Profiting and Loving It

Commentary by James A. Crumbaugh III

RISMEDIA, Oct. 27, 2008-How long has it been in the real estate industry since any of us have heard the word profit? I’ve been in the industry since I was 19 years old and I’m now 57, and in all of those years, I have never witnessed this industry as bloodied and beat up as it has been in this most current cycle.

I thought 1973 was bad, when the gas crisis caused the real estate market to go bad. Then again, when we went into the high interest rates of 1980. Once we came out of that cycle, we hit the oil crisis of 1985 and yet again we had a tough time. Then along came the early 1990′s and once more the real estate industry took a pounding.

Finally, in the first decade of this new millennium, we had a sustained and growing real estate market, only to get hit again, this time with the sub-prime mortgage debacle, and this time it was brutal.

So what did I do? I started a national real estate company at the bottom of the very worst real estate market in 70 years with a brand new concept and a brand new idea. For a while this year as we were trying to grow during this horrid cycle, I thought my partners might execute me.

Now, here we are at Allison James Estates and Homes with less than 10 months since we opened our doors on January 3rd of this year, and we have now reached a pivotal point in our business.

We are now profitable.

Because of our business structure, we not only have fixed costs but we also have a fixed income as a result of our business model. I was absolutely convinced, when I first conceived of a national real estate company based entirely on the Internet and technology with no overhead of the typical brick and mortar offices, that it would work.

Our Realtors here at Allison James Estates and Homes took a huge gamble on us in the beginning when they choose to associate with us. Companies were closing their doors and the Realtors were scared to death. Yet here we are in October of 2008.

We have recruited over 300 Realtors and we have opened in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Texas, Nevada, Missouri, Kansas, New York, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina and Florida.

Maybe we just got lucky and came up with the right business model at the right time. We suspect we will only continue to grow faster and faster as more and more Realtors learn about Allison James Estates and Homes.

At this time we still don’t have a competitor with the same business model as ours in the market place. Most of the other 100% companies are still stuck with the brick and mortar offices.

We have also found during this year that the title companies absolutely love our business model because we tell our Realtors to make arrangements to meet their clients at their favorite title company office.

I never thought I would love the word “profit” as much as I do at this point. And, I have to admit there were times this year that I was scared to death as well.

James A. Crumbaugh III is CEO of Allison James Estates & Homes.

For more information, e-mail jcrumbaugh@allisonjamesestates.com or visit www.AllisonJamesInc.com

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