Article

Using Charm and hard work, Sandra Jeter is amazingly successful at selling houses to rich and famous clients.

It's a hot September afternoon and Sandra Jeter is waiting outside the players' entrance to the Orlando Arena.  Her hands are sweating -- not from the heat but from nervousness.

Any minute now, the Orlando Magic players will emerge from practice.  When they do, she plans to be ready to greet them with a smile, a handshake and a business card.

She presses the palm of her right hand against her thigh, hoping to dry it on the cream-colored fabric of her skirt.

She worries that the color is too light.  Perhaps she should have worn a dark power suit?  The red silk of her blouse is good, though, bold and eye-catching.

She shapes and reshapes her cards into a neat stack, using just the dry tips of her fingers.  She takes deep, slow breaths.

Suddenly the players spill from the arena's shadows onto the sunlit sidewalk.  Jeter swings into action, her nervousness evaporating in the heat of the moment.

"Welcome to Orlando.  I'm Sandra Jeter, real estate agent.  If I can help you find a home, please take my card."

She deals them out - along with smiles as dazzling as the late afternoon sunbeams.

"You wouldn't believe the response," she says.  "One of the players even asked me for a date.  I explained, very gently, that I was almost old enough to be his mother --- and married.  But if he was interested in real estate. . .

"I had lunch with him and his mother the next day, and sold them a beautiful home in Cypress Landing."

That was in 1990, when Jeter was fresh out of real estate school.

Today she no longer has to hustle for  clients.  Now they seek her out.

Jeter, 46, has made a name for herself as Orlando's Realtor to the stars, buying and selling million-dollar properties for professional athletes and entertainers -- and earning herself a tidy six figure income in the process.

Her swift and extraordinary success is due to enterprise, hard work, charm and her knack for matching clients with their dream homes.  Luck has played a part.    So has the word-of-mouth buzz she has generated within the elite circle inhabited by her high-profile clients.

But all those factors are secondary, she says.  "My success in 10 short years is because of my relationship with God, which translates into every interaction with my clients.  I prize my clients' satisfaction above financial gain," she says.  "All my clients benefit from my relationship with God, which is the core of who I am."

And, she adds, "I'm spiritually grounded and that keeps me humble."

Her celebrity clients include actor Wesley Snipes, supermodel Tyra Banks and assorted ball players -- Antawn Jamison of the Golden State Warriors, Robert Porcher of the Detroit Lions, Leon Searcy of the Baltimore Ravens, Brian Jordan   of the Atlanta Braves.

And of course there is the Magic connection.  She has bought and sold property for members of Shaquille O'Neal's family, for senior vice president Julius "Dr. J" Erving, and for former stars Penny Hardaway, Dennis Scott and Nick Anderson.

Her discreet for-sale signs can be spotted on prime real estate all around Orlando, from Alaqua in the north to Isleworth in the south.

Not bad for a modest hometown girl.

Born and reared in Orlando, Sandra was 11 years old when her parents separated.  "My mother worked two jobs, but if we were hurting for money, I didn't know it," she says.

She attended local schools --- Washington Shores, Carver and Jones --- married her high school sweetheart and had four children.  She later divorced, and has been married for 16 years to Frederick Jeter, an electrician with the Orlando Utilities Commission.

Her role as real estate agent to the rich and famous has changed her lifestyle, says sister Donna Fort, but not her inner self.

"She's still the same person --- down-to-earth, genuine and full of fun," says Fort.  "She still just Sandy to everyone."

Poise and charm

The clock in the walnut dash of Jeter's S-Type Jaguar is set 15 minutes fast, a self-imposed ruse to get her to appointments early.

But she is late anyway when she pulls up in front of her office at the Prudential Florida Real Estate Center in downtown Orlando on a recent Wednesday morning.

"So sorry," she apologizes, snaking out of the low, white car with its JETER1 plates.  "There were a few fires to put out on the way over.  I had to talk with a mortgage company and reschedule a property inspection and mail a couple of proposals."

She strides forward, hand extended, a sliver of white cuff peeking from the navy sleeve of her elegant Ellen Tracy pantsuit.

Her poise, charm and sunbeam smile impress even the most jaded eye.  When Tyra Banks couldn't make it to a dinner that Jeter recently hosted for her clients, she sent a letter to be read at the event.  Here's how the model described her initial encounter with Jeter:  "On our first outing, I was picked up from my hotel on International Drive by a strikingly beautiful woman.  This was my real estate agent???   She looked more like the women I strutted down the runway with."

