Editorial
Front Page - Friday, November 6, 2009
Realtor balances uncompromising tactics with being human
David Laprad
Some people have one purpose in life. Mars Bonfire, lead singer of Steppenwolf, was born to be wild. George Thorogood, blues rocker extraordinaire, was born to be bad. Aaron Shipley, owner of Remax Properties North, was born to work in real estate.
“My mother has been in real estate since the day I was born,” he says, referring to the renowned Sheila Shipley as he sits down at a conference table in his Hixson office. “I remember going to open houses with her when I was 3. She’d tell me to show people the kitchen.”
Whether or not you agree with Shipley’s math, he’s a major industry force in Chattanooga. According to Shipley, Remax Properties North is the number five real estate company in the city and the number one agency in terms of units sold (even though some of his competitors have hundreds more agents than he does, he adds). In addition, he says his two dozen or so agents claim annual sales totaling an average of $2.5 million per Realtor. Currently, he says he has around 100 listings, 25 of which are pending.
To handle the load, Shipley employs a team of full-time staffers, including a marketing person, a closing coordinator and a leads coordinator. He also has several buyers’ agents that work under his direct supervision.
Although these efforts represent a significant amount of work for Shipley, he has his fingers in many other pies. From designing and building homes, to managing his residential and commercial rental properties, to flipping about two dozen houses a year “just for fun,” it seems there’s no corner of the market where he can’t be found.
It comes as no surprise, then, that Shipley has a reputation for being a tough businessman, with one competitor calling him a shark. He takes the comments in stride, however, and even considers the latter remark a compliment.
“When you’re at the top, you’re the target. Everyone is out to get you,” he says. “That’s fine. Bring it on. It’s more motivation for me.”
Motivation has never been an issue with Shipley. As a freshman in high school, he became interested in pre-med and signed up to go on rotation with a doctor. After two nights, he decided the medical field
wasn’t for him and switched to business.
By the time Shipley graduated from high school, he’d earned the equivalent of an associate degree. When he asked his mother for a job, though, she told him he didn’t have enough education to work for her.
While Shipley’s mother and father had the means to pay for his college education, they wanted him to work for it instead. By taking a full class load year round while working the swing shift at Dupont, Shipley was able to earn bachelor’s degrees in human resources and management, with minors in finance and marketing, in two years.
“When I got out, I told my mom I was ready to work for her. She told me her clients deserved a certain level of experience, which I didn’t have,” says Shipley. “She also said if she had a weakness, it was finance, so she wanted me to learn about that.”
Shipley went to work for Well Fargo Finance and learned the ins and outs of consumer finance, giving him a solid base for his future career in real estate. Later, a mortgage company recruited Shipley, but his mom still wouldn’t do business with her son. “She told me I didn’t have enough business for her clients,” he says. “It was tough training.”
Shipley worked every level of mortgaging, from processing, to servicing, to underwriting, and over time, became quite successful, winning awards and making “good money.”
Then came the day Shipley’s mother called and said she needed him at Remax Properties North. “I told her I had too much education and experience to work for her,” he says, bursting out laughing.
Shipley did join forces his mother, though, and together, they built one of the top real estate companies in Chattanooga. Shipley is now owner, while his mother is principal broker.
If there’s one word that defines Remax Properties North, it’s “selective.” From bringing on only experienced agents with established clients, to only taking certain listings, the Shipleys appear to have built a watertight ship in which to sail.
“I don’t list what I can’t sell,” Shipley says unapologetically. “And I’m in a unique position in that I don’t have to. You have to be selective because taking a listing when the seller wants too much affects your integrity.”
Despite being choosy, the Shipleys have also diversified the services Remax Properties North offers to the point where there are few aspects of the industry the company doesn’t touch.
Operating at such a high level of activity requires a lot of energy, which is something else Shipley doesn’t lack. He talks at a rapid-fire clip, relating stories through brief snippets of dialogue he and other people exchanged and jumping from topic to topic without coming up for air. He says he’s more comfortable talking about Remax Properties North than himself, and even answers questions about his life in a way that leads back to his company. Indeed, as a self-professed workaholic who thrives in a fast-paced environment, Shipley seems to boil down to his work.
When asked how he’s able to show an interest in his customers with so much going on, though, Shipley takes an actual breath and tells a story about a woman he helped.
“I like to get a deal done. But that’s not what’s most precious to me,” he says. “A lady called. She said she was calling about a house, and I could tell she was scared. She told me she was lost and didn’t know what to do.
“I told her she needed more than a home, she needed a friend, and that I had all the time in the world for her. That was the furthest thing from the truth, but it calmed her down.
“While we were talking, she told me she wanted to get her son into a good youth group. Well, my brother is a youth minister. She also told me her son plays in a band. Well, my brother runs a band. So I told her we were going to take care of her family first and then deal with the housing situation.
“She said she couldn’t find the words to thank us. That’s what I find satisfying.”
Shipley tells more stories about his interactions with individual customers, including one about how he was able to get a lady on a tight budget more house for her money by seeing things other people in the real estate chain missed.
While Shipley makes a convincing case for having a greater interest in the human aspect of doing business than his reputation would suggest, he clearly relishes telling the story about how he sold a house that had been on the market for two years in 40 days.
“I got two bids on that house. The seller had tried to switch from one of my competitors to another company, and the second company recommended he call me.”
Shipley estimates he has another 30 or 40 years in the industry, so his competitors might as well get used to him being around — and he might as well get used to the scuttlebutt.
“I don’t care what you say about Aaron,” he says, smiling. “You can call him a shark, but he’s representing his clients. He’ll never cheat you,
though.”
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