A Wall Street trader. A restaurant employee. A college student. A part-time agent.
Different backgrounds. Different ambitions. But all can trace a turning point back to the same person: Christine Hansen.
"She helped me step out of my comfort zone," Ewa Kucia says. "She always repeated that she knew I am meant to do big things."
Kucia, a polish immigrant and college basketballer who 11 years ago was working at a nearby restaurant, is now a top-producing agent at Century 21 Hansen Realty. The brokerage is owned by Florida broker-owner Christine Hansen, who will become the 2027 president of the National Association of REALTORS® on Tuesday.
"She's been there for me personally as a broker, as a friend and as a third mother," Kucia says. "Without her, I just wouldn't be able to accomplish all the awards I have, honestly, and be who I am for my customers and for my family."
It's a sentiment shared by many—across South Florida and the country—who have been pulled into her magnetic orbit. As Hansen assumes NAR's top volunteer spot, she carries with her a reputation built not only on business success—as a broker-owner leading a team of 60 agents—but on mentorship.
That influence spans experience levels and stages of life.
For the then-part-time agent, Hansen provided reassurance: “She taught me that I could do this job.”
For the former college student, it was confidence: “Christine’s biggest impact on me is giving me confidence in myself.”
What makes Hansen's encouragement so potent is her warm, authentic delivery. Each conversation brings a dose of calm, contagious positivity and a "million-dollar" smile. And for those who know her well—the knowledge that her words carry the conviction of someone who's been tested but never bested.
Much like the homes and commercial spaces she sells along Fort Lauderdale's coast, Hansen has weathered many storms. She's seen the rain and the sun, and both inform how she handles what's to come.
Getting Her Start
When she was younger, there were two things in life Hansen felt sure she didn't want to do: sell real estate and speak in public. Ironically, she ended up doing both.
After witnessing her mother, Anita, work nights and weekends as the original broker-owner of Century 21 Hansen Realty, she vowed to forge another path. Her father, Christian, a Lutheran minister, got the jitters before public speaking, a fear Hansen inherited.
Despite these early impressions, she says neither parent would be surprised to see her running a thriving real estate business or speaking on behalf of NAR’s 1.4 million members.
"I think they would just laugh and be like, 'Yeah, that figures,'" Hansen says chuckling. "Back in high school as a freshman, I was the student body president."
Her mother did more than just hope Hansen would stumble into the family business. She warmed her daughter to the idea, paying Hansen to answer phones and make copies before coaxing her to earn a real estate license in 1987. She also cleaned the office to earn extra cash. From then on, Hansen was "hooked."
"I felt the joy of helping people," she says. "When I would go to my closings, I would dress up a little because I really wanted them to see that this was a special time, not just for them, but for me as their [agent] too."
She adds, "When you're sitting at that table and you're seeing a family buy their first home, or you're seeing a couple that has worked their whole lives to finally be able to retire and get that one property that's just kind of their forever home—[that] means so much."
Navigating Challenges
As Hansen learned the ropes of the business, she was juggling another commitment: motherhood.
"I was a single parent, and so really navigating being able to be the best mom I could be, but still also grow a career—that was challenging, because if you say yes to something, you're saying no to something else," Hansen says.
She protected her daughter, Jen Parker, from the weight of that challenge.
"When I was a kid, I never knew we were struggling with money," Parker says. "I remember we were walking down the street one day [and saw] this little boutique and there was the most amazing little blue sundress. I still remember it. And she got me that dress. And I knew it was very expensive, but I didn't really understand the concept of it. I didn't know whether we had money or not. And I wore that dress until it literally became like a shirt, where it was so short I wore little shorts under it and it had holes in it. [Eventually] I had to get rid of it. And I found out later that she's like, "'Yeah, I needed to close some deals to pay off that dress for you.'"
Despite being the owner’s daughter, Hansen says she didn’t receive any special treatment and wasn’t given company leads. She became a broker in 1989 and around that time began hitting her stride. “I had an inventory of 40 listing,” she says.
After several managers didn’t work out, Hansen began managing the brokerage in 1999 at the age of 34. At that time, it wasn’t a thriving business, Parker explains.
"My mom did not just get handed this amazing successful business,” she says. “My mom went from changing the trash bags to making it become what it is today."
Between 2003-2007 Hansen grew the business, adding four more offices and managing a total of 300 agents and staff. At the same time, she navigated periods of market downturns, elevated mortgage rates and lengthy VA and FHA closing periods.
Then, like a hurricane, the housing market crashed in 2008. Hansen watched her business sink.
"I kept thinking I'm going to fix things and get through this —when I really couldn't," Hansen recalls. "What I should have done was consult other people and quickly make strong business decisions, and I didn't do [that]."
She adds, "I lost a lot of my offices. I lost a lot of my income property, and I can honestly say that I had to really start almost everything over again."
Long-time Century 21 Hansen agent Karen Kelley saw her broker in another light.
"She made tough decisions and really battened down the hatches and got through the storm," Kelley says. "We came out of it."
