Different things can make a new town feel like home. Depending on the person, it might be the kindness of a friendly neighbor, getting to know the streets and stores, or becoming involved in the community.
For Eddie Floyd, that moment came as she stepped through the doors of what is now Ringgold United Methodist Church.
“I grew up in Chattanooga, and my husband grew up in LaFayette. We moved here as a compromise,” she says. “I wanted to get our girls in church because we hadn’t been active in LaFayette.
I was raised in that environment, and I wanted our daughters to feel loved, as I had felt loved. When I walked through the doors of the church, I knew Ringgold was home.”
Thirty-four years later, Ringgold, Ga., is still home. Floyd, the managing broker of Kinard Realty, a Coldwell Banker affiliate located in the heart of downtown Ringgold, loves the small town feel, yet being only a short drive away from Chattanooga.
“You really get the small community feel here,” she says. “People stop in the grocery store and talk for 15 minutes, and when your children accomplish something, everyone hears about it. The mailman even brings my mail here instead of taking it to my house because he knows this is where I am.
“We’re a bedroom community. People move here because of the good schools, the slow-paced environment, and being able to get more house for their money. You can be in a major medical facility in Chattanooga in 15 minutes, but at the same time, your neighbors will watch your house and feed your dog while you’re on vacation.”
Floyd not only changed home towns 34 years ago, she also changed jobs. She’d done office work for a number of years, but the process of purchasing a new home sparked her interest in the process. Then a friend who was attending Dalton College suggested they take a real estate class together. The friend didn’t like it; Floyd did.
“God had a plan, and everything fell into place,” she says.
Floyd has spent her entire real estate career, which now spans more than a quarter of a century, with Coldwell Banker. She began as an agent, started managing the office she currently oversees in 2001, and has since earned her broker’s license. Her long history as a Realtor has not only given her the experience she needs to lead a group of agents, it’s also given her a client list long enough to allow her to rely solely on repeat business and referrals.
“I don’t take corporate referrals or call-ins; I work mostly with repeat clients and personal referrals,” she says. “I signed two contracts last week. One was with a client whose house I sold seven years ago, and now they’re coming back, and the other was with a son of a good friend.”
Floyd’s “sphere of influence,” as she calls it, might be impressive, but she tells her agents theirs are just as big; they simply need to tap into it. “When I’m training my agents, they’ll tell me they don’t have a sphere of influence, but I’ll tell them they do, they just don’t recognize it,” she says. “It’s the people who go to your church, the people who associate with your children, and the people your spouse works with.”
Floyd says she enjoys her work, even though real estate can be taxing at times.
“It can be stressful when a property doesn’t appraise, or a buyer doesn’t work out, or agents have conflicts,” she says. “But it’s never boring. It’s always different, even after 25 years, and I like that. I also enjoy meeting people I’ve barely known, like someone I’ve sat with during worship, and reconnecting with past acquaintances.”
Floyd also likes helping people who otherwise might not be able to undertake something as complex as a real estate transaction.
“Earlier this year, I had two closings with women in their mid- to late-eighties who’d gone to live with their children,” she says. “I loved hearing their stories. One of the ladies sold the house her dad built in 1936. Helping her felt good.”
Floyd has always strived to help others through her work as a Realtor, whether her efforts have involved something hands on and personal, as with the two elderly clients, or more generalized endeavors, such as helping to protect the rights of property owners through the local real estate association. She was an active member of the Northwest Georgia Council of Realtors before it became a part of the Greater Chattanooga Association of Realtors, and over the years has consistently served in leadership positions within the organization. “I have control issues,” she says, laughing. “I’m like that with everything; if I see a need, I’m open to doing something about it.”
Floyd is currently serving as president of the Northwest Georgia Council of Realtors, which gives her a strong voice on local matters. It allows her to help the local real estate community provide the best possible service to clients. One hot button topic facing the council is the use of a form originally designed for use in Tennessee, where real estate laws differ.
“Tennessee allows a seller to be exempt from a seller’s disclosure under certain conditions, but Georgia doesn’t,” she says. “If you know any latent facts about a property, you’re supposed to disclose them. At some point, someone adopted the Tennessee exemption form. But it’s not a state form, so we have a qualified educator from the forms committee coming [to our next breakfast meeting] to address that and some other habits we need to quit.”
(The meeting will take place Thursday, May 15 at Fort Oglethorpe 1st Baptist Church, located at 2645 Lafayette Road, beginning at 8:30. Real estate educator Tom Gillette will be speaking about the Seller’s Property Disclosure Statement and why Georgia does not allow a disclosure exemption. He will also discuss why an agent cannot be a designated agent when selling another company’s listing. Breakfast will be sponsored by Regions Mortgage.)
Floyd also believes in being an active member of her community and church. She teaches an adult Sunday School class, and in the past led a church youth group, spearheaded two Girl Scout troops while her daughters were growing up, and mentored students at Ringgold Middle School. Even though Floyd looks like she could still take on the world – and sounds that way, too, when talking about her work with the local council of Realtors – she doesn’t have the energy she did before her successful battle against breast cancer beginning in 2010.
All told, 2010 was a challenging year for Floyd. “My dad was diagnosed with cancer, too, and we moved my mom closer to us to help her. Dad had been staying at a nursing home, but he was able to come home for a few weeks before he passed away. Then the tornado hit that spring.”
The year wasn’t a complete wash for Floyd; 2010 was also the year her first “grand baby” was born. That young boy is now four, and gives Floyd an excuse to leave the office and set her phone down long enough to catch her breath. “We have him once a month, and always try do something special with him, like going to the zoo, or Lake Winnie, or the aquarium,” she says.
Floyd and her husband, Jimmy, a lifelong grocer, also enjoy going to cruise-ins in Pigeon Forge. But duty is always calling, and Floyd never fails to answer, even when she has to do a bit of juggling.
“I recently had an open house at our house [the house my husband and I own], so Jimmy took my mom out for a banana split. He also took the dog. When I saw her later, she said, ‘You have the sweetest little dog.’ I laughed and said, ‘I thought you were going to say I have the sweetest husband.’”
Floyd’s brokerage is located in a tiny converted house on the main thoroughfare of a small town. But her cancer survival, her continued diligence as a broker, and her ongoing service to the Realtors in her region tell a story larger than outward appearances might suggest she has in her. That’s what happens when someone makes a place their home, and then works just as hard to make it home for others.