Living on Florida’s Emerald Coast: Real Estate, & 30A Lifestyle with Ron Hefner

In this episode of Panhandle Pulse, host Chuck Asbury sits down with local real estate broker Ron Hefner to talk about what makes Florida’s Emerald Coast one of the most desirable places to live in the country.

From the white-sand beaches of Santa Rosa Beach, 30A, and Destin, to the growing communities around the bay, Ron shares firsthand insight into the real estate market, lifestyle, and the rapid growth happening across the Florida Panhandle.

Ron also shares his unique origin story — how breaking up a bar argument at the famous Red Bar in Grayton Beachunexpectedly led him into a 15-year real estate career that’s helped hundreds of buyers relocate to the area.

In this conversation, they discuss:

• Why so many people are relocating from the Midwest and major cities
• The unique lifestyle of living along Florida’s Emerald Coast
• Real estate trends in Santa Rosa Beach, 30A, Freeport, and Destin
• The difference between rental communities and full-time neighborhoods
• What buyers need to know about Florida insurance and hurricane preparedness
• The future of development and housing affordability in the Panhandle
• Hidden local gems, restaurants, and outdoor activities
• The truth about living near the beach year-round

They also dive into how the area has evolved from a vacation destination into a thriving year-round community with growing schools, infrastructure, and family life.

Whether you're thinking about moving to Florida, investing in beach real estate, or simply love the lifestyle of the Gulf Coast, this episode provides an inside look at the opportunities and challenges shaping the Florida Panhandle today.

If you’ve ever dreamed of living near crystal-clear water and sugar-white sand, this conversation will give you a realistic perspective on what life here is really like.

Connect with Ron: https://linktr.ee/RonHefner?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=4e6e5fd2-16e1-4a9f-be92-fbed935f5181

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Pain Handle Pulse, the show that dives into real challenges and honest conversations shaping the Florida pain handle. I'm your host, Chuck Asbury. Each week we sit down with the people who make our community strong, sharing real issues, real conversations, and no filters. Hey guys, welcome back to Panhandle Pulse. I got a great guest today, and Ron Hefner. He is a real estate broker, well respected in the area. Ron, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me. Great. I've known you now for uh almost 10 years. Ever since I've been down here, first time uh we met was over the phone trying to buy a house. That was uh interesting uh plans that we've me and my wife ran you through the ringer of of getting houses and finding land. But tell the listeners here in the area your story about uh how you got into real estate and what what got you into real estate.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Yeah, I I was actually on the drive over here before we jumped on. I was trying to remember the story of where we actually met. And I couldn't I know it was, you know, in the DR Horton world, but you had called me, that's right, and you were in West Virginia, I think, at the time. But uh yeah, so my story, I'll keep it fairly quick. Uh, grew up in uh Chicago, north side of Chicago, and then when I was young, we moved up to Wisconsin just over the border, so I was still within 15-minute drive of Illinois. But uh so that was my home, kind of that that space between Chicago and Milwaukee. So I grew up there, went to college in uh in Wisconsin, and then after college, I didn't have a real desire to get into a career right away. I more wanted to find out what was out there, and so I ended up moving out to Arizona for a few months. I moved to uh uh just outside of San Francisco for a few months and ended up up in Colorado, spent a winter up in Breckenridge, snowboarding every day, and I still say that's uh the best winter I've ever had in my life. And yeah, then one day uh you know the snow melted, and my buddy said, Hey, I I know a guy down in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida that can get us jobs. And I said, Great, let's go. And so that's how we uh or how I ended up down here in in Florida, and it was always meant to be for a uh short amount of time, a little summer at the beach, and I thought I'd end up back in the Midwest, but fortunately a girl kept me here, and it's not the girl that I married, but she kept me here long enough to get into a career and plant some roots, and um yeah, so at the time I was working at the Red Bar down in Grayton Beach, and uh I was out one night and there were a couple of guys at a bar that were getting into a pretty heated argument. They weren't ready to throw fists yet, but they were uh arguing pretty heavily, and I got in between them and and bought them both a beer and kind of dissolved the situation. And there was a random bystander that uh watched the situation and came up to me afterward and asked me what I was doing down here, and so I gave him a little bit of my story, and he was uh working for a real estate development company and was building a team and said, Why don't you get your real estate license and come work with me? And I said, Great. Yeah. So three months later, uh I started selling real estate, and that was back in 2011. So you just sort of fell into it. Literally, yes. Um, but it you know, it fit. I've always I've always been in sales, uh, always been in the service industry, and so always been great with people, and so you know, it just fit, you know, hard work and being able to relate to people uh works well in real estate.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah, definitely. And that's how we got connected. Again, finding somebody that's not just pushing homes, but trying to find what you want, and you do that uh very successfully on a personal level, which is great. That's that is a great story. You f break up a bar fight and then fall into your career job for the rest of your life. I've not heard that story before. It's uh it's a good one.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

