I'm Jessica Kortum, a Tampa Bay native who helps people buy and sell with patience, honesty, and a real feel for the place I'm lucky to call home.
Jessica is a true Tampa Bay local, raised in the area she proudly calls home. Her passion for helping others—paired with a natural ability to listen and guide with empathy—means every client feels supported from the first conversation to closing day. Whether you're a first-time homebuyer, relocating, upsizing, or downsizing, she's committed to making your experience seamless, rewarding, and truly personalized.
Her teaching background is the cornerstone of how she works: organized, patient, and deeply communicative—breaking complex processes into clear, manageable steps that empower confident, informed decisions.
Jessica specializes in working with families and carries a wealth of knowledge about the schools, parks, and family-friendly amenities throughout Tampa Bay.
From recommending a great local daycare to sharing her favorite weekend spots, she loves helping families feel at home—because she knows what it means to raise one here.
From your first showing to closing day, I help you move fast on the right home and walk away from the wrong one — with clear-eyed advice on price, condition, and what it'll be worth later.
Strategic pricing, photography that stops the scroll, and a marketing plan that puts your home in front of the right buyers — so it sells for more, in less time, with fewer surprises.
New to Tampa? I'll be your local read on neighborhoods, commutes, and schools — and coordinate the whole move remotely so it's handled long before you arrive.
Tampa Bay changes character every few miles, and what surrounds a home shapes how you feel about it long after closing — the walk to coffee on a Saturday, how far the beach really is, whether the street knows each other. Those are the things that decide whether a house becomes somewhere you're happy to live. Here's how I'd describe the places people ask me about most; pick one to see where it sits.
Most of my work happens between Tampa and Sarasota — that's home, and it's where knowing the streets, the schools and the neighbours actually changes the outcome of a deal.
My license covers all of Florida, so a move to Orlando, Naples or the Atlantic side is still something I can take on, and anywhere I'm not the right fit I'll hand you to someone I'd use myself.
Hyde Park's brick streets and Bayshore Boulevard's waterfront walk, with the shops and restaurants of Hyde Park Village close enough to stroll to. Long the most sought-after side of the city.
Craftsman bungalows under old oaks, and a genuinely independent food and brewery scene. Minutes from downtown without downtown density.
Tampa's newest downtown quarter — high-rise condos, the Riverwalk, Amalie Arena and the Water Street build-out. Walkable in a way not much else in the city is.
Established north Tampa built around its lakes, with mature trees and quick access down Dale Mabry. Convenient without being new construction.
A planned community of sidewalks, parks and golf on the northwest edge of the county, with a straight run into town on the Veterans Expressway.
Newer construction and larger lots up around Tampa Palms, with plenty of green space and quick access to I-75.
The growth corridor north of the county line, where new subdivisions, schools and retail keep arriving along I-75. A lot of the region’s newest inventory is here.
Established suburbs east of the city, with lots getting bigger as you move out toward Valrico, and easy access to I-75 and the Selmon Expressway.
More house for the money southeast of the city, much of it recently built, with marina access down toward the bay.
Museums, murals and a waterfront park system, wrapped around a walkable core that keeps getting denser. A different rhythm from Tampa proper.
Small-town main street on the Pinellas side, with the Gulf beaches a short drive west. Quieter, and close to the water.
A walkable downtown of breweries and cafes on the Pinellas Trail, with the causeway out to Honeymoon Island. Unhurried, and very much its own place.
Greek heritage and the sponge docks at the top of Pinellas, with waterfront homes tucked along the bayous.
One of the largest master-planned communities in the country, spread across the Manatee–Sarasota line. Villages, golf, parks and schools inside the community, with new construction still going up.
An old-Florida river town on the Manatee, with the low-rise, no-chain charm of Anna Maria Island out at the Gulf end.
An arts town with a serious cultural calendar, barrier-island beaches at Lido and Siesta Key, and a downtown that stays busy year-round.
A restored streetcar barn on the river, now a food hall with a rooftop bar and a lawn out front. Weekend brunch here is a Tampa institution.
A continuous waterfront path linking parks, museums and restaurants along the Hillsborough River through the middle of downtown.
