Island-style living... for a week or a lifetime!

Calypso Realty, "a boutique full service real estate Company" was formed on March 1, 1996 with Sharon E. A. Hupprich as the principal broker. Sharon was a sales agent with Byrne-Brown Realty beginning in 1985 and the sales manager from 1987 until February 1996 when the owner left island and closed the business in the aftermath of hurricane Marilyn. During her tenure at Byrne-Brown Sharon managed several sales associates and became a National Association of Realtors® Million Dollar Club member. Her specialty was and still is the high-end market; both sales and listings. In 1981 Sharon left a Boston hospital administrator's position to move to St. Thomas when Xerox Corporation transferred her husband Fred.  Sharon and Fred are full time residents and homeowners on St. Thomas since 1981.   Fred (everyone calls him "Coach") eventually left Xerox and in 1985 joined the faculty of the prestigious Antilles School http://www.antilles.vi where he is now senior in the Department of Physical Education.

Calypso Realty handles the full spectrum of real estate transactions from sales of residential homes, home sites, condos and businesses to commercial sales and leaseholds, and the leasing of properties long term and short-term vacation homes. Calypso currently has over 25 units in the long-term property & rental management division and 7 unique properties in the vacation property & rental management division. We enjoy an excellent reputation with our owners, tenants, guests, sub-contractors. We maintain properties for off-island owners in a cost-effective and competent manner with excellent attention to detail. We have handled everything from minor maintenance and repairs to large-scale construction and re-construction of properties. We replenish and re-supply inventory as needed and in concert with our owners and tenants. We do not accept properties in poor condition. We will work with and assist owners in bringing their property up to a very good standard to optimize the rental potential and to obtain a quality tenant in our competitive rental market. 

Completing the full spectrum of real estate, Sharon has listed and sold many businesses from boutiques to restaurants and bars and leasehold build-outs and improvements. From American Yacht Harbor and Secret Harbour in the east to high end downtown Charlotte Amalie and  restaurant leaseholds in Frenchtown, Sharon has participated in many successful leasehold transactions.   

The vacation rental business has grown from a few simple condos to six individual properties from beach side condos to the luxurious 6 bedroom pool villa; Peace of Mind overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, Thatch Cay and down island. This part of the business has provided many potential purchasers with their "first look" at living on a tropical island. Our advertising tag line is ... "Island-style living...for a week or a lifetime" and many people take it literally and purchase a primary residence or second home through Calypso Realty.

Calypso Realty maintains aggressive advertising all year, recognizing that St. Thomas really doesn't have a "season" anymore. Tourists visit all year and many serious purchasers make the summer and fall their "hunting trip" while things are a bit more leisurely paced allowing more time to look around while taking advantage of the value season accommodation rates that are sometimes 30% less than winter rates.

We advertise annually in Virgin Islands Playground (a 4-color ad), monthly in St. Thomas This Week (the "yellow book"), monthly in Houses magazine, Innovative's Yellow Pages, and throughout the year in Islands, Conde' Nast Traveler, Bon Appetit', Caribbean Travel & Life, Travel & Leisure and other high-end and highly visible international publications. We are listed in all the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism publications since we supply important monthly demographic data via the occupancy reports. Tourism maintains a web site and aggressively markets the destination along with all of their partners; hotels and villa companies.  

Our most important advertising tool is our extensive web site www.CalypsoRealty.com/ Started in mid-1996; our web site was and continues to be a cutting edge web presence for St. Thomas real estate. We have refined and adjusted many times since the beginning, but kept it simple since our visitors tell us how easy the site is to navigate.  We also enjoy links with many publications such as the print media listed above and others.  We have sophisticated technology to track the origin of our hits on our web site including Google Analytics.  Our re-designed web site rolled out in mid-December 2009 with a fresh new look and a new company. We are excited about all the possibilities this new technology affords us.

