We built the brokerage we wish had called us.
Earnest CRE is a licensed Florida commercial real estate brokerage based in Jacksonville. We broker two things — retail shopping centers and land — and our principals own and operate both: nine shopping centers across the Southeast and a working farm.
Portfolio and transaction figures reflect the principals’ family holdings and combined transaction history; Florida licensure is our principal’s, held for over a decade.
The portfolio came first.
Sam Bonnardel has been licensed in Florida for over a decade, in a family real estate business built on owning and operating. Before Earnest existed, the family built a portfolio spanning 120+ buildings and $500M+ in transactions — nine shopping centers owned and operated across the Southeast, plus multi-family, hotel, and industrial assets, and a working farm the family still runs today.
He’s managed dozens of rehabilitations, negotiated the leases, fought the reassessments, replaced the roofs, and watched the water table. Those lessons — learned on the owner’s side of the table, with the family’s own money at risk — are what Earnest brings to every assignment.
Why a brokerage?
Because owners deserve brokers who’ve carried the risk themselves — and who work every deal like their own money is in it. We start with the number we believe, even when it costs us the assignment.
The name
Earnest money is a buyer’s promise to close — real money, put up front, at risk. Our name is the same promise. Straightforward and earnest, start to close.
Sam Bonnardel
Principal. Owner-operator of the portfolio behind every opinion we give.
Kenneth Bonnardel
Broker of Record. Holds the firm’s Florida license — compliance, contracts, and closings.
Marketing & Research
A full-time engine behind every listing — packaging, comps, and systematic buyer outreach.