About

I have been doing this since 2006.

Investor and developer first, then a licensed agent, then a title company owner. Each of those taught me something about how a deal works, and all of it goes into how I represent a client.

The short version

How I got here.

I started in real estate in 2006, so my first years in the business were spent watching the market fall apart. That was a hard way to learn, but it taught me to ask what happens if the assumptions are wrong, and to be skeptical of any deal that only works if everything goes right.

Since then I have bought, renovated, and held property with my own money, worked in land and development, gotten my license and sold homes as an agent, and opened a title company because I wanted to handle the part of a transaction where deals most often stall. Land taught me what a lot is worth once you price the site work.

Today I am licensed with LPT Realty, on the Military Veteran Team, which RealTrends Verified ranked the number one team in Florida and number ten in the United States for homes sold in 2025. I work with buyers, sellers, and investors across West Central and Southwest Florida. I still run the other businesses. They are not a distraction from my work as an agent. They are what make me good at it.

How I work

Four things I will always do.

Tell you the number I believe

I will not give you a high number to win a listing or a low one to make an offer easy. If the price you have in mind is not supported by comparable sales, you will hear it in our first meeting, not after thirty days on the market.

Read the title work early

Liens, probate, survey conflicts, unpermitted work, an association that will not produce an estoppel. These are what move closing dates. I look for them at the start of a file because I have spent years cleaning them up at the end.

Price the repairs honestly

I have paid for roofs, slabs, and site work. When we walk a property I can tell you what a problem is likely to cost and whether it belongs in the negotiation or in your budget after closing.

Talk you out of it when it is wrong

When a deal is wrong I will say so, even though it costs me a commission. You stay a client, and over twenty years that has been worth more.

Outside the transaction

I also teach this work.

I built The Closing Class, real estate education for physicians and other high earning professionals, and TrueWay Local, tools and coaching for agents. Teaching forces you to write down how you do the job, and that has made me better at it.

The rest of what I run is on the What I Build page.

A fair question is whether running several businesses leaves time to sell houses. It would be my question too. The other companies came out of the transactions, and they make me better at them. Title, construction, and land are where deals run into trouble, and I work in all three. If you want to know what my week looks like, ask me and I will tell you.

What I build

After twenty years, the part I still like most is walking a property. You learn more in fifteen minutes on site than in a week of looking at listings.

Before real estate, I was a USCG licensed captain running yachts. The rest of the story is below.

Off the clock

The family.

I grew up around real estate. Early on I worked alongside family managing shopping centers, outparcels, industrial space, new construction, and rentals, and most of what I know started there. Before I got into the business myself, I was a USCG licensed captain running yachts.

My wife is a pediatric nurse practitioner. We have three kids, one in second grade, one in kindergarten, and a two-year-old, plus two dogs. We are building our family's home in Fort Myers right now, which is a daily reminder of how long construction takes and what it costs.

When I am not working I am golfing or fishing.

John Lee with his wife and three kids at the beach

The five of us.

Want my honest read on a property?

Send me the address or the situation. I will tell you what I see, whether or not you end up hiring me.

Start a conversation Call or text

John Lee, licensed real estate agent · LPT Realty, LLC