Jeannette Karis dove into real estate-education classes early in her career. Now, the real estate veteran who markets herself as “The REALTOR® with the English accent” could teach others a thing or two about building a successful career.

Karis was named REALTOR® of the Year at the annual Spokane Association of REALTORS® luncheon on May 20.

“It’s been a joy to work with each and every one of you,” she said during her acceptance speech.

Karis is a broker at RE/MAX of Spokane, and is the immediate past president of SAR. The REALTOR® of the Year Award comes after 16 years of heavy involvement in the real estate community.

The native of England came to Spokane and started her real estate career in 1994. Her husband, Bill, was an American enlisted in the U.S. Air Force who had been stationed in the United Kingdom when they met. When he retired, they moved to the U.S.

At the suggestion of a broker, Karis became involved in SAR’s education committee early on so that she would be well versed in all of the real estate classes offered. Since then, she says, she has been on almost every committee the association operates.

Currently, in addition to serving as immediate past president, she serves on SAR’s professional standards, technology and communication committees. She is also a state association director and on the Northwest MLS Forms Task Force, which reviews purchase contracts and other forms.

In addition to being involved in committees and in leadership positions, Karis has earned a number of designations in her career and is one of the few Spokane-area real estate agents to earn all of the following designations: Accredited Buyer Representative, At Home With Diversity, Certified Residential Specialist, Graduate REALTOR® Specialist, Short Sale and Foreclosure Resource, and Seniors Real Estate Specialist.

In 2009, during her tenure as president, Karis led a number of initiatives to enhance communication in the real estate industry and to advance the industry’s use of technology.

For example, while attending a National Association of REALTOR® convention, Karis learned of a new technology that was to be beta tested by select REALTOR® associations throughout the U.S. Called REALTORS® Property Resource, the program serves as a single-parcel system through which a REALTOR® can pull up a variety of data – property-tax information, listing history, etc. – on a given property.

“There’s a lot of information available out there in general,” Karis said. “It’s important that REALTORS® are getting as good if not better information than the buyers.”

SAR became one of the beta testing sites for REALTORS® Property Resource, and Karis said she believes it’s the smallest of the associations to be named a beta site.

In addition to tabbing Karis as REALTOR® of the Year, SAR doled out a number of additional awards at the May 20 ceremony. Other award winners included:
• REALTOR® Achievement Award: Terry Sullivan, Sullivan Realty.
• REALTOR® Community Service Award: John Leland, RE/MAX of Spokane.
• Affiliate of the Year Award: Cheryl Sontag, Spokane County Title.
• Media of the Year: Diane Bobiak, The Spokesman-Review.
• Spokane Citizen of the Year: Barb Bennett, Spokane Valley Partners.
• Frank Nardo Scholarship Award: Curtis Miller, Coldwell Banker/Northwest Group.