That's a unique one. Yep. And so now, you know, 2011 to today, I guess, you know, I've been selling real estate for what is that, fifteen years? Yeah almost sixteen years. And uh, you know, I'm not looking back.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

That's good. So besides the girl keeping you in the area, uh, once you got into the real estate, that's the other piece that uh pretty much tied you and locked you down into here.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Yes, I met another girl down here, and uh that is my wife, Bailey, and she's from Fort Walton Beach, so she's from just about thirty minutes from here, and so you know, here we are. Here we are. And you know, and over the past ten years, my entire family from the Midwest has moved down here. So all the different times I've got my parents, uh, and I've got three siblings, two brothers and a sister, all of which have moved down to, you know, Santa Rosa Beach, Freeport, this area.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Yeah, it's a great area. We've uh all of our family, as you know, as well, have moved down here and followed us. So uh we brought everyone with us. But uh for the people uh in the area that may be listening to this that's not from here or that's just visiting, how would you describe the uniqueness of the area that we're in?

SPEAKER_01 4:58

It's a really special place. I love it here. It is, you know, for a lot of reasons. Number one, you know, the weather, obviously coming from the Midwest. It typically doesn't snow here, although it has really.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

But I got a video of Drew last year throwing snowball fights across the pool, four inches of snow covering the boat. It's crazy. Yeah, that was that was oh god, I have another story about that that event.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

I um I like that there are seasons here, whereas if you were to go further south, it's pretty much warm most of the year. Here we do, although it doesn't snow, we have, you know, 40 degree, 50 degree days, and and coming from the Midwest, I enjoy that change of the weather. And so that's one of the reasons. I mean, obviously the number one reason everyone is here is these white sandy beaches that are, you know, among the best in the country and in the world. You know, you just can't find that white powdery sand and that crystal clear water. I mean, there's no shells on the beach. It is it is a uh it is a paradise, no doubt.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Yeah, yeah, it is a unique place. We uh travel the Caribbean and sometimes it doesn't even look as good as uh our own backyard uh we're traveling over there.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Yeah, I'll tell you, anytime I travel, when I'm when I'm coming back home and driving over the 331 Bridge, I'm always just happy, happy to be home.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

