Saunders’ path to real estate built on context, connections

Dean Saunders

LAKELAND - Dean Saunders, president of Coldwell Banker Commercial Saunders Real Estate, is considered one of the leading land sales professionals in the industry - having earned the 2008 Coldwell Banker Commercial Global Sales Professional of the Year award less than three years after joining the organization.

Saunders comes from a family with long history in Florida agriculture, but his career has taken an interesting path as he was a former Florida legislator prior to becoming the owner of a Coldwell Banker Commercial affiliate.

In fact, as a member of the Florida House of Representatives, Saunders helped pass some of the most significant laws for the Florida agricultural market. Most notably, he was the architect for the Bert J. Harris Private Property Rights Protection Act. During his tenure in office, he was named Legislator of the Year by the Florida Association of Realtors and the Florida Home Builders Association and was the former chairman of the Florida Real Estate Commission.

He is married to his wife, Gina, and lives in Florida with their four children. He remains an avid football and basketball fan of his alma mater the University of Florida Gators.

Following is a Q&A conducted by the editorial staff of Inside Blueprint, an in-house publication of Coldwell Banker Commercial.

Q: You have had an interesting career path, being a Florida legislator before joining the commercial real estate profession. Talk about how you’ve gotten to this point.

A: Sure. Actually, my career path was first formed as an agricultural major at the University of Florida. I came from a long line of Florida agricultural experts going back several generations, and I had planned to continue the family tradition. However, after graduating, I got a call from U.S. Sen. Lawton Chiles’ office. The senator had heard about me and was looking for a Florida native with a strong knowledge of citrus and agriculture who also enjoyed politics. It was a perfect opportunity for me.

So how did your real estate career get started?

I was initially hired to be a part of Sen. Chiles’ staff and served as a liaison between those with local agricultural interests and the senator’s office. I worked with the top Florida agricultural leadership, both professional and lay people, and was promoted several times. Eventually Sen. Chiles left his Senatorial post a year before it was up, so I needed to look for a new career opportunity.

This was the 1980s, and during this time the citrus industry had been rocked by four major agriculture freezes that devastated 20% of the industry. Pricing and demand went up, creating a huge demand for orange groves. This in turn caused a high demand for land sales in Florida in order to plant these groves. I thought this was a perfect chance for me to begin a new career in agricultural real estate since I knew the right people and saw a need to close these deals. I ended up working for an agricultural real estate firm for a couple of years and put together a number of significant land deals while there.

When were you elected to the Florida House of Representatives?

I eventually decided to put my agricultural real estate career on hold and pursue my political career full-time. In 1992, I ran for the state legislature and won by only five votes. An interesting thing to note is that I won during the period when Ross Perot was running for president. Perot brought on a kind of “throw the rascals out” and get rid of the incumbents attitude among voters, especially in Florida. Now even though I had never run for office before, I was known for my association with Sen. Chiles, which painted me in that incumbency category in a way.

Initially my polls showed me with a significant lead, but all the interest in the Perot campaign brought out another 20% of the vote, which was the highest voter turnout in history for our county. Yet still I was able to win.

What were the major bills and legislation that you sponsored during your tenure with the Florida House of Representatives?

When I was in the Florida state legislature, I focused very much on property rights issues. In fact, I took the “bull by the horns” so to speak and initiated a bill that was very important to me. I helped pass a referendum that blended agricultural interests and environmental issues for the first time by allocating a significant amount of money towards funding conservation easements. Members of the government thought it was a great idea. State agencies initially didn’t like it, but now it’s very popular.

I also authored the legislation creating the Bright Futures program, which allows Florida high school seniors with a grade average of “B” and above to earn a full scholarship to any public college or university in the state of Florida. The program was funded by the state lottery scholarship.

So, how did you end up back in commercial real estate?

Literally, on the day I announced I was getting out of the political scene, a local rancher I knew spoke to me about working on a conservation easement deal with him. I realized this was the perfect opportunity to go back into commercial real estate based on the amount of contacts I had made while in office. I then began my own firm and eventually joined Coldwell Banker Commercial in 2006.

How would you categorize the market for land sales, currently and over the next year?

As has been widely reported, everything is in either recession or the very early stages of recovery. Traditionally, the markets that were most heated are usually the ones that correct the most and are the best places to buy. Land is, unfortunately, not in that category and trails behind most of the other commercial markets. Disposable money is not being used for land deals. It’s often said, “Land is the first out and the last in.” However, when the recovery is final, there will be a window of opportunity to capitalize on land deals.

Originally published by Coldwell Banker Commercial on www.cbcblueprint.com.