Real Estate 2024: BARBARA M. WOLCOTT

A five-decade Hampton Roads real estate veteran, Wolcott leads a residential real estate and property management company created by the 2023 merger of Rose & Womble Realty and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Towne Realty.

With more than 750 agents across southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina, the firm has the backing of TowneBank and is a licensee of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway luxury real estate franchise.

In May, RW Towne found itself embroiled in a national controversy after a white client initially refused to sell her Virginia Beach condo for $749,000 to a Black molecular biologist due to the buyer’s race. The buyer, Raven Baxter, filed state and federal discrimination claims. Wolcott emailed Baxter to say the attitude of the “horribly misguided seller” would not be tolerated by RW Towne Realty or its agents. The New York Times reported the transaction was put back on track for a summer closing. (The seller, Jane Walker, 84, has not commented publicly.)

Wolcott is board vice president for the Real Estate Information Network board, the region’s multiple listing service. She also serves on TowneBank’s Virginia Beach regional advisory board. A past Virginia Realtors president, she received a 2019 lifetime achievement award from the Hampton Roads Realtors Association.