For Karen Arbutine, success has never been measured simply by homes sold, records broken or awards earned. While she has certainly built an impressive real estate career, Karen believes the real measure of success is found in the relationships we build, the people we help and the difference we make in the community around us.
“Success is about more than what you accomplish professionally,” Karen says. “It is also about the difference you make in the lives of others.”
Those values were planted long before Karen ever entered real estate.
Born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, a small town about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh, Karen grew up as one of five children. Her mother, Mary, stayed home to raise the family, while her father, Rich, served in the U.S. Army before becoming an electrical engineer.
“My parents taught me the value of hard work, integrity, and treating others with respect,” Karen recalls.
The family lived on ten acres filled with blue spruce trees. Around Christmas, Karen helped her father make signs and sell freshly cut Christmas trees from their property.
“I was barely five years old, but I thought it was fun,” she says. Growing up in the country also gave her an appreciation for “wildlife, beautiful scenery and the simpler things in life.”
Perhaps without realizing it, Karen was getting her first taste of business and customer service.
Her interest in real estate came years later, after she bought her first home in Clearwater at only 19 years old. Karen still remembers her Realtor, Paul Walrod, and the patience he showed throughout the process.
“I told him I would really like to be a Realtor one day,” she remembers. “It looked like a great career.”
That seed eventually grew into a career distinguished by persistence, innovation, and a very personal approach to serving clients.
“I do not believe in treating a transaction as simply a business deal,” Karen says. “I build relationships and truly care about the clients I represent.”
Her philosophy is simple: approach every client's decision as though she were making it for herself or her own family.
“My clients know that I am accessible, responsive, honest, and committed to protecting their best interests from beginning to end.”
That dedication has produced some remarkable accomplishments. Karen has established record-breaking sales in numerous Central Florida communities and takes particular pride in helping sellers achieve exceptional results.
In 2007, she sold an $8.2 million home on Rice Lake Loop in Longwood's famed “Street of Dreams,” which she says became the highest-priced residential sale recorded in Seminole County at the time.
“Many agents can sell a home,” Karen says, “but not many have the skills to sell homes at the highest price per square foot recorded. There is a system and process I built to do this, and I find it extremely rewarding.”
Yet helping first-time buyers creates an entirely different kind of satisfaction.
“I love to see first-time homebuyers close and own their own home,” she says. “It is the American Dream to own a home. It makes me happy to see, many years later, the investment they made and the equity they are building through homeownership.”
Karen has also never been afraid of change. She launched her first real estate website in 2004, when relatively few agents were using websites aggressively to market properties. More than a decade ago, she was selected to participate in American Dream TV, producing real estate television segments and showcasing Orlando-area properties.
“I've always believed in embracing new ideas and new technology before they become the norm,” she says.
But some of Karen’s most meaningful work happens far away from contracts and closing tables.
For more than 20 years, she has been involved with Labrador Retriever Rescue of Florida, helping unwanted Labradors find forever homes. Her own Labrador, Bear, is a certified therapy dog, and together Karen and Bear visit nursing homes, schools, church groups and other places where a little companionship can make an enormous difference.
“Watching the way he can brighten someone’s day and bring a smile to their face makes me feel good,” Karen says.
She also volunteers with the Salvation Army and remains involved with community and civic organizations.
“I enjoy being connected to the people and the causes that make our community stronger,” she explains. “Giving back is something I genuinely value and have made a part of my life.”
Real estate has certainly tested her along the way. Changing markets, increased competition, and economic ups and downs have taught Karen resilience.
“I've learned that success is not just about what happens when things are going well,” she says. “It’s about how you respond when they aren’t.”
Through it all, the principles she learned growing up have remained remarkably consistent. Her real estate motto since 2003 has been Honesty, Integrity, and Experience.
And when the sales statistics and professional accomplishments are eventually forgotten, Karen knows exactly what she hopes will remain.
“I hope they remember me not just as a Realtor, but as a woman who led with integrity, kindness and purpose,” she says. “I hope I am remembered for how I treated people—with respect, honesty and genuine care—and for always striving to make others feel seen, heard and valued.”
That may be the best definition of a Woman of Influence: someone whose success reaches far beyond herself.
As Karen puts it, “Building a meaningful career has been important to me, but even more important has been the ability to make a positive difference in people’s lives and to make things better than I found them.”