And so obviously we have the beaches, um, we also have the bay. I mean, it's really unique as well. So, you know, I can be uh to the beach within five minutes, and I can be uh on a boat and you know, fishing for redfish within five minutes as well. And so we do a you know, I grew up boating and wakeboarding and skiing and all those kind of fun water sports, and and we can do that here on the bay. And so we've got kind of two different amazing lifestyles, you know, both in our backyard.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yeah. No, that's great. In our area, sort of as we've talked about in the past, uh the 30A, the Santa Rosa Beach, Destin, Inlet Beach areas are all sort of in in a little bit of a bubble area compared to market-wise. What are some things that people can think of when they move from the Midwest that we didn't realize from here? Like one of the things that we've come into when we fell into was the HOA structures and rules are different. There's a lot of short-term rentals around here. So how do you help guide buyers uh and sellers through that? Good question.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Yeah, so you know, it's all about the the vision that the client has. So, you know, we spend a lot of time, or I spend a lot of time learning as much as I can about these clients when working with them, rather than just, you know, hey, we want to buy property. Well, let's jump in the car and go see houses. You know, I sit down with them for, you know, a good hour in my office and I'll ask them question after question after question about, you know, their lifestyle and what their ideal house would look like and what the what their ideal day would look like and how they would spend their time, what they enjoy doing, all that kind of stuff. And so because there are yeah, lots of short-term rentals here, there is more of the beach lifestyle. If you wanted to walk to the beach, there's more of the bay lifestyle, and there are neighborhoods that are everything in between. You know, you have uh you have neighborhoods that are that are full-blown rental communities, and you know, you'd never want to have someone that wants to live here six months a year or longer be in a neighborhood like that, where that, you know, there's different neighbors every day. And and there are some neighborhoods that are uh completely rental restricted, and then there's some in between where they, you know, they don't really limit the rentals, but the way the neighborhood is developed, it's uh uh there's a good mix of people that rent and people that live there. Really, it's all about just finding out what's best for the client and what they're what they're really looking for. Because and a lot of time it's it's not what they say, it's the why behind what they say. And so you really have to understand that to be able to find them the right house.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Right. Definitely agree, especially with the areas of you said there's beach access over there or the bayside that's a little bit more quieter. You have different little communities in the entire area that we really don't realize until you get down here and start visiting those sections to find what really fits for you. Yeah. Yeah. As far as go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Oh, I was just, you know, more about the why, I guess, is you know, you'll have folks that'll say, hey, well, we need a four-bedroom house and we we need uh to have a big yard and we need, you know, a two-car garage, and and you may take that at face value and try to find that exact property and and not be able to. And then they'll send you something and say, hey, this looks awesome. And I'll say, Well, that doesn't have four bedrooms, that doesn't have a yard, that doesn't have a garage. Like, what is it? Well, you know, we don't really need the fourth bedroom for a bedroom, we just needed an office, so this this extra space works. And we don't really need the two-car garage because it has a carport. And it doesn't have the large yard, but look at the view that it has out the back, and it's more about that. And it's like, okay. So it's really about understanding those whys behind the what's that matter.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Yeah, yeah, you start fine-tuning that. Uh, we were in the same way when we moved down here, like gave you a list of everything we wanted, and the hardest part was finding a garage in Florida, which is was mind-boggling to me, was like, why in the world do they not put garages in Florida? But uh and then we use them as storage base. We don't even put our cars in them, right? That's right. With us being land constricted right now, it's going on because we're between the bay, we're between the water here, and we're constantly continuing to building. What do you see the inventory continuing to grow, the market continue to grow here, or we're starting to run out of places?

SPEAKER_01 10:04

There's so many different market segments within our overall market, whether it's the you know the beach side or the bayside and the whether it's uh rental communities or full-time communities. Um I would say on the beach side, we're we're running out of room to build. I mean, you're you're not seeing many developments coming in, many new communities coming in. What you're seeing is more just lots that haven't been built on getting constructed. Now on the on the bay side, it's completely different. There's uh there's still a lot of land up there. It's harder to build up there because a lot of the land is affected by wetlands and and that's a whole nother conversation.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

But uh but yeah, so there's there's definitely a lot more land on the north side than than the south side. Yeah, definitely. That's part of the one of the things I was gonna follow up with you is the the wetland area, the insurance in this area can constantly seem to continue to change um and evolve based on the hurricanes and weather we get. How do you prepare or or do you guys prepare that for some new customers moving to the air and not realizing that they've got to have four different insurances uh on their home sometimes?

