Conversation with Michael Saunders

Michael Saunders, the woman whose local real estate empire surpassed $2 billion in sales last year, grew up barefoot on the north end of Longboat Key, catching fish and cracking stone crab claws before the Longboat Pass Bridge was built.
Saunders, 73, reflects on the island that celebrated its 60th anniversary over the weekend and how her knowledge of the barrier islands helped her create Michael Saunders & Co. 40 years ago.

How has Longboat Key impacted your life?
I grew up on the Key and got to know the barrier islands like the back of my palm. My 40-year-old company’s roots started with waterfront real estate, and my knowledge of these islands is a big part of the company’s success.

Describe growing up on Longboat Key.
We learned a reverence for Longboat Key’s nature and the environment. I learned to swim before I learned to walk. I could drive a boat better than I could drive a car. I can throw a cast net better than I can dance. 

My childhood was pure magic. I fished, I learned how to break a claw, and I learned how to enjoy the simple pleasures in life. Our entertainment was looking at the clouds, finding animal shapes, collecting rocks and shells and painting shells. We had no television and no radio. We would fish from the screened porch with a hole in the screen to keep the mosquitoes away. My parents would read aloud books in the cottage at night, or we would play cards, Scrabble or charades. 

I remember more details of that simple life than I can of my last trip to Paris because they were the most lasting impressions.

What was Longboat Key like 60 years ago?
It was a time when life was simple. We moved out here because of that simplicity. All of the Village children learned to fish on the town dock. Gulf of Mexico Drive was a two-lane shell road with pine needles all over it. I learned to drive a stick shift on Gulf of Mexico Drive in the middle of the day because it was so sleepy back then. The south end was still a jungle. There was a grocery store in the Village that my sister and I would visit to buy milk by taking the boat to the town dock.

How did the north end change when the Longboat Pass bridge was completed in 1958?
It was a whole new world for us. It allowed us to help make my father’s dream of opening a marina a reality. 

We had to have the boats ready for the first fishermen at sunrise and get the rental fishing poles oiled and ready for those who would rent them. My sister and I were the chief hamburger cooks, and my mother made her secret sauce that I still can’t recreate. 

Our marina was the place to buy a burger. We would get orders for 30 to 40 burgers at a time and cook them in our bathing suits. My sister and I put the hamburgers on the grill, ran down to the dock, jumped in the pass and then ran back to flip the burgers. It was our flawless system of cooking the best burgers in town.

What hasn’t changed about real estate buyers on Longboat Key in the last 60 years?
Buyers ultimately still come here because of the beauty of the island. The reason for wanting to be here hasn’t changed. Wanting a cottage on the beach 60 years ago today still has the same kind of intrinsic yearning for a place to get away and a place of beauty.

How does a former Manatee High School teacher and a former Sarasota probation and parole officer form a real estate company that did $2 billion in sales last year?
I believe buying real estate or selling is one of the most important decisions you can make. I felt I could bring higher standards. 

Real estate offices in the 1970s were like the Wild West and had a hodgepodge of mismatched chairs with grumpy agents smoking behind them. It’s not the way to make a first impression. I determined I should focus on waterfront property because I love it and understood if you could afford it, you want to live on the water. 

I got my real estate license in 1972 and started the company in 1976 in a 1,000-square-foot space on St. Armands Circle. My mother was an artist, and I borrowed an easel to display my listings and some of her furniture. I had the only real estate office in the area that looked like an art gallery. It lured people in immediately. 

We did $12 million in business in 1976, which meant I could pay my bills.

Were there any hurdles along the way to your success?
Oh, yes. I always wanted to be a lawyer. I got a full scholarship to attend the University of Florida but needed a fellowship, too, because we had no money. I was the only female invited for fellowship interviews, and when I wasn’t being interviewed and inquired about when I would be called, they apologized and told me they only gave fellowships to men and only invited me because my name implied I was a man.

Later when I needed a $5,000 bank loan to start the real estate company, I was turned down because I was a woman. I had to get a male friend to co-sign for me. It was the last time I needed a man’s help for anything. The bank is no longer there, and I am. 

My father always said to dream the impossible dreams but warned me I would pay the price to make them come true. I always believed I could do anything because of that advice.

Is there a bubble on the horizon of the current real estate market?
Absolutely not. That’s not to say there might not be a bubble in Miami. But here, we have low inventory and high demand. We have more stringent lending practices in place to avoid what happened the last time.