We have the hardware and software such as the latest edition of Adobe PhotoShop and others to edit the site, and produce high quality imagery with our own digital cameras and photography by other professionals allowing for a constantly evolving web site.  People have called regarding certain listings and made the trip to St. Thomas and made a purchase based upon our web site alone. So, it works! Our new web site is hosted on state of the art servers in Houston, Texas. There are backups to backups so we will never be down. Our new webmaster is physically located in Florida, but is available to us 24/7. He has developed highly refined software to enable us to do 100% of the editing of our website. So, in essence we are our own webmasters and can change the web site at will. Very important in this fast paced business.

Another very important tool is the IDX link (public portal) to the Multiple Listing Service®. People are constantly returning to CalypsoRealty.com to access the link to MLS. We have purchased and installed the latest style link (an upgrade from the basic link) on our new website allowing potential buyers the most comprehensive MLS® information. Check it out yourself when you visit our website.

We are complemented almost daily on our logo and name. People are cheered by it and it immediately says "this is island-style real estate".  The logo is recognizable everywhere so that people don't even have to see the name to know it's "Calypso Realty".  Our advertising signs on a property generate calls and visits to our web site. 

Sharon's membership in the following organizations brings credibility and professionalism to the business: St. Thomas Board of Realtors, Virgin Islands Territorial Association of Realtors, National Association of Realtors, St. Thomas-St. John Hotel & Tourism Association, Caribbean Hotel Association and the St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce. Sharon Hupprich has served in various capacities with the St. Thomas Board of Realtors® from 1994 to 2003 when she completed her term as second vice-president.   

In June 2003 Sharon was nominated and accepted a position of Director and became Secretary of the Board with the prestigious Board of the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands www.cfvi.net. She co-chairs the annual "Angels" campaign that raises money to support the 90 named funds at CFVI and provides mini-grants and scholarships among other support. In the 2009 campaign we raised close to $400,000 in just 5 months and celebrated at a gala thank-you party for our donors of $500+ in March 2009. Sharon completed six years on the Board with CFVI and in June 2009 'retired' from the Board.  However, she will continue to support CFVI's philanthropic goals focusing on education, children and families.

After serving on the exploration and steering committees, in March 2004 Sharon was elected to the permanent Board of Directors and Chair of the Site Selection Committee for Habitat for Humanity International, U.S. Virgin Islands affiliate www.habitat.vi  Sharon served until mid-2008 when she passed the reigns to some new energetic board members. Habitat broke ground for the first home in November 2006 and the first concrete footers were poured in January 2007. We proudly dedicated the home in June 2009 and the new first time home owner has moved in with her family. Exciting stuff!  We hope you'll help us achieve even greater work by supporting HFH of the USVI!

Sharon's knowledge of and close relationships with all the local lending institutions, title companies, surveyors, and insurance companies assures the most comprehensive information for our valued customers and clients. Close colleagues on St. Croix and St. John assist the Calypso clients that desire a real estate purchase on our sister islands. Sharon provides those brokers with complete information on the client so that their needs are met promptly and professionally.

Carlene LaPlace, is the overall manager of Calypso Realty and is Sharon's licensed sales assistant. Carlene moved to paradise from Oregon and after living on St. Thomas for 8 years and working in two other well-respected real estate companies', Calypso was fortunate to have Carlene join Calypso in November 2008. Carlene manages the Property Management division with vacation rentals and long term leasing.  Carlene passed her real estate sales exam in October 2008 so she is assisting Sharon's clients and customers with their real estate services.  Carlene lives on the east end of St. Thomas with her husband, Andy LaPlace, a native Virgin Islander. Andy is the manager of Cowpet Bay East Condominium Association, which is next to the Ritz Carlton Hotel. In their precious spare time they enjoying boating and fishing and their extended LaPlace family activities!

