Bascom Grooms Real Estate Marks 25 Years of Success
April 26, 2024
For Bascom Grooms and his team at Bascom Grooms Real Estate, April 2024 marks 25 years of dedication to embracing small-town business values and delivering personalized customer service to every client who walks through their doors looking for help with buying or selling Key West and Lower Keys real estate.
Small Market, Big Changes
The Key West real estate market has seen big changes since Bascom earned his broker’s license and launched his own firm in the spring of 1999. Working in the Key West property market now and doing real estate marketing and transactions the way they were done back then are experiences as different as a Saturday night on Duval Street and a quiet Sunday morning sunrise on the beach.
In Bascom’s view, ‘Technology has been the major change in the Key West property market over the past 25 years.’ Nowadays, the Internet lets interested homebuyers stay in close touch with the Key West real estate market from afar and enjoy unprecedented convenience throughout the search and purchase processes. Today’s technologies allow Bascom to meet virtually with clients located in other parts of the country and walk them through real-time interactive online tours of Key West properties that might be a fit for them. ‘We do a lot of showings by FaceTime now, just walking buyers through the home over their phones. This is perfect for buyers who want to do some initial shopping without coming down to Key West.’
Once clients narrow the field to their favorite Key West properties, improved direct air connections to Key West International Airport make it possible to schedule a one-day down and back visit for an in-person look. Bascom notes that ‘The increase in direct flights from all over the country has really stimulated our real estate market. The market has gotten less seasonal because of this factor.’ Buyers can then submit offers and complete all other details of their transaction from the comfort and convenience of their own homes. ‘Now e-signing makes everything so much easier compared to faxing and mailing.’
But some things remain the same even after a quarter century has passed by. Key West is still a top dream destination for visitors from around the world and second-home buyers from all over America, and Bascom Grooms Real Estate remains committed to small town business principles of transparency, honesty, trust, and delivering customer service with a personal touch to clients who are viewed as future neighbors.
A Local Boy Makes Good
Bascom Grooms is a Key West native, a 4th-generation Conch who grew up playing in the tropical sun, enjoying the exciting flow of people and events this island attracts, and working in his parents’ business. Now, as a local business person himself, Bascom is very active in the community and keeps his firm civically engaged as well. Both efforts are widely appreciated, and Bascom has been honored with many accolades and awards over the years. One of the most remarkable and fun has been receiving the Key West People’s Choice Award for Best Realtor in every running of the competition since it began in 2014.
This playful yet serious yearly competition is organized by the Keys Weekly Media Company and known locally as the Bubbas. It is an island Best-Of listing and charity fund raiser that draws votes for Key West businesses from fans in Florida, across the US, and around the world. The Bubbas honor outstanding examples from the diverse mix of great eating and drinking venues, service providers, and nonprofit operations in Key West while promoting broad recognition of island businesses. The annual awards gala is a premier local event that regularly sells out. Bascom is a permanent fixture when the Best Realtor Award is presented, and in July 2023 he was also presented with the Legacy Award for his 10-year domination of the Best Realtor category.
Mile Markers of Success
Success for a Key West real estate business, or any island business, can be measured on a number of scales. Long-term survival would have to be the first because after all, Key West is a tiny, remote, thinly-populated semi-desert island at the southernmost extension of continental US territory. Mother nature, global and national economics, tourism markets, and cultural trends are all strong hands in the game down here. The various redundancies and buffering factors present in a large midwestern city for example just do not exist in Key West.
To stick it out and thrive, Key West businesses have always needed to be able to weather hurricanes, floods, and epidemics that can destroy physical infrastructure and kill market demand. Economic fluctuations on the mainland can have exaggerated effects out here on the fringe, and the Key West economy itself has undergone several wholesale changes over the years. Industries have come and gone, the military has done the same, development has waxed and waned, flows of people and money gush then dry up. It’s the nature of island life, and for a small, independent business like Bascom Grooms Real Estate to reach the venerable age of 25, it has to be good at what it does and offer true value to the community.