Even during the financial crisis, Kelley remained confident because of Hansen's leadership. Back then, she says, some agents were asking for their checks at the closing table, afraid that if they didn't, they wouldn't be paid by their brokerage. Kelley didn't.
"I can tell you many a times a title company would say to me, 'You don't want your commission check?' And I said, 'I don't need my commission check. You can send it to Hansen Realty, because I will get paid,'" she says. " She never ever missed taking care of her clients, taking care of our clients, taking care of her [agents] and her staff."
Still, getting through that chapter battered Hansen's ego. But she also became more willing to seek counsel and acknowledge what she didn't know, and she discovered a newfound confidence.
With just her original office, Hansen says she rebuilt her company by being hands-on and focusing on culture. She encouraged participating in charities and getting involved in the local and state association. Her office would go on to win numerous Century 21 awards for sales production and outstanding customer service.
Devotion to REALTORS® and the Industry
That hard-won confidence shaped Hansen’s distinctive leadership style. Those who know her best describe her limitless empathy, her radiant positivity, her intelligence and her ability to spot hidden talents in others before they see it themselves.
She's had the runway to showcase this style during her decades of volunteer leadership. Hansen served as the president of Realtors® of the Palm Beaches and Greater Fort Lauderdale in 2007 and Florida REALTORS® in 2018. Since 1994, she has held more than 450 committee roles across the local, state and national levels of the organization.
Hansen recalls a tense exchange during her local president days while she was petitioning the local government to curb property tax hikes. Several local commissioners and lawmakers were in favor of continuing the trend, despite the taxes threatening to displace its residents.
"Someone really got in my face and they were like, 'You just don't want us to fund the police or the parks or the fire departments," she says. " I looked at him and I said, 'I love your passion, and I think we're here for the same reasons. You want to serve the community. I'm here to serve the community. And the best way we can do that is to make sure that all of the people that you've mentioned, [are] able to stay in their homes. Let's work together to come up with a solution.'"
Hansen says it immediately lowered the tension and lawmakers decided to regulate property tax increases to a more manageable 3%. "We ended up working really well together," she recalls.
Florida broker Christina Pappas, who served as secretary when Hansen was president of the local association, says Hansen is an incredible listener. Hansen encouraged members to listen fully and form their own thoughts before making any final conclusions, Pappas recalls.
"She showed that in meetings — never speaking first, always speaking last, gathering information and data in order to make the best decision possible," Pappas says.
Pappas is a third-generation broker whose father's office was down the street from Hansen's mother's firm. Pappas was also a "rookie" on the Florida leadership team when Hansen served as Florida REALTORS® president.
Pappas says Hansen's always trying to bring new people to the table and thinking about the REALTOR® organization's future.
"She's always like, "Who's next? Who are we looking at? How do we pull them forward? How do we get them involved? ...She's constantly looking to replace herself and me and others to make us better."
That's been Carlos Alleyne's, the former wall-street trader’s experience, too. Ten years ago, he was accepted into his local leadership academy class after just starting out in the business.
He met Hansen at the first class, where she was speaking as president of the state association. Meeting Hansen after practicing real estate for such a short time, left an indelible mark on Alleyne.
"What I took away from the meeting was that it didn't matter where you started," Alleyne says. "Here was someone who was willing to listen to you, someone who really cared on the journey that you were about to embark on. And that really made me feel confident. But more important were the words she said when she left, she said, "If you ever need help, if you ever need guidance, I'm always here.'"
A decade later Alleyne says he can still turn to her for guidance. Her agents feel that way, too.
"Working her way up to [the NAR presidency] has meant a lot of time outside of this office," says Karen Kelley, who has worked at Hansen's brokerage for the last 20 years. "But I can tell you, every one of us could text her. We could call her. She was always available to us."
Something that becomes abundantly clear from talking with her friends and colleagues is that what makes Hansen best suited for leadership is not her titles, accomplishments or volunteer track record. It's her heart.
"You know those people when you talk to them and they're listening and they're listening fully? Christine gives her all to everything she does," Pappas says.
"I've never heard a bad word out of somebody's mouth about Christine Hansen. Ever," Kelley says.
Vision for NAR
Hansen is clear-eyed when it comes to the financial pressures real estate professionals face and is making it her job to do everything she can to help them thrive:
"We don't get a paycheck on Fridays. It's entrepreneurship and you can work on deals and end up having them fall through after working on them for months...so, understanding the pressures that [agents] and brokers have on an everyday basis helps me because in my leadership role, I know that. I've experienced it. I feel it even now as a broker."
That is how she says she will approach decisions: "What can we do to bring value to our REALTOR® members that will be substantive; that'll be strong for their businesses, [and] to maybe even alleviate some of the stresses they have to go through?"
To Hansen that means carrying out the second year of NAR's three-year strategic plan, effectively communicating member tools and resources and restoring the pride in the REALTOR® name.
"If I can look back over 2027 and see that our members, our brokers, our associations understand the true value of that word—"REALTOR®"—I will have succeeded in what I want to achieve this year," Hansen says.