That strikingly beautiful woman is making a quick swing through her office, picking up phone messages, stashing papers in her briefcase and keys in her handbag.  She has a word with the receptionist -- where she'll be, what calls to forward--- then slides back into her car.  She stows a bulging date book between the camel-colored leather seats, plugs the ear piece of her mobile phone into her ear and eases into the traffic.

She's headed for the upscale Phillips Landing development, to the house she is selling for Brave's outfielder Brian Jordan -- who just bought and even larger spread on the nearby Butler Chain of lakes.

But Jeter has a more recent deal on her mind.

"I'm very excited about a contract I got yesterday.  It's for a lakefront property in Isleworth.  Almost three acres --- at $1milion an acre," she says.

Her first real estate transaction was on a modest $40,000 house.  Her largest, so far, was worth about $4 million.  This latest coup will break that record, once the home is built, she says.

The buyer is "a major Florida sports figure."  But until the deal is closed this month, she won't disclose his name.

Jeter is nothing if not discreet.  Respect for a client's privacy is a key to her success, she says.  That, and being a good listener.

"You have to be sensitive  to their needs.  Listen carefully.  And never try to sell them something they don't want.  In the long run, that won't make them happy --- and I want 'em happy," she says.

What she can reveal about her new client is that he plans to build a home with a full-length, air-conditioned basketball court, a fully equipped exercise facility, a home theater and a custom bath "with jets and things just like a car wash."

Her sensitivity to privacy has turned clients into friends.  "Sandra is just so warm and outgoing," says Lucille Harrison, mother of Shaquille O'Neal.  She was one of Jeter's first clients and now is a close friend.  "She's tough, she knows her business, but she also knows how to treat people."

Making the transition from hometown girl to business associate, friend and confidant of big name, high-flier clients was easy "once I got over the initial celebrity thing and realized, oh, they're just real people," Jeter says.  "I conditioned myself to stay focused professionally, and everything fell into place."

But it's still a thrill, she says --- wheeling and dealing, matching celebrities with their dream homes.

She is cruising at an easy 50 mph down Interstate 4, a highway whose every curve is as familiar as the circular driveway at her Ocoee home.  Her car's odometer clocks about 20,000 miles a year, mostly on I-4.

"I like this little car.  It's so feminine-looking.  But I'm going to have to trade it for the XJ sedan.  I need the extra legroom.  A lot of my clients have very long legs," says Jeter, who's 5-foot-9 herself.

Her phone buzzes.  "Yes? No, not now.  Take a message, please.  And hold my calls till this afternoon." 

"The phone, it never stops ringing," she says.  "But in this business, it's a lifeline."

Jeter was steered into the real estate business by a series of disasters that occurred during the construction of her own home in the late 1980's.  "Building a home should be a joyous experience, not stressful, but for us it was just awful," she recalls.  Inspections weren't done right, subcontractors weren't paid on time, and it took months of expensive legal wrangling to sort things out, she says.

"But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  It made me want to know more about real estate."  She gave up her job managing a jewelry store and signed on for a crash course in real estate at Mid-Florida Tech in 1990.  The following year, she returned for her broker's license.

"Everyone in real estate warned me that it takes six months before you get your first paycheck.  I got mine in two months.  After eight months, I landed my first celebrity:  Wesley Snipes."

The actor, who grew up in Orlando, was in town to shoot Passenger 57 --- and to purchase a home for his mother, Marion Snipes.  As luck would have it, Jeter's sister was engaged at the time to a man who had attended Jones High School with Snipes.  He had kept in touch with Marion Snipes, and when he learned she was looking for a real estate agent, he suggested she call his future sister-in-law.

Jeter met with the actor's mother and later with his agent, who ruled that the price for the house should not exceed $500,000.

"But when I met Wesley, he pulled me aside.  He said he knew I'd been given a price limit, but to ignore it.   This house was for his mother and he wanted it to be perfect," Jeter says.

"I ended up selling them three houses --- for Wesley, for his mother and for his personal assistant.  The total sale was over $2.6 million."

It didn't take long for word to spread.  "After Wesley, my phone started ringing off the hook.