Of course, with any business, numbers tell the ultimate story of success or failure. In terms of production, Bascom Grooms Real Estate ranks at #14 on a Keys-wide basis. That is a noteworthy accomplishment by a small, 16-agent independent brokerage that competes against global goliaths with offices and agents all over the world. Considering only independent agencies, Bascom Grooms Real Estate comes in 4th Keys-wide and is ranking at 3rd in Key West YTD. Achieving a respectable $57 million in 2023 Key West closings, the firm has already closed $34 million in the first quarter of 2024 and is looking to make this a banner year. All the while adhering to the small team, personal touch approach to the real estate business.
The Team Behind the Wins
The Bascom Grooms Real Estate team started with family. Bascom’s mother Marge Smith was one of the first agents with the firm and stayed actively involved with BGRE and the community until her passing. Stepfather Gordon Smith is also a licensed real estate agent, and although he is doing more traveling these days, you may catch Gordon biking around Key West or installing our signs around town. Bascom’s wife Beth Grooms is a licensed agent, and as a Certified Apartment Manager, provides a foundation for the BGRE investment property/vacation rental sector. Director of Sales Meghan Davis has been with BGRE since day one, only leaving for a few years to work in the Maryland/Washington DC/Virginia area property markets before returning to the Keys and rejoining BGRE full-time in 2013.
Top producer Ed Salazar has been with BGRE for over 10 years and now heads up the BGRE branch office in Gainesville. The other half of Team Salazar, Ed’s daughter, Key West local and licensed agent Tamrah Salazar Hill, handles Florida Keys Clients. Also serving clients in the Key West and Lower Keys property markets, Haydee Stewart has been with BGRE for many years and is a consistent top-producing agent. Agent Teo Masters has a background in vacation rental management and is a valuable asset for clients interested in Florida Keys investment properties. Adding more depth to the BGRE investment/rental property bench, Kiya Tabb comes from a real estate background and is also a licensed West Virginia real estate agent with knowledge in the areas of rental property purchases and income.
Agents David S. Henriquez and Robert Wright are well known in the Keys for their work as educators in addition to their real estate deals. Aimex German is a multi-talented agent, originally from Cuba, who specializes in the Stock Island and Key West golf sales markets. Britannie Wesley is a Key West Association of Realtors Rookie of the Year winner who is quickly building a reputation for always going the extra mile for her clients. Peter Geary has been an amazing addition to BGRE, coming on board with the quickest conversion sale on record and a nomination for KWAR Rookie of the Year. Micaela Eleicegui and Sue Hawkinson, two of our newer agents, are already busy with involvement in local KWAR events, and have plenty of insight on Lower Keys properties with boating accessibility.
A Time for Reflection and Gratitude
Through all the changes in the national and local economies, the island and the city, and the technologies and techniques used to list, show, and sell Key West real estate, Bascom has consistently worked to establish and uphold the rock-solid reputation his firm enjoys today. Bascom Grooms Real Estate is well-known on the island and beyond for being a top-producing Key West real estate agency, offering unmatched expertise in all aspects of Key West real estate, providing excellent customer service on both the buy and sell sides of the market, and giving back to the community that has been so generous in its support for the firm from the very beginning.
As the team at Bascom Grooms Real Estate celebrates 25 years of success, it is time to reflect on the past and use what we have learned to help plan a way forward that will ensure Bascom Grooms Real Estate another 25 years as one of the top independent real estate firms in the Florida Keys. And now is also the perfect time to express our deep gratitude to all our clients over the years, to our colleagues in the Key West business community, and to all our supportive friends and neighbors island-wide. Without you all, success would have been impossible.
Planning is in the works for a celebratory gathering sometime later in the year, so watch this space and the Bascom Grooms Real Estate Facebook Page for more information. We look forward to coming together, expressing our thanks for the past 25 years, and making toasts to the future ahead!
Bascom Grooms Real Estate—1110 Truman Avenue, Key West Florida—(305) 748-2057—info@bascomgrooms.com
