Owner: Melody Burt
Broker/Legal Representative: Harold J. Parris-Best
Consultants: Hellmut Pedersen, Linda Pedersen
Melody Burt
Melody was raised in the Puget Sound area of Washington State and lived in Salt Lake City, Utah for 24 years, until January 2004, when she moved to Bocas del Toro for a new life and started her own real estate company. After 4 years (feels like 10) of Bocas under her belt, she has been so successful that she decided to open an additional office in David, Panama, to serve the Boquete and Chiriqui Provincial areas.
Melody has a husband, 2 grown sons - whom she’s very proud of - and 6 adorable grandchildren back in the U.S. She’s a business woman with over 20 years of experience in auditing and accounting and has traveled the world for fun and as a professional photographer and English teacher.
Besides photography and traveling, Melody has many interests, such as art, nature, non-fiction reading (as reality can knock the socks off fiction any day) and writing. Someday she hopes to write a book about her travels. One of her favorite sayings is, "so many countries, so little time!"
Hellmut Pedersen
Hellmut was born in Denmark and immigrated to Vancouver, Canada where he started a landscaping business from scratch. Speaking no English, he was challenged by living in a new country and starting a new business! Fortunately, success followed for 20 or more years. When his wife Linda came into his life he moved to Honolulu, Hawaii where they bought houses, fixed and then sold them. He was in high demand to remodel many other homes and condos!
A natural sailor stemming from his family background, he sailed the South Pacific on two different occasions in his own sailboat. The second time Linda joined him, and after two years crossing the South Pacific Ocean, they moved to Washington State where he worked as a real estate agent with Century 21, and then with Keller Williams.
A continuing spirit of adventure moved them out of the easy chair in June of 2005. They packed up some belongings, sold the rest, and moved to Panama with only 6 suitcases in hand! They had an opportunity to run a small beautiful beach resort near Portobelo for a year and then moved to Chiriqui. They put their heads together with Melody and helped her open up her latest real estate office addition, Beyond Boquete, in David. He has never looked back!
Linda Pedersen
Originally from northern New Jersey, Linda became fascinated with gemstones and furthered her education in the field of gemology after earning a Math degree. During a 30-year career in diamonds and colored stones she worked at the Gemological Institute of America in New York, then moved to Hawaii, where she set up shop appraising and designing fine jewelry for 8 years. In addition to her fabulous two-year sailing adventure in the South Pacific with her husband, Hellmut, she worked with Lightning Ridge Black opals while in Sydney, Australia. Other travels led her to experience the diamond industry in Johannesburg, S.A. Settling back in the United States, she enjoyed finding beautiful jewelry and gems for Butterfield Auction Gallery in California as their jewelry expert.
Throughout her life, Linda and her husband, bought many houses both in Hawaii and Washington, renovated, and sold them. Sometimes they even made a bed and breakfast out of them.
Their continuing adventures brought them to Panama to manage a small resort on the Caribbean near Portobelo. After it was sold they toured Panama in search for where they needed to be with the mountains and ocean close by, beautiful countryside, less traffic, and friendly Panamanians, they decided Chiriqui is the best! Linda and Hellmut work closely with Melody in running the Beyond Boquete Real Estate office in David.