SPEAKER_01 11:06

It's all just helping them understand, understand what the challenges are and and what insurance looks like. You know, I think every every place has something you're worried about, right? Like, you know, in the Midwest, you're worried about tornadoes out out west, you're worried about fires and you know, there's East Coast, they get terrible storms, and and here, you know, we we have the chance of getting hurricanes, right? I always tell people the good news about a hurricane is you you know it's coming days in advance. So if if you decide to stick around, you know, that's on you, right? Yeah. But as far as as far as the insurance goes, it's it's really not as bad as you think. If you're looking at a home that was built, let's say, in the nineties or or earlier, insurance can be a big challenge because the building codes were different than and insurance companies, they're just a lot more selective than they used to be. They they will analyze each property individually and they will um you know they'll they'll turn properties down if they feel they're too risky. But if you're looking at something that's been built in the last 15 years and it's up to current hurricane codes, and it was built with impact windows and glass, excuse me, windows and doors, and and it's hurricane basically ready, the insurance isn't bad, you know? And so you really it's not four policies, you're really looking at just your your wind and homeowners insurance, that's one policy, and then your flood insurance. That's mostly what what people are are going with. And um, you know, there was a time in in 2021, 2022 where insurance companies were requiring new roofs to be put on houses if they were over 15 years old. You know, there was a couple hurricanes that hit the state of Florida, and a lot of these insurance companies were hurting pretty badly. But that has that has eased, and we've got new providers that have come into the state. And so insurance is is competitive, and it's it's definitely not a barrier to to owning here.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Yeah. And you reminded me of a good story when we first moved here. People think uh you're preparing for hurricanes, but we've moved here, we were here for I think maybe a m two months, and the first hurricane was about to hit. There's a category two, and we're looking around, like, what do we do? Do we leave or not? And our we had to ask our neighbors and they're like, well, it's it's a two, so you go to the store and you buy cleaning supplies and wine, and we're like, What? That's your hurricane strategy. You don't ask the Florida man for advice.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Yeah. Yeah. Back before I had kids, we used to have hurricane parties. And you know, storm was coming, we'd all get together and see, you know, see what was gonna happen. And now I have two kids, and so now my wife tells me we we're leaving.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

If Yeah, yeah, you're not having the hurricane party anymore. So we're we're the same way. The other great thing about this area here is that we don't realize we've got a lot of golf courses here in the area. The recreational activities are just tremendous, but we continue to have a lot of uh outdoor uh sports activities. So you have biking, you got walking on the beach, you got golfing, so there's pretty much a style of living for everyone in this area.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Yeah, there is. It's it's awesome. So I mean I I know I touched on the the beach and the bay. Uh we've also got thousands of acres of state forests where there are trails and you can hike and and mountain bike through well, I guess I shouldn't call it mountain biking, but more just trail riding. And then as you mentioned, the golf and and you know what I you know, from living here for the past 17 years, uh we've really watched this area grow from more of a vacation destination to a community. So, you know, schools have gotten bigger, more schools have opened, but kids sports are are more prevalent, and so it's uh it it's great.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Yeah. And the one of the things I get a bunch of guests on the show have, and just people talking to the community, I think there's some concerns in the area about, I guess, affordability. Like you have a lot of people that's moving here, myself that's able to work remotely, people that just come down for second homes in that. Do you see we have Freeport and Dafuniac, but some of those places are further away. The need for more uh I would say affordable housing in the area and where would that go is the other problem in question. But is that some big drawback that you see to the region? I don't.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

It's uh it's it's a good question. Um if you ask for affordable housing, you are asking for, you know, a D.R. Horton type or a uh you know, a big box builder or someone building you know, lower quality products that will offer as much space as possible for the money. Do we want that here? Do we want more of that at the beach? Frankly, I it doesn't bother me at all, but you know, there are a lot of Dear Horton haters out there. Right. So it's I don't I don't know what the answer is, but and I don't know what I guess affordable housing is. Like, you know, you can you can buy a house in this market in the in the$350,000 to$450,000 range and get something that's a three-bedroom with a garage. And you know, it may not be brand new. Is that considered affordable?

