SPOTLIGHT ON: Cheryl Williams

Ministering to a Congregation and Her Beloved Customers

Cheryl Williams, an agent with Corcoran Legends Realty in Tarrytown, credits her success in real estate and in life to her Christian ministry. For the past 20 years, Williams has served as senior pastor of the Wells of Salvation Christian Center in the Bronx. She holds a master’s degree in Christian Education from the International Theological Seminary of California, which she actually attended in Brooklyn.

From as early as she can remember, Williams has been involved with Christian churches and choirs. Her grandmother was also a minister and her family was always very spiritual. However, it was a life-changing event years ago that led her to her calling. “After my daughter was born, my kidneys started to fail and I was given only six months to live,” she recalled. “I asked God to give me an opportunity to see her grow up and if he allowed me to live, I told Him I’d keeping doing anything He wanted to get me involved in.”

Williams began to recover and eventually had a kidney transplant. As a result, she also began to delve into volunteer and charity work, beginning with the Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance along with several local charitable organizations, affiliations, and philanthropic organizations throughout the city. Currently she is part of the Bronx Clergy Task Force, the Freshwinds Ministry Alliance and the Bronx Regional HIV and AIDS Committee.

She and her husband, Kirk, have been married for 36 years and her daughter Brittany is now working in Manhattan for Hearst Publications. The two “high school sweethearts” grew up just two blocks from each other in Brooklyn. Now a Bronx resident, Williams noted it was the move to the Bronx that first got her interested in real estate.

“We had just moved from Brooklyn because my husband had become the master plumber for Co-Op City,” she explained. “I had to learn the Bronx, so I started to follow the bus routes. It took me forever to get where I had to go, but I learned all about the area.”

After earning her license in 1993, Williams started her real estate career with Century 21 Dealfinders in the Bronx. “It was back in the days when we all wore those gold jackets,” she quipped. Later, she moved to Prudential in the Bronx and eventually went to work for a firm in Manhattan. “That was such a fast-paced world, and I had to get used to taking clients out in a cab. But that experience made me fall in love with real estate.”

Williams especially loved attending open houses and showing apartments in luxury buildings. “That really inspired me,” she added. Later, she returned to the Bronx and then worked with Keller Williams in Scarsdale before joining Corcoran Legends Realty.

While she keeps busy with her career and ministry, Williams is also just as involved with her Realtor associations, serving on the New York State Association of Realtors’ Board of Directors, as Vice Chair of the HGAR Professional Standards Committee, and as a committee member for the Education Council, HG Realtor Foundation Fundraising Committee and HG Realtor Foundation Program Committee. Williams also makes time for HGAR’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusions Task Force and is currently part of the Leadership Accelerator Program.

One of her pet projects for the HG Realtor Foundation was Caritas at Port Chester, where she set up several volunteer events for packing and distributing supplies from the food pantry. Now relocated at a new building in Port Chester, Caritas will be back on her radar screen as the Foundation Program Committee looks to plan volunteer events into the summer and fall.

Williams is also excited to be studying for her real estate broker’s exam. “In a way, real estate is like a ministry in itself and I like to make the purchase experience as fun and successful as possible, especially for first-time homebuyers,” she said. As for her congregation, she always stands ready to lend a helping hand. “I love being able to provide assistance whenever it’s needed, and people know they can call me any time of the day or night.”