CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

Advertiser Welcome: Renee West

Walking down the street, cruising around the harbor in her red-striped Duffy boat, heading into The Bungalow to meet friends — wherever Renee West goes, she’s likely to hear it.

“Renee West does it again!” people say, pointing to her, quoting her signature slogan as they cross paths.

“People say it all the time,” West says. And she loves it — loves being recognized as a real estate agent who knows all there is to know about the local market and as an agent who gets things done.

West is one of Prudential’s leading agents, continually honored as one of the top sellers, particularly in the Newport Beach and Corona del Mar markets. (Check out her website here and her new blog here.)

Throughout her life, West has thrown herself into her work. A lifelong Southern California resident, West attended college at Cal State-Los Angeles, where she studied Spanish and education. She worked as a schoolteacher for years, focusing on elementary education and eventually moving to Newport Beach in 1978.

In the 1980s, West made a huge career change, becoming a partner in a high-end car dealership.

“It was a fun, fun, fun, fun time,” she says. “I was the Ferrari driver. The crazy ’80s. If you could be in the car business, you wanted to be there. We’d travel to Italy — it was truly life in the fast lane.”

By the 1990s, however, life again changed with the car dealership and her marriage dissolving. She returned to UC-Irvine and studied business, getting her MBA.

“I had been in the limelight, and it was time to regroup,” she says. “I loved school. When I graduated, I thought, ‘Maybe I should study sociology and stay here…’ But I told myself, ‘I’ve got to go to work.’”

West became a real estate agent in 1993, a time when the local economy was in disarray and Orange County was in bankruptcy.

“I sold a house within the first six weeks,” she says. “I sold another a few weeks later. I thought, ‘This is easy.’”

Easy — with a dash of hard work and a knack for seeing what others miss.

Take Channel Reef, for example. The building on Ocean Boulevard was built in the 1960s, and today many locals consider it too big — something that should never have been permitted to be built on a coastal bluff.

“It’s very misunderstood,” says West, who has made herself the go-to agent for listings in the building. “I know that building inside and out, and there are mini palaces in there — and it’s all views, all waterfront.”

West lives on the water herself and is considered a waterfront property expert. “That’s my deal,” she says. “I love waterfront property. Ask me anything.”

Living on the water means lots of rides on her Duffy, called “Ain’t Life Grand,” where she can give a great tour. “What’s for sale, what it’s listed at, what’s sold. People love to go out with me.”

Waterfront living also means lots of kayaking — when she’s not working, West thrives on exercise. “Yoga, spin class, you name it,” she says. She also reads voraciously and is a book club member, and she supports charities including the AIDS Services Foundation of Orange County. She’s an avid gardener, clipping roses for her office on Marguerite Avenue, or for her office at home.

“We work seven days a week,” she says. Her associate, Claire Namdar, agrees, adding that West has always been on the cutting edge of technology when it comes to marketing. Years ago before the popularity of the Internet, West used CD-ROMs to show clients homes. Today, the two women have created an interactive website and blog with free MLS mapping features for visitors, and they send regular market reports in postcard form to clients, always with the signature line “Renee West does it again!”

“I’m very entrenched in the business and the community,” she says. “I think my success is from hard work, and having the right attitude.”

Photo courtesy of Renee West.

Advertiser Welcome is a feature that introduces businesses that help bring you news by supporting Corona del Mar Today. All businesses that place ads on this site will get a story, letting our readers know a bit more about them.