Peggy Pratt Calle didn’t let the pandemic stop her from doing what she loves, selling homes. Calle, a broker with Century 21 North East, sold the highest-priced piece of real estate in her 24-year career this year: a $1.7 million five-unit building in East Boston. Remarkably, she closed more transactions in 2020 than the previous year.

“Real estate has given me the flexibility to be present, involved and set a good example for my children that hard work does pay off,” Calle says.

As a child, Calle always dreamed of owning her own home. In 1996, she became licensed, initially working in real estate as a side gig. “I managed a bar, opened up two restaurants, but nothing fulfilled me like creating home ownership for others,” she says. She started out in rentals and closed her first transaction at age 21, when she purchased a home for herself. “I fell in love with the process and never looked back,” Calle says. Now she assists first-time buyers and investors seeking single-family homes, condos and multi-unit properties in the Greater Boston area and the North Shore. “I have a six-person team, which helps me deal with buyers and sellers in a more one-on-one way, and obviously I produce more business by delegating,” she says. “I also enjoy mentoring new agents and young ladies.”

Calle is honored to serve on the board of directors for the Greater Boston Association of Realtors, as president of the Lynnfield Rotary Club and as a national coach for the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP). Since 2018, she has ranked among NAHREP’s top 250 members in the nation by volume. She is also a yearly recipient of the Double Centurion award, an honor that only 4% of all Century 21 agents receive.