HOW IT WAS AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS MILESTONE -- 44 YEARS AGO TODAY

<<My First Company Sign

Today I renewed my Texas Real Estate Broker's license so I can begin my forty-fourth year of service selling Texas real estate.

Dallas' famous Ebby Halliday was my mentor. She was a bit past fifty then and with only one office, and I was twenty-four with a full-head of black hair and unending enthusiasm in front of me.

When I first started, the Multiple Listing Service was a rather new thing, especially in Galveston. Most of us sold our own listings, and most buyer prospects called several Realtors before they found the home they would buy. Rarely did any prospective buyer work with just one agent.

So the ones of us who didn't get the sale would pout for days, but try not to show it. After all, real estate is the one business where if you don't get along with your competitors, you can't succeed.

As co-oping became more of the thing to do, we made appointments with our competitors' offices, then drove by and picked up the keys so we could show the other companies' listings to our prospect. Soon the MLS book was developed, and it began as a loose-leaf notebook with a page for each listing. Hours were spent auditing the thing as houses were added, went into pending, and were sold. It was a nightmare.

More than once my book had become so hopelessly behind that I pitched the whole thing in the trash and bought a new, up-to-date one from the Board office.

Houston was one of the first Texas towns to put its MLS on a computer program. Since I had a company in Houston as well as Galveston, our Houston Montrose office was one of the first to "go modern." Even though the program and system were full of bugs, it still outdid the old manual system.

Soon I asked the Galveston Board if they would be interested in the computer system. A big meeting was held in the club of the old Seahorse Hotel. We gave what we thought was a great presentation showing all of the benefits. But the Galveston old timers didn't want to change. A motion was made by Joe Schlankey that was seconded, that said not only would we not change to the computer system, but with the added caveat that we would never vote on it again. The motion carried by a wide margin. (Years later, Galveston did adopt a computer MLS system.)

Real estate marketing has come quite a ways since it became my profession. Most of the road has been good, and most of the bumps have been overcome. I still bristle, though, at the carpetbaggers who show up with their fast-track licenses in good times, turn the market and the business upside down, and then leave it for us serious old timers to try to get back on track.

Finally, it seems only right that I give credit to Sandy, who was my wife at the time. She designed and drew that wonderful sign and we had it built and lettered by a very talented sign painter named Darlene. Darlene had a tattoo of the Texas star on her wrist and was seriously investing every penny she could get her hands on, with the vision of becoming a millionaire. And she did.

Copyright 2008 - William S. Cherry

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