Tampa's historic Latin quarter - cigar factories turned into restaurants and music venues, brick streets, and resident roosters.
Roller coasters and a genuine zoo on the same ticket, right inside the city. Annual passes are common enough here that families treat it as a regular Saturday.
Home of the Buccaneers and the stadium concert circuit, with the Lightning playing downtown at Amalie Arena and the Rays across the bay.
Consistently one of the easier large airports in the country to get through, and close enough to most of the city to be a genuine selling point.
Undeveloped Gulf shoreline, pine trails and a ferry across to Caladesi Island, just over the causeway from Dunedin.
Wide sugar-white sand and the Gulf sunsets people move here for, roughly a 45-minute drive west from Tampa.
Laid-back Gulf beaches, the landmark pink Don CeSar, and the quiet old-Florida end of the island at Pass-a-Grille.
One of the largest collections of Salvador Dalí’s work anywhere, in a building on the St. Pete waterfront that is worth the trip by itself.
A county park spread over five keys at the mouth of the bay — swimming beaches, kayak trails, camping and a genuine 19th-century fort.
Seven miles of low-rise barrier island with a free trolley running end to end, beach cottages instead of towers, and no chain restaurants in sight.
Beach in the morning, then shops and dinner around St. Armands Circle in the evening — the two are a few minutes apart.
The state art museum of Florida on a bayfront estate in Sarasota, with the circus museum and Ca’ d’Zan mansion on the same grounds.
Quartz sand so fine it stays cool underfoot, just off Sarasota, and regularly ranked among the best beaches in the country.
About ninety minutes northeast, which puts a Disney day trip comfortably within reach — one of the quieter perks of living on this side of the state.
Before real estate, I spent ten years in a classroom. That is not a line on a bio — it is why the questions families ask me are usually ones I have already had to answer for someone else. How school assignment actually works here. Which weekends are worth planning around. Where you can take a four-year-old on a Tuesday when it will not stop raining.
Florida districts assign public schools by attendance boundary, and those boundaries get redrawn more often than people expect. A house two streets over can feed a different school. Florida also has open enrollment and magnet programmes, so the assigned school is a starting point rather than the whole picture.
What I will not do is tell you which schools are good. Ratings are a snapshot, they move year to year, and what fits one child does not fit the next. You are far better served by the district's own data and an actual visit.
What I will do is pull the current boundary for any address you are considering, tell you if it is under review, and make sure you are not relying on a listing description that went stale two redistrictings ago.
Two floors of hands-on everything, built for the under-tens. The one that reliably works on a rainy afternoon.
Manatee rehabilitation, a splash area for when it gets hot, and small enough to do in a morning without a meltdown.
Sharks, a stingray touch tank and an outdoor splash pad included with entry — worth knowing in August.
Coasters for the brave, Sesame Street Safari of Fun for everyone else. Annual passes are common enough here that locals treat it as a Saturday.
A children's museum and a century-old botanical garden, next door to each other. Easy to pair into one trip across the bay.
Two state and county parks with calm, shallow water, shade, and proper facilities — the ones that work with small children rather than against them.
A free splash pad, a playground and two and a half miles of car-free path along the river. The default when you need out of the house and cannot face a ticket price.
Science centre with a planetarium and enough to fill half a day. Skews slightly older than Glazer, so it grows with them.
The mermaid show has run since 1947, and the spring stays 72 degrees all year. An hour north, and unlike anywhere else.
Dates shift a little every year — check the organisers before you plan around one.
This is what evenings look like around Tampa Bay. Let's find you a front-row seat to them.
We sit down — coffee, phone, or video — and map your goals, timeline, and budget. No commitment, just a clear plan and honest numbers.
Selling, we stage, shoot, and price to win. Buying, I get you fully pre-approved and ready to move the moment the right home appears.
Your listing hits every channel that matters, or I surface homes before they're public. Either way, we move with intention.
This is where the right agent earns their keep. I protect your price, your terms, and your peace of mind through every counter.
Inspections, appraisal, paperwork — I quarterback it all so closing day is the easy part. Then I hand you the keys.
Thinking about a move this year — or just curious what your home is worth today? Reach out.