes to continue that success into 2020 by sticking to the same practices that have been proven to work, while also expanding his marketplace into Lakewood Ranch and Bradenton.