To say these have been challenging times, would be the understatement of the century! Especially in California, one of the hardest hit areas, where we have substantially felt the economic downturn resonate in all levels of our real estate markets.
This month’s blog highlights our wonderful client, Barbara Hardacre, Real Estate Agent with Pacific Union Real Estate in Montclair. When I tell you that Barbara left her HR management position in banking for a new career as a real estate agent, you may wonder if this is a matter of jumping out of the pot and into the frying pan! But as you’ll read, using skills learned through her years of work in HR, Barbara has made a success of this new venture during times that most of us would find impossible to do. Through sound, realistic advice, which she shares with us, she has become a very successful and sought after advisor to her clients during these tough times. She also followed her own advice, making a critical real estate move that benefited her family, which she’ll share with you as well.
Barbara Hardacre
Barbara, please tell us a bit about yourself, and your background.
I am a native Californian who grew up in Southern California, came to UC Berkeley in the 60’s and pretty much remained in the north. Unlike many Northern Californians and most of my transplanted Southern Californian friends, I have a great love and respect for the Southland, and still consider it home, on some level. I returned to Cal to get a teaching credential at a time when being an educator was the most obvious career path for women, but also at a time when there were no jobs in the Bay Area. If I wanted to move to Visalia there were infinite opportunities, but I decided I should consider alternate paths that were more local.
I applied to the management training program at Security Pacific Bank, a Los Angeles based bank, which had recently made forays into Northern California. At the time, all women applicants were required to take a typing test. Imagine – not guys, just gals! While I knew how to type, I froze on the test and failed miserably. I was "forgiven" because the hiring people thought I was related to the then President whose name was Hartnack. Lucky me! Interestingly, my grandfather was Vice President at Security National Bank in Los Angeles many years prior, but the legacy connection was never made. I worked in branch operations, lending, and was on my way to being a commercial lender, when the head of Personnel (precursor to "Human Resources") asked me to be her assistant. After turning her down twice, I was told I had no choice. Thus launched a long career in Personnel/HR, which subsequently included two stints at Wells Fargo and one with Sanwa Bank.
We are seeing a lot of our clients make career shifts later in life. I think this is a relatively new trend that has been forged by our generation. Tell us about your career path and how you decided to shake it up a bit by leaving the traditional corporate banking life behind and taking a different journey.
I found banking a repetitive slog of mergers and acquisitions. The attendant "downsizing," spending endless hours analyzing "best practices," countless conference calls, and a single-focus on all the enormous efforts required by a merger of large institutions, extracted a toll. Cultures blended in good and bad ways, and the combined institutions became behemoth. In 2000, I was asked by a prior senior executive at Bank of America to join him as his Director of HR at a small interactive television company in Alameda. It was a great experience. I was right at ground zero, not conducting HR remotely, but sharing the same offices with 140 employees who were young, technically savvy, and non-conforming. I left prior to their being bought out.
What were the deciding factors for you in pursuing a career in real estate and what kind of research did you do before choosing your new profession?
I had been encouraged for years by a local broker who was also a friend to get my license. I spoke to a number of agencies in the Montclair Village, and really researched by talking with people. I spoke not only with broker/managers and agents, but also with mortgage brokers. Despite an ever evaporating memory, I seem to have a very good retention for houses, and can describe them with a reasonable amount of detail after several years of having seen them. There were obvious cross-over skills relative to HR. I believe I was able to understand people’s issues relative to housing, and respect them sufficiently while also counseling them on the goods and bads of the transaction.
Looking back, what might you have done a bit differently when launching into your new field?
I had taken off rapidly in terms of my book of business – it was a hot market, and I benefited for several years. However, I needed to concentrate on my marketing efforts – as in marketing MYSELF, and to this day need to spend more time and money on this aspect of the job. I have a keen sense for how to market a house, and a dedication to follow-up, both of which I feel benefit my clientele. And frankly, this is the fun of it for me. But the discipline for me will be expanding and enhancing my marketing.
After your parents passed away, you were left with the daunting role of managing inherited trust assets on behalf of family, including the family home in Corona del Mar. Yet with the collapse of real estate prices, you were still able to sell that property, buy a lovely home in the same community for your brother, while still preserving your share of the assets for other purposes. Walk us through your planning and the process that led you to that successful result in very difficult times for the California housing market.
I knew that the family home, where my brother had been living, was a true "fixer-upper" in all senses of the words! The house appraised at less than we had hoped, but the good news was that the house was paid for, and in an area that historically has high price points even for neglected properties. My brother and I were very realistic in pricing it, yet even so, the offer we accepted was below asking. The benefit to us in accepting this offer was that it was all cash and had a short close. The key in this transaction was that we had purchased a townhome at a very good price in a very good area in advance of our sale. By planning well, I set it up so that the seller provided financing to bridge us until our house sold. Given the market and the tough time they were having selling the townhome, they were more than happy to do so. The timing was extraordinary in that both the sale and purchase all took place within about a month’s time. We were fortunate to deal with a great agent, great buyers, and great sellers. I have a profound appreciation for these "good" transactions, and continue to believe that buying and selling is far more involved than just net dollars.
Are there lessons that we, in the Bay Area, who are thinking of downsizing to a less expensive and perhaps smaller home, can also learn from this?
I believe that residential purchases need to be less a function of the investment aspect, and more a matter of lifestyle. For example, I anticipate that the townhome my brother purchased will not appreciate for some years, and therefore I have no expectations of near-term appreciation. But in a down market, it represented opportunity to negotiate price, convince the seller to carry financing for a fixed period of time, and a floor plan in a community that absolutely suits my brother’s needs. In today’s market, the rates are phenomenally low and the inventory is reasonable. We live in micro markets that vary vastly in the Bay Area so approaches to purchasing may also vary. Your clients need to be active in the search --- exploring alternatives of downsizing, looking at different neighborhoods --- but also making certain that their purchase is not based on the hope that a neighborhood will improve or become more attractive to them once they move in. Location is still the overarching mantra of real estate.
For those who are thinking of changing career paths, what advice would you have?
Just do it! "Careers" are less about one’s tenure in a field or company these days. And we’ve certainly learned from all the downsizing, rightsizing, staff reductions, redundancies – whatever the term – that companies have little ability nor interest in maintaining one’s employment when saving money is at issue. But the reality behind a new career generally means making less money, so the leap often requires one to have some reserves in order to survive the ramp-up time.
Barbara, many thanks for your candor and great advice about real estate and also about finding one’s professional and sustaining passion --- and making it work! If you would like to contact Barbara directly to discuss any of this further, she has agreed to be available to you. You can call her at: 510/338-1307, or contact her by email: Barbara.Hardacre@pacunion.com.