SPEAKER_00 15:54

Yeah, especially in today's age, who who knows with uh the way everything is, but uh I would say affordable from where we live and the amenities that you get in the area, those are not unreal realistic affordable options for the area.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

So we have you know, we have lots of families uh that move here from your Atlantas and uh Nashville's and they're they're just they're tired of the traffic and the busy lifestyle that they live up there and keeping up with the Joneses and and it's just it's a whole different vibe down here. Walk past millionaires every day and you you would never know it. You don't see the Lamborghinis and the and the uh you know flashy sports cars like you see in South Florida. It is it's just a different it's a different area. People are people are down to earth, people are nice and cool and I enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Yeah, it's a great community. Everyone, as you said, is nice and friendly down here throughout any part of this area, through all the neighborhoods that we live in. It's a great place to be. Now that we have so many tourists that come into the area here, October used to be our favorite time of year. What do you say is your favorite time of year?

SPEAKER_01 16:56

November. November. I mean October, October is still one of my favorite months. Obviously, the growth of fall break has made this area a lot busier during that time. I mean, we never had fall break when I was up in school. We just had a full three months off in the summer, and then you had a week of spring break, but now it seems kids are getting, you know, weeks off every every few weeks, and October is a is a busier time here. And also it's kind of our area, just as we become well more well known, has grown from just a summer destination to a year-round destination. And so, you know, even in February, we have lots of tourists here, but nothing like what we have in the summertime. That's still our busiest time of year. So to answer your question, November is the best month because we are we still have some fantastic weather. It is absolutely beach weather. We still swim in November and there are not many tourists here. It really slows down as you get close to Thanksgiving because once we get into the holiday season, people are more settled in their hometowns and this place stays pretty quiet. Aside from those holiday weeks like Thanksgiving week, Christmas week, New Year's. Outside of that, though, it's more the local time.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Yeah. That's uh you bring up another great point of local time. That's uh something you have to get used to when you move down here because during those months and now everything pretty much closes super early. There's no uh anything past eight you're rarely gonna find uh on uh a dinner restaurant or a store open here in the area.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Yeah, yeah. And when I moved here in a lot of the restaurants just closed from November through uh February. But that's changed. You know, now they're they're open year-round.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

And so it's yeah, yeah, because we have more tourists. Like you said, these kids have a pre-winter break and then a winter break, and uh son just got done his pre-fall break, and then next month he's on fall break or spring break, so it's it's a lot of breaks for those guys, which uh is good.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

But our school system down here more tourists, more tourists, but also uh more full-time residents as well. Yeah, because there's a lot more people here that live here than than there used to be.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

So being here for uh longer than I have, what do you say, fifteen years now, sixteen years? Yeah. Everything has changed. We have great restaurants. What are some of your favorite hidden gems uh that you and the family go to uh on a regular occasion?

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Good question. So restaurants in Destin, there's a restaurant called Camille's. It is on Scenic 98. It is an old uh bed and breakfast that has a restaurant above it. It is, you know, no reservations. Walk in, you know, put your name on the list and get a seat. But anyway, best sushi down here, in our opinion. Italian, we go to Paso's. It's uh there's a there's a location in Destin, and there's one here in Santa Rosa Beach. That's our favorite Italian food. You know, Mimo's is great as well. They've got a really good atmosphere, probably a better atmosphere than Paso's has, but we feel like Paso's gets the win on the on the food. Hidden gems. I don't know if there are any hidden gems left. You know, there's not that I'll tell you what, there's there's a spot that that has changed hands multiple times that we love, and it used to be called the Love Shack. It's up it's up East Hewitt, and it's now called Cajun Corner. And it's a it's a Cajun restaurant sports bar. There's actually a pool there outside of the sports bar, so if you're going to the to the bar or you can go for the day and swim in the pool and bring the kids, and that's a really cool um experience that most people do not know about.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Yeah, yeah. That is hidden back off uh the back way a little bit, yeah. And I learned of one uh yesterday. I was talking to a guy. There's actually a camping ground uh in Freeport that you have to get a pass from Eglin. So it's basically on Eglin's property back there across from Nick Seafood. So for anyone looking for a a hidden camping place, uh I don't know if you know about that or not. You did you know you can camp on Eastern Lake?

