Van Kleeck specializes in unique, high-end properties

Among Springfield's top-producing real estate agents, Letty Van Kleeck, CRS, stands out for her ability to find buyers for unusual properties.

And her listing base is not limited to the Ozarks.

Van Kleeck came to Springfield in the early 1970s with the intention of making this her home. She considered the Ozarks a good place to raise her two sons.

Armed with a bachelor of science degree in education from the University of Nebraska, she first worked as an assistant teacher in the Springfield Public School System, then later went to work for the March of Dimes. Though she assumed her career path was set, she acquired a real estate license with the idea of supplementing her income.

Van Kleeck said she was devastated when the woman she had replaced at the March of Dimes returned to the organization. Forced to make a career decision, Van Kleeck went into real estate full time in 1973.

"I had no choice but to succeed; I had a family to support," she said.

Van Kleeck built her business from the ground up, working long hours and learning the ropes. She started with Huntsman Realtors, which became Coldwell Banker Vanguard, Realtors, then moved to Jones and Company.

"I think Jones and Company was a training ground for a lot of us," she said.

As her career spiraled upward, she moved to House of Brokers, later ReMax, House of Brokers, until the mid-1990s when she joined Carol Jones, Realtors, and where she has remained since.

Van Kleeck's interest in unique properties, usually the hardest to sell, started with a four-story home on Pickwick built by a local lumber company owner. The house had a ballroom on the fourth floor, she said. Instinctively she knew the home would be difficult to market locally, so she prospected far and wide for buyers.

A Texas Realtor picked up on the ad and the eventual sale came after long-distance negotiations. From this experience, Van Kleeck broadened her sphere of influence, eventually becoming affiliated with Christie's Great Estates, an international real estate marketing organization.

Van Kleeck blends marketing of local properties and the larger scope of properties outside the area with the aid of her assistant, Charity Graham. Graham has been with Van Kleeck for 2 1/2 years. Van Kleeck maintains an average of 20 to 25 listings locally, plus the "outer-limits" properties offered by Christie's Great Estates.

One thing Van Kleeck has learned about a unique property is that it has to have a name. The simple act of giving the property an identity of its own apparently helps cement the features in a buyer's mind.

Through Christie's, Van Kleeck was listing agent in the sale of Janet Dailey's former home, Belle Rive Estates in Branson, listed at $3.4 million. In Springfield Van Kleeck sold Shaldrake, a $2.4 million listing, formerly owned by Amway mogul Ken Stewart.

Today Van Kleeck advertises, among the Christie's offerings, two distinct properties to stretch the imagination of the buyer who has it all.

First is ResidenSea's 12-deck ocean liner, now under construction in Torndheim, Norway. It is the world's first residential ocean liner, complete with grocery stores, banks, a library, retail shops and medical facilities, as well as recreational, cultural and business facilities.

The ship will travel the world, visiting such locales as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Cannes France, the Mediterranean, the South Pacific, New England and Hong Kong. The 110 private residences, plus 88 guest suites, range in size from 1,100 to 3,250 square feet and are sold completely furnished, including linens, china, cutlery and crystal.

The mammoth ship is now 60 percent sold with approximately 40 percent of the buyers from the United States and rest from Europe and beyond.

Another unique Christie's property, Piano Creek Ranch, located near Pagosa Springs in southwestern Colorado, is heralded as "the world's most extraordinary private guest ranch" in an elaborate marketing brochure put out by Christie's Great Estates.

The ranch offers vacationers golf, fishing, skiing and horseback riding, plus indoor recreational facilities. Members can stay at the lodge or in one of the luxury cabins, built of native timber and stone with floor-to-ceiling windows. A portion of membership fees are placed in a professionally managed fund to help cover the cost of management costs and taxes.

Sales for these types of properties don't come around every day, Van Kleeck said, but her involvement has "given me an insight into the larger world out there," she said