Editorial
Front Page - Friday, February 25, 2011
Commercial Realtor loves his job, life in Chattanooga
David Laprad
John Healy is a Chattanooga-based commercial real estate agent. His firm, Sperry Van Ness, worked with Olan Mills to sell its facility to Chattanooga State University.
- David Laprad
Realtor John Healy enjoys talking about commercial real estate. Ask him about his life away from work, and he might cross his arms tight against his chest and offer a polite but reserved response. Get him talking about his profession, though, and he’ll spring to life like a wind up toy.
Seated in a conference room in the Republic Centre, he leans forward and shares a simple fact: “I love what I do.”
“Love” seems like a strong word for a commercial Realtor, but Healy is adamant.
“When the market is good, it’s a lot of fun. When the market is bad, I still appreciate the challenge,” he says.
Still, how does one grow to love commercial real estate? It’s easy to understand how a Realtor can be drawn to residential work, with its focus on aesthetic and emotional appeal, but how does one get up in the morning excited about representing the buyers and sellers of an empty office building? Simple: the work suits the personality of the Realtor.
“Residential real estate is all about emotions, and I don’t deal well with subjectivity. Buying a
house is an emotional decision:
it’s about where you’re going to
live and raise your kids. Commer-cial real estate isn’t subjective; it’s objective. It’s about finding what works for your business. There are no emotions involved,” he says.
It’s not that Healy has an empty space where his heart should be. He’s passionate about a number of things other than his work, including his two sons. But over the past three years, as the down economy has impacted the business sector in profound ways, Healy’s objectivity has enabled him to keep his mind clear and centered on finding solutions.
For example, Healy says his job is to help buyers or tenants meet the needs of their business, and to help owners or landlords find people whose needs they can meet. However, when banks started clinging to their money, he was forced to search for alternative means of financing.
“We had to come up with way of getting around the current lending situation. It’s difficult to get a loan right now because the underwriting process has become very stringent. And even if you can get the money, the down payments are substantial. So an owner can choose to take a down payment on his own and keep the note. That’s better than sitting on a property, and sometimes, sellers can get more money that way than if they sold their property through conventional financing,” Healy says.
Healy says few owners
are aware of this option. Likewise, the majority of buyers in Chattanooga don’t know a commercial practitioner such as Healy will represent their interests for free, so they frequently end up negotiating sales contracts and leases on their own. Healy says it would be better to have an experienced professional tend to that process.
“If you’re a buyer or tenant, then you can hire a commercial real estate professional, and 99.9 percent of the time, you won’t have to pay him for his services. Instead, the listing agent will split his fee with your representative,” Healy says.
In addition, a buyer can get a better deal than he would on his own when a skilled broker negotiates on his behalf, Healy says. That’s what happened when Healy represented the buyer of the site where Cameron Harbor, a waterfront development near downtown Chattanooga, is being built. Healy’s client was so pleased with his work, he allowed Healy to turn the property around and sell it.
Although Healy seems to have been born for a career in commercial real estate, there was a time when he didn’t know what he wanted to do.
He grew up in Chattanooga, graduated from Boyd-Buchanan School and attended David Lipscomb University in Nashville to obtain a business degree. Upon obtaining his bachelor’s degree, he went to work in Music City for what he calls a “professional employer organization.” Healy returned home a year later when the company allowed him to open an office in Chattanooga.
Through his connections on that job, Healy became the director of sales and marketing of a local accounting firm. When an outside entity acquired that company, he decided to acquire a real estate license, as he’d always wanted to own his own company. However, while earning his credentials, he found out Realtors have to practice for three years before they can open their own establishment, so he set out to find a partner.
“George Elder was on his own, and at the time had been in the business for 30 years, so he had a good reputation. I talked with other firms, but working with him made sense, so I beat down his door, and he agreed to see me,” Healy says.
Elder had worked with other people before and wasn’t keen to do it again, but four months later, the pair finally reached an agreement whereby they’d work together for 18 months, and if they clicked, then they’d start another company and continue their partnership.
That was ten years ago. They’re still working together today.
Healy keeps busy when he’s not on the job, too. He spends as much time as he can with his two sons, who are 6- and 9-years-old, and coaches youth baseball and soccer teams. Healy also hunts every chance he gets, donates his time to endeavors at Boyd-Buchanan, and serves as the president of the Commercial Realtors Council Board.
Walking into his office, Healy calls attention to a picture of his boys decked out in hunting gear. To his other side, a large window affords him a view of downtown Chattanooga, where he does a lot of business.
While he’s spent more time talking about what’s outside his window than about what sits on a shelf to the right of his desk, it’s evident he cares a great deal about both.
In fact, when it comes to describing how Healy feels about his work and his children, “love” is the perfect word.
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