SPEAKER_01 20:36

I didn't know that either. There there are if you you follow the trails, uh the point, what am I trying to say, point Washington Forest Trails, and there are a number of campgrounds on Eastern Lake in the Point Washington State Forest that you rent through the through Walton County, and they're like, you know, sixteen bucks a night, and they're they're awesome. So we'll be we'll be doing that here next month. Yeah, those are that's good to know. So you have Top Sail where I was good at camping as, but I didn't know about Eastern Lakes. Yeah, well, Topsail, that's a state park, and then you have Greaton Beach State Park, obviously, but these these um Point Washington campgrounds or Eastern Lake Campgrounds are just through the county, it's uh it's completely different. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

No, good. So favorite, those are uh pretty much covered uh where you like to go in there. What is your ideal relaxation time of being in the area when you're done taken through tourist houses all day long? What's relaxation time? As a real estate agent, right? Uh you sit there and work around the clock, right? There's no time off. You're not a nine to five guy.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

I mean, my day starts at about five a.m. and uh that's because if I want to get a workout in, it has to happen before the kids get up. And so I'm usually up early, you know, working out, and then by 6, 6 30 the kids are up and we're doing breakfast and I'm out the door by about eight. Um usually get home probably six o'clock, sometime a little earlier, sometime a little later, and then and then it's their time, you know, it's kids' time until they go to bed, and by that time I don't have much left. Yeah, so I don't I don't yeah, my relaxation. Time is maybe, you know, twenty minutes of TV before I crash.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Yeah. Or you're still answering phone calls when you're out with the family on the boat on boat days or that as well, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

That's part of real estate. I mean, it is uh is a great career because I can take vacation and travel whenever I want to, and I don't have to ask anyone for permission. But most times I will be working, you know, not all of the trip, but there will be a lot going on. And it's just uh it's like the the way that real estate works is as soon as you leave the zip code, something happens, you know. Right. Usually it's something good. Usually you have somebody that wants to buy a house or wants to sell a house, but something always happens when you leave the zip code.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Yeah, that's when you have to do all the paperwork and clothes and you don't have access to your computer to try and do it all on your phone because you you did plan for that, right? Yeah. Thankfully you can do most everything from your phone. I'm gonna circle back on that part there. So being an agent in the area here, that's one of the things I missed there. There seems to be a lot of real estate agents in the area. Does that would you deter somebody, saying new that wants to get into real estate from from doing that in this area? Or you think there's always room for new, better agents?

SPEAKER_01 23:08

There's there's always room. There's always room. There are a lot of agents. There are a lot of uh individuals that have their real estate license, but there's not a lot of agents that do a lot of business. So it's like kind of the same, you know, 80-20 rule that uh, you know, works throughout the rest of uh of our you know existence is where, you know, 20% of the agents are are doing 80% of the business. It's you know, a lot of people want to get into it because it looks like an an easy way to make a living and and it is the exact opposite of that. It is it is long days, nights, weekends, you are on other people's schedules, and if you want to be successful, you have to be willing to answer the phone when whenever that call comes in. And so so yeah, and you and you have to commit to it. You can't do it part-time. A lot of people will have other careers and say, oh, well, I'm gonna sell real estate on the side. I mean, I g I suppose you could, but um, that's not the way I would run it. Yeah, you'd be more successful doing it uh full-time, 100% diving. You have to. Yeah. You have to. And and like, you know, if you're a if you're a buyer or a seller, um, you know, there's just there's just so many things that can happen in in a real estate transaction that can, you know, take it sideways. Uh, you know, sometimes everything goes, you know, as smoothly as you can imagine, and uh there's no challenges, and it's like, wow, you know, real estate was easy, but those are few and far between. Most of the time there are challenges, whether it's with the property or with the clients, or um, it's a lot of managing emotions, you know, and and shouldering those emotions and knowing how to deliver information to a client so it can be well received and understood.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

So you switched over and went from real estate and you actually have your brokerage license now, and as we talked a little bit before, how did you go about going that? What pushed you to become a broker and and are utilizing any of that today?

