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For Bert Summerville, real estate has always been personal. Over a 30-year career, she has built a business around listening closely, speaking candidly and helping clients make decisions that serve both their financial goals and the lives they want to lead. Bert grew up in Colorado with the Rockies as her playground, but a first glimpse of the ocean as a young adult changed her trajectory. After years in Franklin, Tennessee, where she raised three children and operated a collaborative artisan business with friends, she eventually found her way to Florida’s Gulf Coast. The emerald water, white sand and distinctive communities of 30A felt immediately like home. Her entry into real estate came at a pivotal point in her life. Faced with the decision to return to teaching or pursue a new career, Bert chose real estate at the encouragement of a longtime friend. She was named “Rookie of the Year” in her first year and discovered a profession that rewarded her entrepreneurial instincts while giving her the flexibility to remain present for her family. Three decades later, she remains proud that the career she built allowed her to independently support her family and fund her children’s education. Today, Bert brings that experience to Scenic Sotheby’s International Realty, working with buyers and sellers along 30A and Florida’s Gulf Coast. Her approach is refreshingly straightforward. Bert describes herself not as a salesperson but as a listener, problem-solver and advocate. She believes in telling clients what they need to know, even when it may not be what they expect to hear, and in looking beyond the transaction to understand what a property can mean for a client’s lifestyle, long-term plans and investment goals. That philosophy has created relationships that extend well beyond the closing table. Many clients have returned to Bert years later to buy or sell again, while others have become friends who call when they are back in town. Referrals remain one of her greatest measures of success because they represent something more valuable than a transaction: trust. Bert’s connection to 30A extends well beyond real estate. She owns a live-work property in Seaside, where her boutique, Quincy Avenue Art and Things, reflects her eye for art, design and unexpected finds. At home on a coastal dune lake, she and her husband, Jim, are surrounded by art collected during travels throughout South America, Mexico, Africa and Europe. Bert is equally happy kayaking toward the gulf, tending her bees, baking bread, hunting through thrift stores for overlooked treasures or getting behind the wheel of her six-speed Jeep Gladiator or yellow Porsche 911. Family remains at the center of her world. Bert is the mother of three accomplished children and grandmother of seven, and gatherings at her coastal dune lake home often involve kayaking, paddleboarding, cooking and plenty of karaoke. For Bert, those experiences reinforce something she has learned over three decades in real estate: home is not simply a place. It is where people find connection, build community and create a life that feels distinctly their own.
For Bert Summerville, real estate has always been personal. Over a 30-year career, she has built a business around listening closely, speaking candidly and helping clients make decisions that serve both their financial goals and the lives they want to lead. Bert grew up in Colorado with the Rockies as her playground, but a first glimpse of the ocean as a young adult changed her trajectory. After years in Franklin, Tennessee, where she raised three children and operated a collaborative artisan business with friends, she eventually found her way to Florida’s Gulf Coast. The emerald water, white sand and distinctive communities of 30A felt immediately like home. Her entry into real estate came at a pivotal point in her life. Faced with the decision to return to teaching or pursue a new career, Bert chose real estate at the encouragement of a longtime friend. She was named “Rookie of the Year” in her first year and discovered a profession that rewarded her entrepreneurial instincts while giving her the flexibility to remain present for her family. Three decades later, she remains proud that the career she built allowed her to independently support her family and fund her children’s education. Today, Bert brings that experience to Scenic Sotheby’s International Realty, working with buyers and sellers along 30A and Florida’s Gulf Coast. Her approach is refreshingly straightforward. Bert describes herself not as a salesperson but as a listener, problem-solver and advocate. She believes in telling clients what they need to know, even when it may not be what they expect to hear, and in looking beyond the transaction to understand what a property can mean for a client’s lifestyle, long-term plans and investment goals. That philosophy has created relationships that extend well beyond the closing table. Many clients have returned to Bert years later to buy or sell again, while others have become friends who call when they are back in town. Referrals remain one of her greatest measures of success because they represent something more valuable than a transaction: trust. Bert’s connection to 30A extends well beyond real estate. She owns a live-work property in Seaside, where her boutique, Quincy Avenue Art and Things, reflects her eye for art, design and unexpected finds. At home on a coastal dune lake, she and her husband, Jim, are surrounded by art collected during travels throughout South America, Mexico, Africa and Europe. Bert is equally happy kayaking toward the gulf, tending her bees, baking bread, hunting through thrift stores for overlooked treasures or getting behind the wheel of her six-speed Jeep Gladiator or yellow Porsche 911. Family remains at the center of her world. Bert is the mother of three accomplished children and grandmother of seven, and gatherings at her coastal dune lake home often involve kayaking, paddleboarding, cooking and plenty of karaoke. For Bert, those experiences reinforce something she has learned over three decades in real estate: home is not simply a place. It is where people find connection, build community and create a life that feels distinctly their own.
