– Story of Toby Tanna’s Photograph by Darren Hull
Courtesy of Boulevard Magazine, a Black Press Media publication
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Jane Hoffman is a giant in the Kelowna Real Estate world. Her name is synonymous with luxury on the lakefront. While Hoffman represents the lion’s share of waterfront buyers and sellers in this city, she viewed herself more as a lamb for much of her life.
“I was the youngest child, I never said a word; I hardly talked, ”she recalls. “Even as an adult, for the first few years I was on this job, I just couldn’t see that it really was me.”
A career in real estate was not even on the radar for the black-haired small-town girl with friendly eyes and calm strength. Jane, a young bride aged 19, and her husband as an RCMP officer left their hometown of Revelstoke for the city of Vancouver. At the weekend they built houses together. Glen Hoffman’s building dreams quickly overshadowed his RCMP career and the couple eventually moved to Kelowna to start their Braniff Construction Ltd. to enlarge.
Jane was busy with a young son (Michael); She helped Glen with the company and attended classes at the nursing school. However, on a winter night in 1982 when one of her greatest fears became a reality, her life course changed forever.
“Glen has always had a passion for flying. I was always nervous that it would fly. “
Glen and his business partner Jim, Jane’s sister’s husband, flew home in their private company plane and crashed before they could land at Kelowna Airport.
“I had a bad feeling and looked out my front door and down the hill came the RCMP. I would know. It really happened, exactly as I imagined it would. It was like a nightmare, ”she says with tears in her eyes.
When Jane and her sister mourned the tragic and sudden loss of their husbands, she made a decision that she considers to be the most important of her life to this day.
“I remember thinking when the RCMP left I could go upstairs in my bed and throw the covers over my head and fall apart – that’s what I wanted to do,” she admits. “Or I can go ahead and ask for a few things from above and be the person who survives.”
Jane chose to survive. She took over the reign of Glen’s company, managed 150 employees and completed the remaining projects that Braniff was engaged on. It took five years and an incredible amount of strength. Jane admits she feels like she has a helping hand from above.
“I thought, oh Glen, I hope you’re helping me somehow and I think he did. I think when people die you can take what you learned from them and you just do it. “
As Braniff’s operations came to an end, a casual comment from her cousin David got Jane thinking about the next chapter in her life. He reminded her how much she loved the lakeside and lakeshore houses and suggested that she consider selling them. Jane was quietly fascinated.
“When I took the real estate course, I didn’t tell anyone.”
At the age of 34, Jane reinvented herself as an agent.
“It was really hard. In the first year I sold five houses in the whole year. Next time it was 15 and then it started to mix. “
She remembers a lot of work, rejection and disappointment at the beginning, but then something clicked. She bought a little house by the lake and her love for it naturally formed the basis of her sales strategy.
“Selling houses by the lake is so much fun for people. I was passionate about it myself, so I’d convince people that they should, too. That’s how I started. “
As she threw herself into work, raised her son and bought more land, Jane never let go of this first lake house and the healing comforts it offered her.
“In summer I would move into the little beach house. I was very lonely at the time and said to Michael: “I love the lake. I feel like there’s always someone home when the water is there because it’s constantly changing. ‘“
Jane now lives in a beautiful waterfront home in Kelowna’s Lower Mission. Michael and his family live just a few blocks away, and Michael followed in his father’s footsteps and carried out various development projects around the city. Thanks to Michael, Braniff Construction Ltd. born again, which makes his mother very proud.
“My son took on all of the qualities of Glen, except the desire to fly – he never learned that at all.”
After 35 years in the real estate business, 16-hour days are still the norm for Jane.
“I might have got that from my mother,” she says with a smile, referring to Kay Beruschi – a Revelstoke pioneer who opened the renowned Regent Hotel in Revelstoke with her husband Fred during the Great Depression. They ran it together until Jane’s father died in 1976. Kay was a permanent member of The Regent until he was 92.
“Everyone knew Grandma Kay,” chuckles Jane. “She was a character, a true entrepreneur, who was ahead of her time.”
Kay died in 2014 at the age of 100. Jane, her brother and sister still own The Regent and two other hotels in Revelstoke. Her nephew Brady runs it.
Jane mainly focuses on the Jane Hoffmann Real Estate team. With 14 people who have become her work family and 150+ active listings, Jane doesn’t take much time. If she can escape, you can find her on the slopes or traveling to a favorite destination like Hawaii. Jane’s other passions include raising money for various charities, including the Central Okanagan Hospice Association, and listening to live music. If you invite her to a concert, she will never say no.
“I’ll go to every concert, it doesn’t matter to the music, I just love the energy.”
Jane Hoffman is bursting with energy. At an age when some might retire, she’s still excited when a buyer and a home go together.
“It’s like fate. When I see it, I find it so fascinating, ”she explains. “Sometimes when a house doesn’t sell I remember just letting go, someone is meant for that house and if it’s right everything will come together.”
Selling real estate is not without its stress and uncertainty, but Jane accepts anything.
“It seems good for me. It keeps me healthy, alive, and relevant. I’m so used to being busy and interacting. I’m not sure what would happen to me if I retired. “
Jane found love over the years but never remarried. In all the ups and downs of life, she felt very comfortable near the lake. It’s a deep, personal connection with the water that comforted a young widow so many years ago. Nowadays it is a peaceful escape in chaotic times and just one look out of the window is enough to fill you with an immense feeling of gratitude.
The course of Jane Hoffman’s life may have been changed by tragedy, but somewhere on that journey the once shy Lamb found her voice and roared upwards.
“I live stronger, better because I feel like I live for two people, not just one. I have to stay so let’s make it worth it. “
Check out some of Jane’s listings on her website here.
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