SPEAKER_01 24:52

Well, yeah, so when you get a real estate license, you're a real estate agent in the state of Florida, and then after you practice for, I think, two years, you have the ability to go take a broker's course and get a broker's license, and you can open your own brokerage if you desire. So I did go ahead and get my broker's license, but I don't have any desire to open a brokerage. And the reason is, you know, with my company, with Scenic Southern is their top-notch company. They offer a lot of support. We have a full service marketing team. We have, you know, multiple offices that I can utilize, uh, printers, you know, all that kind of stuff. They they help uh, you know, they're just they're just it's just a full service company. And so what that allows me to do is go sell real estate. Do what I'm good at, which is be on the phone, talking with my clients, talking with sellers, putting deals together. And if I was to go open my own brokerage, there's a my time would be spread a lot more thin by having to manage other people and um help other agents maybe grow their businesses and and handle conflicts, everything else that comes along with owning a business. And so I am more than happy to pay my dues to the company I work for and just go sell real estate.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

Yeah, and you s I mean that's one thing that you learn takes time in your career to figure out you've learned what you is your niche and what you're good at, and not expand outside of that to something that's gonna acquire you a lot more work, a lot more headache, but skilled at doing what you are and passionate about it.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Yeah, so even within our team, you know, it's myself and my partner Blake, and then we have one full-time admin that basically runs operations for us, and that's it. We just run a really small team, but we put up some really big numbers. You know, there's a lot of other teams out there that that grow by hiring buyers agents and um additional staff. And um, you know, we're just that's just not not the direction our team's going.

unknown 26:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

We kind of like to run our small little shop and making sure we're taking care of every single client uh and and that I'm in in constant contact with every single client and not referring them to other people on the team.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Right. Yeah. It's that wet glove service that uh everyone appreciates that uh you want in the area or just to to feel that people are are listening to you. So you guys do a tremendous job over there. And you have since we've known you, so that's just part of who you are, which is great. As advice you go back to a first-time coastal person being down here. We moved down uh in July. We were from the like you said, up north, used to those seasons. Getting used to the humidity of July and August. What what are some recommendations that you have for uh first time movers to uh the coast here?

SPEAKER_01 27:19

I mean, there's no way to get to prepare for it. It's just it's humid in the summertime. It's just the way it is. I'll just say, hey, I'll I'll take I'll take this three months of brutal heat over six months of winter, and there's you know, there's the trade-off.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

I suppose you can move to California three shirt day uh in the in the summer. Three shirt day. Yeah. Walk outside, get the mail, walk around, you need to change shirt. You come to lunch, you gotta change your shirt. Yeah. Yeah. I've never had three shirt day, but flood time is we spend most of our time on the boat when it gets really hot, so you're moving around and doing that. So there's a we're in the water at the beach. Yeah. Maybe it's no shirt day. That's what it should be in July. Right. Yeah. Flip-flops and uh bathing suit. Right. Yeah. Uh as we wrap up here, so a couple rapid fire questions here. Are you a uh uh uh sunrise or sunset guy?

SPEAKER_01 28:12

Better chance of seeing the sunrise. It's just most likely because I'm pretty busy around sunset. That that should be definitely a goal is uh you know spending more sunsets as well.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

There you go. All right, beach, golf, or boat? Boat. Boat. Good, uh same here. I'd rather be running around on the boat. Absolutely. Biggest myth that buyers think when they move to Florida. Biggest myth?

