Pat Sharr welcomes daughter to firm

WEST ORANGE — With many years of experience paving her way solo in area real-estate transactions, Pat Sharr decided it was time to welcome new blood into the office.

It turns out that new blood is her own, daughter Kristi Lowery.

Lowery started working with Pat Sharr Realty in April after developing an interest about a year ago, she said.

“She got tired of working at Advanced Mechanical Services, which is an air-conditioning company — she had been there for 25 years,” Sharr said. “So I thought she was kind of getting bored with it, and I approached her and asked her whether she had ever thought about it.”

Lowery was in elementary school when Sharr got her license, giving her decades of exposure to the business, Sharr said.

“Once I have my license for two years, I’ll go ahead and get my brokerage license,” Lowery said, a grin beginning to appear. “(Then I’ll) kick her to the curb and take over the company.”

Lowery describes herself as a people person, which she said helps in such a job, and she enjoys being in different areas with different types of houses.

Within two weeks of getting her license, she had made her first sale. Her previous exposure and work experience has helped her to avoid any nerves and in other ways, she said.

“(I was) the operations manager at (Advanced Mechanical Services), so I was just dealing with customers on a daily basis,” she said.

Sharr described her daughter as a problem-solver and is thrilled to have her in the business

“I’ve been in business now for myself for 10 years, and I’ve never had people work for me before,” Sharr said. “There was plenty of people who wanted to come work for me, but I never had anyone.”

Lowery has begun taking sales responsibilities all over the area, from Oakland, Ocoee and Winter Garden to Minneola, Montverde and Groveland, focusing strictly on residential properties, Sharr said.

“All kinds, from mansions to little starter homes; condos — town homes and condos are figured into single-family residential, also, so we do all of that, lovely properties,” Sharr said. “I thought how great it would be for her to get into it and how she’d like it. I thought it would help to get her a broker’s license within two years, give me some rest. I believe in the Golden Rule, and that’s what I want her to pass on.”

As Sharr’s daughter, Lowery will inherit Sharr’s knowledge of the business and her concern for buyers and sellers to make sure the job is done right, Sharr said.

“She has the knowledge to build it even further than what I’ve built it,” Sharr said. “Because she’s getting started, naturally she’s going to help me with some of the relationships I already have. When I first started out, I was selling houses to couples, and now, I’m selling to their kids and grandkids. I hope she carries on, because 90% of my business is referrals.”

Lowery grew up in Winter Garden and graduated from West Orange High School. She has lived in the area her whole life, even before her mother began selling houses. She has two sons, a grandson and a daughter-in-law. Maybe one day they, too, will take on Sharr’s trade.

“We just hope to carry on the business, and hopefully one day I retire, and she can take it over,” Sharr said. “Everybody keeps saying, ‘Pat you’re not going to retire anytime soon, are you?’ I go, ‘Nope, not yet.’”

Contact Zak Kerr at [email protected].