About Sawyer Real Estate

More than 120 years on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Sawyer Real Estate has helped families and businesses buy, sell, and manage property on the Mississippi Gulf Coast since 1901 — making us one of the oldest continuously operating real estate firms in the region. Founded just a few years after the City of Gulfport itself was established, our company has guided clients through more than a century of change along this coastline, through booms and hurricanes and rebuilding, and we are proud to still be doing it today as a family-owned, independent business now in its fourth generation.

The values our founders built the company on — honesty, fairness, and integrity — are the same ones our brokers and agents carry into every transaction. We have always believed that real estate is, at its heart, about people and relationships, not just property.

Our history

1901 — A Gulfport institution begins. Our firm traces its roots to 1901, when it was first established to serve buyers and sellers in the young, fast-growing port city of Gulfport. (The business was originally founded under the P.H. White name.)

1925 — The Anderson era. Roy Anderson, Sr., who had moved to Gulfport from Purvis, Mississippi, acquired the business and operated it as Roy Anderson Real Estate. He believed deeply that the Port of Gulfport would become an economic engine for the entire state — a conviction that shaped how the firm served the growing coast. Under the Anderson family, the business became a fixture of Gulfport commerce. 

1955 — The Sawyer family takes the reins. Roy Anderson, Sr.'s daughter, Annie Jane Anderson Sawyer, grew up in the business — she began working in her father's real estate office as a teenager and stayed with it through her school years, college breaks, and the years that followed. When Roy Anderson, Sr. passed away in 1955, Annie Jane and her husband, Lenwood S. Sawyer, Sr., took over the firm, and it became known by the family name it still carries today: Sawyer Real Estate. The office had broadened its services to include general insurance in 1953, and for decades the Sawyers served the coast in both real estate and insurance.

1986 — Lenwood S. "Lenny" Sawyer, Jr. and Earline Sawyer. In 1986, the real estate and insurance operations were separated, and the next generation — Lenny and Earline Sawyer — took ownership of the real estate firm, leading it through an era of tremendous growth on the Gulf Coast. Engaged in real estate since 1963, Lenny became one of the most active commercial brokers in the region's history, while Earline built a parallel record of leadership in the organized real estate community. Under their stewardship, Sawyer Real Estate became one of the most respected names in Gulf Coast property.

The fourth generation — and beyond. Today the tradition continues with Sandi Sawyer Dulaney, the fourth generation of the family to serve Gulf Coast buyers and sellers, alongside an experienced team of professionals. More than a century after the firm opened its doors, the same family that helped build the modern Gulf Coast is still here, still local, and still independent.

That continuity is something we take great pride in. Much of our business comes from referrals and repeat clients — in many cases we have had the privilege of serving three and even four generations of the same family. We have always operated by a simple philosophy: quality, not quantity — treating every client as fairly and ethically as possible and earning their trust for the long term.