Keri Carpenter

Real Estate Agent

Hi,
My name is Keri Carpenter and I am born and raised here in Jacksonville, FL. Growing up in the Mandarin area it has been such a blessing to see our beautiful city transform into what is has grown into today! After moving from Mandarin to Deercreek close to the Avenues Mall in High School, I decided I loved babysitting but at the age of 15 I wanted to really get into the workforce so that I could pay my way to my dream College, The University of Florida! Go Gators! I took on my first job at Cold Stone Creamery. I would bike there until I saved enough money to buy my first car! It was so exciting because it was a job that I could bring my energy, love for making people smile, and drive to! I would really pump each of the employees up daily to motivate them to want to make more and more in tips! Counting that tip jar at the end of the night knowing we had sung so many songs was the best moment! They were so excited to see how much money they were making scooping icecream and making others smile! I was a manager by 16 and opening the store to make icecream and loved every minute of it. The week before I turned 18 a woman came in and was having a bad day. I talked with her, scooped her icecream and she was smiling by time she left. She asked me to come see her at Victorias Secret because she was the Regional Manager and I interviewed right when I turned 18 and got the job there. It was paving my way into a fun Retail Career I never dreamed of. I love people and got to work as a Co-manager at VS and loved it. I opened, closed, did the brand guides, sold credit cards, and just made women smile! It was awesome! Fast forward to getting into UF! I had just finished a 3rd practice of the day (I was a highly competitive swimmer and love the water!) and no joke was eating a plate of cheesy french fries. My dad calls me into his office and asks me to read an email he got. We always talked business and so I thought it was just something about work or something. It was my Acceptance letter into UF!! I was going to be a Gator like my father and I felt so incredible!! At Florida I became the Retail Society President after being on other leadership roles and got to go to the National Convention for Retailers up in NYC even. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I noticed everything I ended up loving to do was in front of people and to better others. I taught resume building at UF, organized the Career fair days at UF and worked multiple jobs to walk out debt free. I worked full time Internships in College as well over the summers. I constantly was focused on growth and how to better myself each step of the way. Upon Graduation, I worked for a Medical Device Company Medtronic, met my husband while working there and have been inseparable since! Then I got recruited into a large Territory Management role for a Logistics company ABF Freight and grew my territory exponentially. During this role, each sale I made was a security seat for the drivers because the more business we have the more jobs I am providing. Always giving back was what I love! ABF Promoted and moved us not long after Joey and I got married to run a large territory and run a service center at the same time in Savannah GA. YES it was WILD and a huge job undertaking but i got that terminal and the territory in the green! I loved hiring drivers because my sales numbers were rising! We had our first beautiful Daughter Skyler and I got recruited to and Promoted to another logistics company XPO logistics. What is wild is I was never looking when any of these jobs presented themselves. I was recruited into them. This positioned us to quickly move back to Jacksonville because we had a plan to be back in 1 year anyways and we were able to do so because this is HOME! We will never live anywhere else. I became a National Account Executive running 10 states and managing about 1/8th of the company's book of business. Then Covid hit and logistics went wild. I was losing time with my daughter and my mom has been in Real Estate full time since 2006 and with a 6 month plan in place I put in my notice to move full time into Real Estate! I have now been in Real Estate since then and LOVE every wild moment of every day! We had our 2nd beautiful smiling daughter Ava and our family is complete now! She is the perfect combination of me and my husband and is so full of life, smiles and energy. It is such a blessing because not only can you truly be a CEO of your business, you can be a mom, and a wife but at Keller Williams I can still give into other agents by mentoring them, helping them grow, and letting them shadow me. I am fortunate in that I grew up around an incredible Real Estate Professional, my MOM! One critical key component of Real Estate In my eyes is that you have to run your business like a business. I have a P&L, I have a CPA, I have all the systems in place in order to do my business and run it as a BUSINESS. It is HARD WORK! I am very diligent with my time. I time block like nobody's business. I make sure that if I am doing it, then it is on my calendar. From my daughters school activites, to showings, Listing appointments and personal time, it is color coated on the calendar. I have never looked back at leaving my W2 job. Being my own employer was the best decision I could have ever made because in Real Estate my heart is filled. I always felt like there was a piece of me missing in outside sales. It was the personal side of things where I pour into others. My husband would always tell me I give too much and care too much, and in Real Estate I CAN CARE 1000% and it is appreciated because my buyers and sellers know that I am dedicated to doing what's right for them. I am there to answer all of their questions. I am their leader in this business and in order to do so successfully i make sure that I am constantly learning and thriving as well! You must soak everything in, ask questions, know where to find information, and never let anything go unsettled. I am so thrilled to have seen my business grow over these last 3 years and know things are only going to grow as I work with more amazing people. I love Real Estate and all of the connections I am making in it. I have incredible leaders of the industry that I look up to and I bounce Ideas off of and appreciate so much! Real Estate is such a collaborate industry and I truly believe in order to be successful you work together with each party to make it happen! 2024 is moving along quickly already and with all my new systems in place it is becoming my favorite year yet!