SPEAKER_01 28:38

That's a g that's a that's a tough question. I don't know how to answer that one. Biggest myth. I mean, there's just stuff you get used to, right? I you know, I know that I knew when I was growing up, if I was swimming in the lakes up in the Midwest, I wasn't worried about sharks, I wouldn't worry about spiders or anything biting me. Down here, that's a concern, right? It's humid, it's hot, there's bugs, there's there's uh there's alligators, and um, you know, but in in reality, you know, I haven't I haven't seen many alligators down here. I've seen a couple, but that's because I've been up in a river, you know, north of the bay. You know, the sharks are out there, but they don't really have much interest in you. They're uh you know, they're just it's just something you get used to, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 29:16

Yeah, yeah, they're definitely the the bugs and creatures are down here way bigger.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

I think everybody's worried about flooding, but uh what they don't realize is that because our area is basically just a big sandbox, the water drains, water perks very easily, and so we we don't really hold water. Whereas you may have, you know, other other parts of the country that have more bedrock and uh the water doesn't have anywhere to go, have more flooding issues than we do here.

SPEAKER_00 29:40

Yeah, we get rid of water very quickly. All right, are you a big fan of the golf carts or no golf carts?

SPEAKER_01 29:47

That's tough, you know, because I sell that golf cart lifestyle. I'm happy with the golf carts. I don't mind them. I think that they should just make sure that they have a minimum speed that they go. Right? Because if they're if they're going near the speed limit, then there's no issue. But uh you get some of these golf carts out here that are 15 years old and on its last leg and you know it's going about 12 miles an hour and it's holding up 19 cars, that's an issue.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

Yeah. That's one of the things we get behind one of those. You'd be like, I need to be somewhere at a certain time, and here's this golf cart that looks pretty cool, all decked out with wheels, but can top speed 10 miles an hour, so you're stuck behind it forever.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

Well, well, here's the good news is that, you know, coming from a a city, you know, when there's traffic, you know, you it could take you an extra hour to get somewhere, maybe longer. You know, if if I if it takes me longer than ten minutes over what I thought, I mean that's about the the most it can take to get somewhere around here. And, you know, ten minutes ain't that bad.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

Yeah. And you're on Florida time, so that also uh helps as well. Some people are. Well the things that I uh end the show on uh is what do you think one of the biggest areas or issues in here that we can work on to resolve or that needs to change? That's a that's a good question too.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

You're always throwing the tough ones at me. Um you know, I and I just keep it like in the real estate realm because that's what I that's what I know. I th I see a lot of development of these apartment complexes going up all over Santa Rosa Beach. I think that long term that's gonna, you know, I d I do see the traffic increasing. I see the uh I don't see the infrastructure increasing to support all these new apartment complexes because, you know, one complex is housing, you know, maybe a hundred units, you know, whereas that same plot of land could be three or four houses. And um and I don't and I don't see them stopping. You know, all of that Chet Holly corridor and JD Miller, you're seeing tons of of these big complexes going up. And uh I think that's I think that's one of our biggest issues is we need to get control of that.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

Yeah, and I wanna I would definitely agree on that, especially 98 is supposed to be somewhat of a highway, but it's turning into a stoplight location for every intersection down here. Which uh because they put more and more complexes up. Absolutely. So let's hopefully some uh we'll we'll work on that. It's been uh fantastic having you on the show today. How can people connect with you if they're looking for real estate? So you can call me anytime my my phone is always on.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

Um I'll I'll have uh Chuck post all of my links below. But uh yeah, my name's Ron Hefner and I'm with Scenic Sotheby's International Realty, and uh always always happy to talk.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Thanks for listening today's episode. If you liked it, be sure to follow and subscribe. I'll leave you with this what's the biggest issue you see in the pain handle right now? Join the conversation with me at Chuck Asberry IIX. I'd love to hear your thoughts.