Calypso's offices are conveniently located in Havensight on the first floor of the St. Thomas This Week building, which is just about 100 yards east of the Havensight Mall entrance. With the all-important convenient parking right in front of our building, we would love you to visit us!  Just look for the attractive three story beige West Indian style building with the hip roof, French doors and windows and blue shutters. We have all the latest equipment along with a charming setting allowing us to work hard for you and your real estate requirements.

Over the years Sharon has assisted a local and international clientele, private and public sector, corporate and personal, in the exploration, leasing, listing and purchasing of Virgin Islands properties. Corporate clients include Trammell Crow, Esso, AT&T, Heery International, Southern Energy, Cellular One, Sun Glass Hut, Metro Elevator, Cross Country Staffing, Professional Nursing Service, Medical Consulting Services, Cape Air, Marriott, Innovative Communications, Innovative Communications, Daily News, Federal Government and the USVI Government.  For many years Sharon has assisted several U.S. companies interested in establishing new VI companies under the U.S. Virgin Islands EDA program: http://www.usvieda.org From the initial introduction to the island to the leasing of office space and purchases of condos and homes we are a full service real estate company.

A short history of the St Thomas' real estate market...  The market started strong in 2003 and continued to grow. It was a red-hot market in 2005, 2006 and the first quarter of 2007. The demand for high-end homes, condos and land exceeded many predictions.  Commercial and residential leasing has been steady since 2002.  Toward the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 the market made an adjustment and growth declined somewhat in 2008 and into 2009. However, the lower interest rates, availability of mortgages in the USVI and the fact that we are an attractive year round U.S. destination that does not require a passport along with the pro-business administration of Governor John P. deJongh, Jr., who took office in January 2007, will help steady our market during this global economic crisis.   

NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT SUCCESS!!!          

 In calendar 2008, Sharon personally closed on 14 transaction sides representing over $5,147,000 in total sales volume, along with over $743,000 in short and long term rental leasing.  In calendar 2007, Sharon personally closed on 20 transaction sides representing over $11,074,500 in total sales volume, along with over $772,000 in short and long term leasing.
In calendar 2006, Sharon personally closed on 30 transaction sides representing over $15,238,000 in total sales volume, along with over $830,000 in short and long term leasing.
In calendar 2005, Sharon personally closed on 43 transaction sides representing over $18,065,000 in total sales volume. Residential and commercial leasing represented an additional $900,000 of sales volume in 2005.   In calendar 2004, Sharon personally closed on 39 transaction sides, representing over $12,500,000 in total sales volume.  In calendar 2003 Sharon personally closed on 48 transaction sides representing over $14,800,000 in total sales volume.

As you can see, my boutique real estate company is small, personal and successful. The 2009 real estate market was still adjusting and we adjusted with it. Even in this downturn, we have a great client base with second and third generational referrals (friends of friends of friends!) which assists us in sales and rentals. I have had a diversified business from the beginning in 1996, melding a strong sales and listing program with short and long term rentals which has proven to be beneficial whether a robust or soft market. We have many vacation guests and tenants that contact us months and sometimes years later to make a real estate purchase.  So happy tenants turn into even happier buyers!

I excel in marketing listings and in particular with our content and photo rich website I can present detailed listings to the web savvy buyer. Also, the MLS service provides a wonderful opportunity to expose listings to the worldwide market. I can upload as many photos as I want onto the MLS listing as well as survey drawings, floor plans, anything and everything to better 'tell the story' of the listing. People that are searching for properties are hungry for information and we will provide as much information as possible to link the buyer with the properties they are considering. And our website and MLS listings beat out other companies on St. Thomas hands down. All you have to do is logon once to www.CalypsoRealty.com and you will be convinced that this is the company and I am the Realtor® to best serve you!

Let's talk further about your specific real estate requirements in detail. Thank you again for your interest in my company Calypso Realty.  I look forward to working with you soon.

 Warm Regards,
Sharon E. A. Hupprich
Owner-Broker, Realtor ®