Lee Ann Wilkinson wins prestigious award

The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group is now No. 1 in total sales volume for the entire Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network nationwide.

“This is a pretty big deal. I was surprised,” Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson was on stage when the award was announced at the company’s annual convention, held March 11-13 in New Orleans.

“It’s like a pageant. You’re on stage with the top 10. The lights are bright. You can’t hear very well who they’re calling,” Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson was No. 2 last year and the year before.

She said she had been in the top 10 in sales volume 15 times in the last 20 years.

“I never thought we would get to No. 1 from Lewes, Delaware. I just never aspired to it,” she said. “Most of the people in the top 10 are California agents. They sell homes for $20 million.”

Wilkinson said in 2023, her group sold 336 homes, and had more than 400 buyers and sellers for a sales volume of $325 million.

The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group merged with PenFed Realty in the Washington, D.C. area about a year and a half ago. 

“My brother-in-law was running the company and was just getting burnt out. He felt like he wanted to go with somebody bigger so he’d have more backup,” Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson has been selling real estate for 40 years. She started at her parents’ firm right after college.

“I’m just a natural sales person. Before I sold houses, I sold bathing suits at a shop in Rehoboth, where I sold more bathing suits than anybody,” Wilkinson said. 

Berkshire Hathaway Home Services has more than 50,000 agents. Wilkinson has a team of seven full-time agents and 13 staff professionals.

“This is a team effort. Everybody here works twice as hard as anybody else. They know the market better than anyone else,” she said.

Wilkinson is also proud of her involvement in the Lewes community. 

She recently sold the historic Zwaanendael Club building on Savannah Road for the Lewes Historical Society for about $899,000. “I didn’t charge them anything. I considered it a donation to the society,” Wilkinson said.

She is also involved in fundraising for the Open Space Alliance campaign to buy and save the Fourth Street Preserve in Lewes and the Sussex County Land Trust’s effort to buy and save the Ard Na Greine parcel, just outside city limits.

“This area has helped to get me where I am, because it’s a growing area. But we should slow it down, because it can get oversaturated, and it’s getting to that point,” Wilkinson said.

But, Wilkinson is not slowing down.

“This should bring us more business. Everybody wants to work with the best,” she said. “It’s a little bit of pressure. But they way we do things here, we just do what we’re supposed to be doing day in and day out.”