Pettingell takes top sales honors in 2010

Roger Pettingell, sales associate for Coldwell Banker’s Longboat Key office, closed out 2010 with a double achievement: With $40.5 million in sales, he was the top Coldwell associate in Florida for sales volume and the top-ranked agent on the Multiple Listing Services (MLS) for Sarasota and Manatee counties for the year. It was the second year in which Pettingell received each honor. And 2010’s numbers placed him $14 million ahead of the second-ranked MLS agent involved in non-distressed property sales.

According to Pettingell, the numbers alone don’t tell the full story.

“This is a really big landmark,” he said. “Forty-million dollars is a lot, but $55 million was my best year, and other Realtors have had even better years than that. But to be able to sell so much in a down market shows that we’ve developed a program that really is working well and consistently.”

Just two of Pettingell’s 36 sales for the year were short sales, a fact that he attributes to the value of the properties he sells. According to Pettingell, he works with a high percentage of cash buyers who buy property to live in a home and don’t have to worry about fluctuations in value.

Pettingell used the recession to increase his market share by continuing to advertise locally and increasing his Internet presence.

“A lot of people in a recession cut back, and that’s always a dangerous thing to cut down marketing,” he said.

Pettingell said that technology has always been a key part of his business. After graduating from Guilford College, in Greensboro, N.C., with a degree in biology, he moved to the Sarasota area to work in marketing for Arvida. He planned to return to school to study medicine. Instead, he stayed with Arvida, the company that developed much of Longboat and its surrounding keys. He stayed with the company when it became Waterside Properties, which was then acquired by Coldwell approximately 12 years ago.

At Arvida’s office in 1989, Pettingell was the first person to buy his own computer, something others told him was a waste back then because real estate was all about relationships. Pettingell continued to incorporate technology in his business. Today, Pettingell uses Facebook to increase his Internet presence and is a member of Cyberstars, a group of 260 Realtors from across the country who use cutting-edge technology in their businesses.

Despite achieving top honors in his business for 2010, Pettingell said that his proudest achievement for the year wasn’t in real estate.

In May, Girls Inc. named him “Father of the Year.”

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected]