Our Team

Laura Josephson has a Masters in Early Childhood Education and Childhood Education, Graduate Certificate in Infant Family Mental Health, and a Bachelors in Fine Art/ Education. As a dedicated education professional with over 20 years’ experience in the education sector she decided in her free time to begin investing in real estate with her husband buying, renovating, and selling homes. Home design and decorating is a hobby Laura enjoys. She has since used that experience working with real estate professionals in the Sarasota Area coordinating and managing back-office operations, dabbling into staging prospective properties and selling real estate with top real estate teams in the Sarasota/Manatee market. This venture has allowed Laura to gain a better and more thorough understanding about the real estate industry, specifically on the Suncoast in the luxury residential market.

Prior to transitioning to the education field Laura hailed from the marketing world with over 7 years experiences and was part of the team launching the Priceless Campaign with MasterCard International. Most recently Laura is responsible for overseeing the Parenting Education Program for a prominent Nonprofit in Sarasota.

Laura grew up in New York and has called Florida her new home since 2010. She vacationed in the Sarasota area since 2004 with her family, where they fell in love with the Lakewood Ranch area which prompted their move. She has been married for over 26 years and has two handsome and successful sons. Family is the single and most important influence in Laura’s life and what she attributes to her success. As a Realtor, her priority is to ensure a client’s happiness. She listens to clients wants and needs to achieve the best outcome in every transaction and she strives to ensure that the home buying or selling process is fun, easy and stress-free.

Finding the right REALTOR® can be uncomfortable when you are unfamiliar with what the market has to offer. A real estate professional dedicated to making your purchase or sale come to fruition, Paula Patten can ease that tension for you.

Originally from Massachusetts, Paula earned a degree in fashion merchandising from the University of Massachusetts at Mount Ida. After spending years as a successful catalog buyer, she made the decision to stay home and raise her three boys. As an active member of the local community, Paula spent 19 years running parent volunteer organizations while indulging in her passion for dance by teaching lessons to both children and adults.

After relocating to Florida, Paula tied together the common threads of her educational, fashion, buying and financial backgrounds by launching her career in real estate. In her 9 years as a Florida resident, she has immersed herself in real estate, as well as the area and her community. Her passion, drive and warm demeanor, along with her ability to open and honestly communicate with her customers, has been the key to Paula’s success in the business.

Paula lives in Lakewood Ranch with her three sons, who are now in college and high school.

A dedicated professional, Kathy McNeil brings years of local expertise to her role as executive assistant to Laura Stavola. After living in New York and New Jersey, Kathy moved to Florida in 2005 to be closer to family. Her business acumen was shaped by decades of experience working at JPMorgan Chase as a senior operations associate and at a law firm in Tampa as a post closer in the REO closing department. Since making the transition to real estate, Kathy is thrilled to work with a renowned top producer to provide world-class service to customers in the local market.