BARBARA M. WOLCOTT

Starting out her career in the early 1970s, Barbara Wolcott found out a woman couldn’t realistically advance beyond bank teller. So, recruited by one of her banking clients, Pembroke Realty co-founder Richard Olivieri, she switched industries.

Today, the five-decade Hampton Roads real estate veteran leads a residential real estate and property management company with about 600 agents across southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina and a 2024 sold volume of $3 billion.

Created by the 2023 merger of Rose & Womble Realty and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Towne Realty, the firm has the backing of TowneBank and is a licensee of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway luxury real estate franchise. The company now claims 15% of the regional market covered by the Real Estate Information Network Multiple Listing Service (REIN).

President of REIN’s board, Wolcott also serves on TowneBank’s Virginia Beach regional advisory board. A past Virginia Realtors president, she earned the Virginia Realtor of the Year recognition in 1988 and received a 2019 lifetime achievement award from the Hampton Roads Realtors Association. She also served on the National Association of Realtors’ board.

Outside of the real estate industry, Wolcott served on the state Board for Rights of the Disabled and the Spina Bifida Association of Tidewater’s board. The cause is near to her; her late granddaughter whom she raised as her daughter, Ashley Wolcott Curley, had spina bifida.

Wolcott continues to be a mentor to her real estate agents. When agents join the company, they receive her personal cell number during orientation.