When Realtor Ian O’Shea arrives at work, he parks outside the White Oak Building – a quaint blink-and-you’ll-miss-it edifice located on a 25 mph stretch through the heart of historic Ringgold, Georgia – and then steps into a small, trimly furnished space containing a cluster of offices.
O’Shea’s still newish real estate venture – Real Agents Realty Company – occupies only a few of the rooms. But after 33 years in the business, it’s all he and the five agents who work for him needs, he says.
“I’ve learned you don’t need 10,000 square feet to sell homes,” O’Shea says. “We’re not paying for any wasted space.”
O’Shea, 60, apparently doesn’t need to be in the thick of a large market, either, to be pleased with the amount of business he’s doing. While he’s always operated in modestly sized markets – he’s managed brokerages in Rome and Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia – his two years in Ringgold have been the best of his career, he says.
“I opened this up figuring I’d be fine if no one came with me. I wanted a small operation with low overhead that wasn’t crazy, stupid busy or buried under corporate weight.”
O’Shea learned being small has other perks when the Catoosa County Chamber of Commerce named Real Agents Realty its Small Business of the Year for 2022.
He says he believes his drive to provide outstanding results to his clients placed his brokerage on the local Chamber’s radar.
“My first broker said, ‘You have plenty of money, Ian. What motivates you to work as hard as you do?’ I told him, ‘More than anything, I want a thank you at the end of a transaction.’
“My client sending me a thank you card after we close, my client thanking me again on the street months later, and my client telling their friends how much they appreciate what I did for them – that’s what motivates me.”
To support his claim, O’Shea points to a shelf beside his desk that’s packed with thank you cards he says he’s received since opening Real Agents Realty.
“I love that,” he says. “I live for that.”
At some point, O’Shea realized the word “realty” could form an acronym that reflected his quest for gratitude. This time, he points to a large sign that’s leaning against a wall to his right that contains the phrase, “Real estate agents love thank yous.”
O’Shea was so pleased with his marketing coup, he trademarked it.
“When a client says, ‘Thank you,’ I know I’ve done my job. And that’s important. If you’re trying to find a house for your family, or if someone in your family died and you need to sell their house, or if you earned a raise and you want to upgrade, it’s the biggest thing going on in your life.”
O’Shea says he began to cultivate his work ethic early in life. Long before settling into a career of representing homebuyers and sellers, the East Ridge native studied electrical engineering and drafting at Chattanooga State Community College and then joined the Air Force, where he studied avionics communications and became an airborne communications technician.
After completing his tour of duty with the USAF, O’Shea secured work with then home entertainment giant Magnavox. Initially, the company tasked him with making its new infrared remote controls ergonomic and easy to use. But it quickly switched him to sales.
“They said they noticed I enjoyed explaining how the product worked,” O’Shea recalls. “I didn’t just understand what it did, I also knew how it did it.”
Although O’Shea had never envisioned being in sales, he rolled up his sleeves and began opening stores for Magnavox’s home entertainment division. When the company – which originally moved him to more cities than the Air Force had – offered to let him settle in a single location, he picked Rome.
“Some people thought I needed to have my head examined,” he laughs. “But it was close to home, all my friends were here and it was easy to meet someone halfway to play golf.”
Proximity to the Chattanooga area wasn’t the only reason O’Shea picked Rome. Rather, he’d gazed into a proverbial crystal ball and seen a tantalizing opportunity.
“There was a lot of undeveloped property there,” he remembers. “I saw it as my first real chance to get into real estate.”
At first, O’Shea owned a Magnavox store and worked parttime in real estate. When he realized real estate was far more lucrative, he left the home entertainment business behind.
That was 1989. By the eve of the recession 20 years later, O’Shea had become the managing broker of Garden Lakes Realty in Rome and was in charge of 28 agents. As the sun set on a real estate boom and darkness settled over the industry, O’Shea decided to return to the Chattanooga area.
“The economy was going backwards, and I was going backwards, and I needed to figure it out for me, not me and the 28 agents I was responsible for,” he explains. “So, I returned home. I had one house under construction, 13 rental properties and a big house that was losing value – and I sold everything. I made good on some and not on others.”
Ten years later, O’Shea found himself managing about two dozen agents at Crye-Leike Realtors North Georgia in Fort Oglethorpe. Believing less would mean more – that is, less responsibility and fewer corporate expectations would mean more freedom and a more appealing quality of life – O’Shea stepped down and opened Real Agents Realty, his smallest undertaking to date but also his most gratifying, he says.
O’Shea has placed Chamber award in an unpretentious room where his agents do closings since the honor belongs to everyone, he says.
He won’t even take credit for training his award-winning crew, as he took on only experienced agents and self-starters when he launched Real Agents Realty.
“I decided to not have anyone who couldn’t figure things out on their own,” he reveals. “I wanted just a handful of real agents. And then I thought, ‘That’d be a great name for a company – Real Agents Realty.’”
When O’Shea owned the Magnavox shop, he sold it to focus on real estate. But his current parttime enterprises cost him money rather than earn income, so he’s going to hold on to his business.
Fortunately, being the owner will make it easy for him to leave his office and play a round of golf – his first parttime enterprise.
It could be difficult to have a conversation with O’Shea without hearing about his favorite sport. He mentions golf in reference to living in Rome, Georgia, he brings it up again when he discusses hitting the greens with one of his company’s agents, and it gives him an opportunity to reminisce about the more than two dozen friends from the Air Force who still gather together to play in the annual Crowne Invitational.
This, in turn, gives O’Shea an opportunity to brandish the trophy he received for winning the event in 2019. As luck would have it, he displays it in his office.
“The Crowne Invitational is comprised mostly of active duty, prior service and retired military servicemen that have common connections by family, friendship or love of the game,” he says as he clasps the prize. “And it’s very competitive.”
There are other trophies in O’Shea’s collection of accolades. An avid car enthusiast since his father took him to car shows as a boy, he’s the proud owner of a 1951 MG TD and a 1971 MGB.
His ‘51 vehicle has won several events, including Best of Show and Best in Class in the 2022 Red Door British Car Show and Best in Class at the Southern British Motorcar Festival.
“It was also honored at MG International Atlantic City in 2021 for being driven the farthest to the event,” O’Shea adds. “The round trip was about 1,800 fairly eventful miles.”
O’Shea has owned many other models, including a 1971 MG Midget, a 1979 MG Midget, an MG TD-8888 and several others. But as with golf, his passion for cars is as much about his camaraderie with club friends, especially British auto owners, as it is the vehicles.
“We all experience the same driving thrills [and] similar maintenance issues and learn from others’ experiences,” O’Shea tells City Scope Magazine in a March 2022 story. “The bond between these gentlemen and ladies typically lasts a lifetime.”
When O’Shea isn’t working, playing golf or polishing his MG TD, he can be found spending time with his wife, Michelle Brock O’Shea, or enjoying their life in Ringgold.
“I love it here,” he says. “I’m plugged in.”
In other words, O’Shea has no intention of moving elsewhere anytime soon. Rather, he says he hopes to experience more of the best years he’s ever had in real estate in Ringgold and continue to collect thank you cards from clients.
“When you get married, you buy a house; when you have kids, you buy a bigger house; and when you want your kids to attend a better school, you buy a house in another neighborhood. When you lose your job, you move; when you get divorced, you move; and when you land a new job, you move. Life makes real estate transactions happen, so it’s important we do our job well.”