Brenda Bozeman- A Woman With Heart

By Valerie Robertson

A walk into Leland Mayor Pro Tem and RE/MAX realtor Brenda Bozeman’s office instantly reveals her passion for people. Her neat desk is rimmed with framed photographs of family. A bulletin board is filled to overf lowing with pictures of family and of clients who feel like family. 

“My family’s my world. My husband, my children, and my momma, are number one,” she says. Her mother’s influence has been one of the driving forces behind her successful career. A single parent of six children, her mother always told her, “You have to work if you want to eat,” and Brenda’s never forgotten the advice.

 As a youngster she worked after school, ironing for an older sister and looking out for a young niece.  She worked several retail jobs including stints at a drug store and seafood market before finding her true calling. After the birth of her first child she enrolled in a real estate course.

That was a turning point for her.  A woman she used to babysit for started her own real estate company, and Brenda joined her. “I thought she was the most beautiful woman—nothing but class—and I wanted to be like her.” Brenda then worked for a builder that merged with Century 21, where she stayed until her 2003 move to RE/MAX Coastal Properties.  Her humble beginnings have led to a standout career in real estate with a number of industry achievements.  Winner of many awards, she’s proudest of her Hall of Fame award from Century 21. She was the third in Wilmington to receive Century 21’s Centurion Award, and the first to receive it multiple times, winning it every year she worked at Century 21. Then she was the first in Wilmington to receive the Hall of Fame Award, reserved for top producers with extensive community involvement.  “I felt like I had done it,” she says. “I grew up in the  housing projects in Wilmington.  And then to stand up on a stage like that knowing that I’m in a Hall of Fame—because of my hard work—it brings you to tears.”  Despite being born and raised in Wilmington, Brenda has called Leland home for almost 37 years since marrying her husband, Brunswick County native James Bozeman.

“When he brought me over here I thought he was taking me to the boondocks,” she recalls. “It’s not the boondocks anymore!”   Leland has changed dramatically, but Brenda observes,  “It didn’t just change overnight. We got one grocery store, and then we got another grocery store a few years later, and then something else came.”  Although she’s lived in Leland her adult life, her sales initially came from Wilmington. But times have changed along with a growth explosion in Leland: now more of her listings are from Brunswick County. Formerly, when a Leland listing eventually sold, it was typically a Leland person who bought it. But now, “you get anything in a good price range over here and it’s gone. Even the mobile homes have been selling,” she says.  

Brenda’s commitment to community service is strong.  In addition to serving as Leland’s Mayor pro tem, she has served on the town council for four years and on the town’s planning board for about 10 years. The only woman on the council, she values her role as peacemaker.  Community involvement is important to Brenda, and she devotes a lot of time to making sure events such as the annual Christmas Parade and Founder’s Day celebration are as good as they can be. The Christmas Parade is a personal favorite, and Brenda makes sure money is no obstacle to any child wanting their picture taken with Santa Claus.

In addition to seeing changes in Leland, Brenda has seen dramatic changes in the real estate industry. When she went into real estate in the 1980s “it was still a man’s game,” she says. “Now I think women dominate the business. I think most people would rather work with a woman, where they feel that sisterly, motherly, daughterly feeling, and that’s how I have prided myself.”   That familial feeling is not lost on her clients, who, after purchasing a home from her, may find themselves added to her wide circle of friends. And they may even see their photo on Brenda’s bulletin board.