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Today, January 31st 2009, I just got back from sharing some time with my dad, Thomas S. Osborne, and my youngest son, Scott. Not sure if Scott will ever be in the real estate business, but I still think Dad was a real estate legend.
Dad joined the family business, A.H.M. Graves Company, in 1955, just a month before I was born. My grandfather, dad’s father-in-law, was Mr. Graves. Dad was one of several family members from his generation in the company and he was just as determined to succeed as my grandpa was determined to make the real estate and building business tough for each of these guys. Dad looked for unique ways to contribute, and he did it. The company was primarily a home building company and the brokerage of real estate was primarily the way to facilitate the sale of their new home specs. Dad had the vision to develop the brokerage side of the company, hire people who were generally young and enthusiastic, helped them be the best they could be professionally, and you know what, those folks became the next wave of real estate legends.
Now, fast forwarding to today, I know that my blog site, www.BuyAndSell101.com is in its infancy, and I want it to be a fantastic tool for buyers, sellers, and other agents; but I’m in my 31st year of the residential real estate business and I wanted to share a little bit about how I got here.
Dad was one of the first agents in the city of Indianapolis to sell a million dollars of real estate. That’s pretty amazing when you consider the typical home on my street was $13,000 to $18,000. Dad was one of the pioneers of the Multiple Listing Service; a cooperative association of Real Estate Brokers to share listing information so that a rising tide raises all ships. Can you imagine what the real estate market could have been like today without this service? Recently, the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors changed the name to the BLC, Brokers’ Listing Cooperative, to better describe the source and beneficiary of the information. Also, I’ve got to tell you that another member of the Graves family legacy helped redefine this transition and that is my first cousin and Immediate Past-President of MIBOR, David Bickell.
As a kid, I would meet some of his clients and I would try to be involved at any level. Turning on the lights for Sunday open houses, cutting the grass for the spec homes, and basically any odd job I could get in the family business, even if it involved a broom, dust pan, or a fresh box of light bulbs. I would try to absorb info about the transaction process and learn how he marketed both the company and the properties of our clients. He gave me tid-bits from how to take the best photos of a property, to how get a buyer financed so that it’s best for that client, through ways to get the exterior of the home looking its best.
So today, as you hear my suggestions to help make your house the most marketable property for the buyers to consider, or you hear me talk about buyer options that will have an impact for today and years in the future, you now know about my initial real estate hero, Tom Osborne. Thanks Dad.
Dad joined the family business, A.H.M. Graves Company, in 1955, just a month before I was born. My grandfather, dad’s father-in-law, was Mr. Graves. Dad was one of several family members from his generation in the company and he was just as determined to succeed as my grandpa was determined to make the real estate and building business tough for each of these guys. Dad looked for unique ways to contribute, and he did it. The company was primarily a home building company and the brokerage of real estate was primarily the way to facilitate the sale of their new home specs. Dad had the vision to develop the brokerage side of the company, hire people who were generally young and enthusiastic, helped them be the best they could be professionally, and you know what, those folks became the next wave of real estate legends.
Now, fast forwarding to today, I know that my blog site, www.BuyAndSell101.com is in its infancy, and I want it to be a fantastic tool for buyers, sellers, and other agents; but I’m in my 31st year of the residential real estate business and I wanted to share a little bit about how I got here.
Dad was one of the first agents in the city of Indianapolis to sell a million dollars of real estate. That’s pretty amazing when you consider the typical home on my street was $13,000 to $18,000. Dad was one of the pioneers of the Multiple Listing Service; a cooperative association of Real Estate Brokers to share listing information so that a rising tide raises all ships. Can you imagine what the real estate market could have been like today without this service? Recently, the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors changed the name to the BLC, Brokers’ Listing Cooperative, to better describe the source and beneficiary of the information. Also, I’ve got to tell you that another member of the Graves family legacy helped redefine this transition and that is my first cousin and Immediate Past-President of MIBOR, David Bickell.
As a kid, I would meet some of his clients and I would try to be involved at any level. Turning on the lights for Sunday open houses, cutting the grass for the spec homes, and basically any odd job I could get in the family business, even if it involved a broom, dust pan, or a fresh box of light bulbs. I would try to absorb info about the transaction process and learn how he marketed both the company and the properties of our clients. He gave me tid-bits from how to take the best photos of a property, to how get a buyer financed so that it’s best for that client, through ways to get the exterior of the home looking its best.
So today, as you hear my suggestions to help make your house the most marketable property for the buyers to consider, or you hear me talk about buyer options that will have an impact for today and years in the future, you now know about my initial real estate hero, Tom Osborne. Thanks Dad.
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