A new venture

The security guard at the entrance to Phillips Landing recognizes the sleek shape of Jeter's car and immediately punches the button that opens the electronic gate.

Jeter pauses for a friendly exchange with the guard then enters Phillips Landing, gliding along a landscaped avenue and over an ornamental bridge to the estate  section of the development.  The houses are huge, the yards immaculate, and the streets empty except for a couple of landscaping and pool service vehicles.

"Brian Jordan's house," announces, pulling up in front of a fieldstone-fronted mansion.

After digging around in her bag for the right keys, she opens the home's double front doors and leads the way into the cavernous, white-carpeted interior.

"Five bedrooms, six baths," she says, launching into real-estate jargon.  "Forty-eight hundred square feet under air, gross square footage almost 6,900.  Lagoon, spa, dock on the lake.  Asking price, $1.4 million."

The master bedroom is white and silver, with a vast four-poster bed.  It overlooks the screened freeform pool and manicured jungle of palms and orchids.

A bookcase in a hallway holds a bronze statue of a baseball player, framed team photos of the Braves and a collection of baseball caps.  But there are few other personal touches in the house.

"Brian's just here for about two months of the year, during the off-season and spring training," Jeter says.

After a quick inspection of the property, including a circuit of the lagoon in her 4-inch heels, she's back in her car.  "I wear heels every day," she says, "but I carry tennis shoes in the trunk for the dirt."

In between appointments, she stops by the south Orlando office of her latest venture, Absolute Concierge Services.

"It's a spinoff from the real estate business." she explains.  "I have so many clients relocating here or buying a second or third home here.  They all have questions:  Where's the spa?  Where can I get my hair done?  Can you recommend an interior designer?

"I'm a service-oriented person.  I was helping them out anyway.  I thought maybe I could make it a separate business - a personal concierge service."

Her new business was incorporated in May.  "I chose the name Absolute because I like positive sounding names," she says, "and because an A -word would be first in the phone listing."

A folder embossed with the silver-and-black Absolute logo lists these services:  special-event planning, corporate gifts and delivery, personal shopping, salon and spa bookings, tour and travel arrangements.

"It's the perfect complement to real estate," she says.  "The excitement is juggling the two."  She doesn't work all the time, however.  She is a regular at Orlando Magic games, and enthusiastic supporter of her two sons' alma mater, Florida A&M University, and she sits on the board of the Florida Hospital Cancer Institute.

When she needs a break from the daily grind, she and her husband escape to a Caribbean island.  Closer to home, she immerses herself in the life of the "Nine-ten Church of God" (so called for its location at 910 W. Livingston St. in Orlando).  Or she pays a visit to some of her seven grandchildren.  Or she simply stays home and bakes a spectacular red velvet cake.

"I do have a life, she says with her ever-ready laugh.

Her friends are constantly astonished at how full that life is. "It's like she warps time for all the things she does.  She's a 24-karat person," says Pamela McCauley Bell, an engineering professor at the University of Central Florida --- and another former client who now is Jeter's friend and prayer partner.

By now it is 2 p.m. and Jeter is hungry.  The entire drive back to downtown Orlando she talks about food:  her three favorite restaurants for crab cakes (Black Fin, Ruth's Chris and the Citrus Club); the best bet for a midnight snack (slightly warm pound cake); the worst kind a pasta (soggy).

She selects the Caribbean-flavored Concha Me Crazy in downtown Orlando for her late lunch.

"Ms Jeter! To what do we owe the honor? asks restaurant owner Johnny Rivers, appearing tableside moments after she takes a seat.

He has known Jeter about 30 years, Rivers says later.  "She's a beautiful person inside and out.  She has no attitude.  I have nothing but admiration and respect for her."

She quickly makes her menu choices and places her order:  Mango tea, a mushroom appetizer and the marinated pork special with plantains and yellow rice.

Such an appetite for one so slim!

I don't eat breakfast.  In the morning I have a cup of tea and feast on the Word."  Every day begins with Bible study, she explains:

In the evening, after clients have been courted, contracts drawn up and calls returned to agents, financial advisors and attorneys, and after social obligations have been met and grandchildren visited, she slides a jazz or gospel disc into her car's CD player.

"And as I drive home," she says, "I thank God for my day."

-Jean Patteson

Orlando Sentinel

Tuesday, December 11, 2001