Ormond realtor gives sellers a smile with home paintings

Ormond Beach Observer
Neighbors

Barbara Sandberg of Better Way Realty paints a picture for each of her sellers to give them a sweet memory as they leave their home.

Barbara Sandberg likes to give back.

Whether it’s planning an art show for a sick friend or adopting a scruffy mutt rescue from Hurricane Sandy, she’s always working on a way to help others. Even in her job as a realtor for Better Way Realty in Ormond Beach, Sandberg gives her sellers a painting of their house so they can always remember their home.

“I don’t know what drew me to art,” Sandberg said. “I really didn’t have a particular thing until I got into real estate.”

Sandberg said she’s painted her fair share of home renderings for her clients since she got into real estate in 1979.

“I’ve probably done a few hundred,” Sandberg said. “I started doing renderings to make people happy. I felt their pain when they were leaving a house that they had been in for so long so I wanted to give the seller a memory.”

Sandberg said the majority of her clients are grateful for their paintings but if the seller is leaving the home for negative reasons and doesn’t want to remember it, then she’ll do a painting of their pet as a gesture for a new start.

Sandberg, who grew up on Beach Street in Holly Hill, enjoys being able to paint some of the historic and unique houses she used to drive past. It was in that town that she first discovered her love for art.

“I started art in Mainland High School,” Sandberg said. “When I graduated I got a scholarship to Boston University Fine Arts. I really loved my art teacher.”

Thanks to her riverside childhood, Sandberg has some fond memories of area she now sells real estate in. When she was 10-years-old her mother, saved a park from being built into more houses by standing in front of a large oak tree until the city’s bulldozer backed off.

“She wanted to preserve the way of life here,” Sandberg said. “She didn’t want future generations to miss out on the natural beauty.”

Sandberg now lives on the opposite side of the Halifax River with her husband John Sandberg, and their rescue dog Sandy Superstar. He said he loves to see the joy his wife brings to other people’s lives.

“I know they’re lucky to get a painting from Barbara,” John Sandberg said. “And I know she enjoys being able to do it.”

Anyone interested in contacting Barbara Sandberg for a painting or real estate, email her at [email protected].