Dane Werk

About

    I was lucky enough to find Lakeland in 1992.  My then fiance and now my lovely wife Denise lived here.  After visiting several times I moved here and was lucky enough to get to play golf at Grasslands the first week I lived here.  My first career was in the food and beverage business for 13 years, including 8 in private club management but wasn’t much of a golfer then (23 hdc).  Yes, all of my Grasslands friends are laughing as they read this, thinking I’m not much of one now either.  I was determined to learn to play though, and after playing one round here it was a pretty easy decision to join the club.  The course was fantastic and the members and staff were very friendly and helpful to a newcomer.  At that time there were only 25 homes either under construction or occupied in Grasslands and the Bridgefield and Stonewater developments were in there infancy in Oakbridge.  Commercial wise, Publix was open and the GE Financial Center (now Lockheed Martin Financial Shared Services) where Denise worked was in operation.
    In 1998 Denise and I decided to build a home in Grasslands.  Having just sold an art and frame shop downtown, I decided to sell our home in South Lakeland on my own.  After a real estate agent brought a buyer, we rented an Enclave unit until our home was to be completed.  But when we went to the closing on the sale of our home, the buyer wanted us to pay $6000 in closing cost.  This was never mentioned and was not in the contract.  Denise and I looked at each other and I looked at Brian Kuehner, our attorney and said this is not the way we do business.  We got up and walked out and I went home and looked up on the computer for Real Estate classes and found out if I took the pre license course in New Port Richey for eight days and passed that test and the state exam I could have my license in three weeks.  I was a man on a mission and three weeks later I had my real estate license and I sold our home on my second day of being a REALTOR.  I left that brokerage after 10 months because Andy Bean had called me to sell his home that had been on the market for a few years.  I had to leave so I could get creative with the commission.  I asked a lot of long time agents, mortgage brokers, and appraisers who was the sharpest and fairest broker in Lakeland.  The broker that didn’t show favorites and you could trust.  The same name came up every single time, Tony Fridovich, the owner and broker at RE/MAX Paramount Properties.  So to RE/MAX I went and in my third year in the business I was his #1 single agent and have been a Top Producer ever sinse.
    In 2006 after some changes had been made with the management of the developer of Grasslands and Oakbridge, The Drummond Company, I decided to transfer my license to work under them.  That was not an easy decision to make.  In fact it took me 5 days to decide to take it.  Being a hugh Kentucky Wildcat fan, I looked at is as my Kentucky head coaching opportunity.  Selling a life style that I loved and I lived and working for a  good project manager and a good man in Leonard Mass.  In May of 2009 I decided to transfer my license back to RE/MAX because I felt I needed to get back to enjoying my club and the lifestyle that Denise and I want to live.  And believe me, there is no better place to live and play than Grasslands.