About Gidget Jackson

About Gidget

Gidget Jackson has been a real estate broker for over 38 years in Florida and a mortgage broker since 2019.  Born in Hialeah, FL, and raised in Miami and Central Florida, she loves the Florida lifestyle.  Beginning her career in central Florida in 1985, she owned and operated an insurance agency selling property, casualty, and medical insurance with a 2:18 Property & Casualty and 2:20 Life & Health license.  In 1985, she was licensed as a real estate sales agent with Realty World and served in various positions on the Board of Realtors.  In 1987, after obtaining her real estate broker's license, she opened Jackson & Associates Insurance and Investments, which she ran until she sold the insurance office and moved to SW Florida in 1990.  Next, she joined Century 21 and became a top producer with a large inventory of properties, and she assisted in training new agents.  Along with real estate, she obtained her mortgage broker's license to gain additional knowledge in that industry. 

In 1991, Gidget purchased a large property management and maintenance business with 397 properties and a full staff of employees.  She listed many properties for sale for the owners and streamlined sales, management, and maintenance of the units as they were sold and absorbed on the market.  As a function of sales, she managed the conversion of apartments to condominiums. Gidget obtained her CAM (Condominium Association Manager) license to manage the condo units until the complexes were turned over from the developer to the owners. The investment properties varied from single-family homes, duplexes, 4-plexes, 8-unit apartments, 20-unit complexes, and large numbers of units within various complexes and small industrial buildings.  Along with sales and management, Gidget was part of banking/investor negotiations for the financing and refinancing of investor loan portfolios, providing loan packages and property details to meet investors' goals for refinancing their properties.  As a listing broker, agent, property manager, and CAM manager, Gidget coordinated the sale of many units in small investor portfolios.  While balancing sales, rentals, and CAM management, investors could maintain unit values and income as properties were sold.  

As her current inventory was depleted and the market moved forward, Gidget worked in the new construction market, selling new homes and managing rentals for a local builder.  By the late 1990s, a number of pre-development foreclosures hit the market, and Gidget was hired to manage and sell condominiums in two large developments in Ft Myers, FL.  From the foreclosure purchase by the investors to the resale of individual units while managing the rental income of the units, it took several years for the market to absorb the 210 units that were renovated or completed and sold to individual owners.

From 2000 to 2010, Gidget owned and operated two RE/MAX franchises in Cape Coral and Ft Myers, with over 50 employees.  During this time, Gidget and her Associates won multimillion-dollar awards for the sale of residential and commercial properties, along with a successful property management division.  By the end of 2010, post-recession, Gidget decided to sell one of the RE/MAX franchises and move the second to Marathon in the Florida Keys.  After a year, that franchise was closed due to slow market conditions in the Key post-recession and the Gulf oil spill, which further deteriorated market conditions.  Determined to stay in real estate, Gidget worked for other brokers before opening Florida Keys Island Realty, where she became involved in affordable housing, a role she maintained for many years before returning to RE/MAX as a broker associate in 2018.

By 2019, Gidget decided to add offering mortgages to her real estate business and obtained a mortgage broker's license.  Soon, she opened a mortgage brokerage and established Salt Life Mortgage, now known as LoanGetter.com.  Seeing an opportunity to provide real estate and mortgage services, Gidget once again opened a real estate office, Realty Bistro, with plans to offer a menu of services, anticipating a market shift.

Currently, Gidget offers customized real estate services and creates options for buyers and sellers based on their individual needs, without generalizing costs across all transactions.  Along with real estate sales, Gidget offers a variety of mortgages:  Conventional, VA, FHA, USDA, Reverse, and Investment mortgages.

Over the years, in good and bad times, Gidget has found a way to navigate the ever-changing real estate market, working mostly by referral from past clients, friends, and family.  Today, her plan is to create options for buyers and sellers in a real estate transaction.  "Sellers and Buyers now have a choice of services and only pay for what they need or want when selling or purchasing a property.  From Full Service to a menu of services, Realty Bistro gives folks a variety of options with quality services and knowledge of the industry.