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Legacy of Love—She Made it Happen, She Made it Fun A snapshot of the everlasting impact of 30-A’s Team Stevens b y C a r o l B a d a r a c c o P a d g e t t
“Our timing in the realm of 30-A real estate was not ideal,” Steve admits. But at the end of the Stevens’ first year—the year they had agreed to devote and then to reevaluate—”30-A real estate was back, and it was happening, and it was fun,” Steve remembers. By October 2010, Team Stevens Real Estate (TSRE), as Jan and Steve’s operation became known, was licensed under the brokerage of Rosemary Beach Realty in 30-A’s famous Rosemary Beach. Over the course of the next 10 years—many of them gracing the back cover of The Thirty-A Review — TSRE flourished under a simple, straightforward mantra: We make it happen; we make it fun. “The point being,” Steve describes, “the selling or buying of coastal 30-A real estate should not be a burden, but a happy and joyous family experience.” To that end, the husband and wife team focused relentlessly on customer service, always working to manage and resolve conflicts their clients might encounter in the process of buying or selling. Jan was devoted in helping families find their own most perfect “place at the beach.” She felt the legacy of Team Stevens was to be a “dream enabler” by helping families realize their own dreams of beach life on 30-A. In addition to making a difference in the lives of Team Stevens’ real estate clients, Jan in particular worked tirelessly to impact people living off the beaten path of 30-A. “Jan was a very giving person and would respond and rally around others when there was a need— especially if the need involved the welfare of children,” Steve recounts. “She was passionate about helping others in less fortunate areas of Walton County… One such area is the community of Bruce, Florida on Hwy 20 where families with children live with no electricity, in run-down houses or trailers, and go to bed hungry most nights.” To help, Jan worked alongside Tribal Chief Ann Tucker of the Muscogee Nation of Florida, which is based in Bruce, along with local officials and area ministers to establish an FDA-approved food bank to serve the diverse residents of Bruce. “In addition, Jan worked to bring about a medical clinic to care for the families in Bruce,” Steve shares.
Jan was devoted in helping families find their own most perfect “place at the beach.” She felt the legacy of Team Stevens was to be a “dream enabler” by helping families realize their own dreams of beach life on 30-A.
In October 2018, when Hurricane Michael pummeled Panama City and the Florida Panhandle area, Jan again sprang into action. “She organized a brigade of volunteers who met daily for several weeks to make bag lunches for distribution to those in need,” her husband remembers. “She joined forces with Hope Panhandle to provide volunteers to help with the clean-up and removal of debris from the homes of those affected by the hurricane.” And he adds, “She also rallied Miles [Neiman, editor-in-chief and publisher of The Thirty-A Review ] to promote Hope Panhandle,” putting the organization’s contact information on the front cover of multiple issues. In early 2021, the loss of Jan would leave a void in Team Stevens and the entire community of 30-A, which has embraced the Stevens family over the past 16 years. “Jan and I were a team, both as soulmates and as teammates,” Steve shares. “We complemented each other… my weaknesses were her strengths and vice versa. It was like that in our marriage of 53 years, the raising of our two sons, Jason and Michael, our focus on our family unit, and later on the families of our real estate customers.” Looking back on their unending partnership, Steve says, “Jan was the center of our family unit and of Team Stevens. ‘She Made it Happen, She Made it Fun!’”
I n m e m o r y o f J a n S t e v e n s
I n 2010, husband and wife duo Steve and Jan Stevens made a pact: they would try their hand at real estate on 30-A, as a team. “We agreed that we would give it one year,” Steve says, “and if we were having fun and enjoying ourselves, great! If not, we would know it and would pursue something else together.” The couple, “soulmates” as Steve describes, had both retired from their original corporate careers in 2002 and bought a home in Rosemary Beach the following year. They settled on real estate because Jan’s background was in sales. “Becoming a realtor was her ideal vision of a second career,” Steve notes. And since the pair had always supported one another in their dreams and endeavors, he too joined Jan in real estate classes and in sitting for the Florida Real Estate Exam. When the couple began their new business venture in May 2010, though, real estate activity and sales along 30-A were nearly non-existent in the wake of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
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