11/23/2024
It's been a while since my last social media post, because the time recently arrived for a final post. And the difficulty of creating a final post for Class A has spurred two months of procrastination...
There’s a lot to learn when you create and operate a business from scratch. You learn that it’s not just about the quality of the service or product you're providing (although for me, that was the primary driver for creating - and naming- the business in the first place). You learn that it’s really about people: listening & responding to what they need in the moment, adjusting your schedule to suit their timeline, and maintaining the intense juggling act that follows.
Seven years ago this week, over Thanksgiving break, I took one of the biggest steps of my life in forming Class A Appraisal Services, LLC, which later morphed into Class A Real Estate, LLC. My wife and I had a 7-month-old boy at the time, and my hope was to generate more income by providing a superior quality product than that which I had observed from many in the industry.
The Charleston area, with its combination of hospitality and population growth, gave me a place to do that. Over the years, I've had the privilege of working for commercial bankers, mortgage lenders, attorneys, accountants, landlords, tenants, buyers, sellers, and even for other licensed real estate professionals. Being a solopreneur pushed me beyond my comfort zone on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. The venture became more than a business; it became a partner, almost a teammate, in driving through a season of accelerated personal growth.
It’s a hard thing to close the doors of a place that’s been such a big part of my life for nearly seven years. But it’s also the right thing. It took nearly five of those years for me to develop a vision for how to scale and grow the business beyond myself, and by that point the market's need for appraisers and real estate brokers had significantly slowed. It caused a loss of momentum and left me in somewhat of a holding pattern. Over time, it became apparent that I needed a change of environment and a new role in order to continue growing.
To my wife Brooke, my parents, in-laws, Jerry Fehlig, Jordan Miller, Kailie Holt, Stephanie Medlock, Todd Sevier, Ron Kirby, fellow BNI chapter members, Bo Baxter, Scott Fischer, Jim Hutto, Joe Kassim, Jerry Vereen, Travis Kay, Maggie Gambon, Rick Sineath, Debbie & Steve Smith, Katie Konner, Jared Armfield, Chris Johnson, Ray Snyder, and to the many other friends and colleagues who I've had the privilege of meeting and serving– your belief, support, feedback, and business gave me a way to provide for my family and find my way over these past seven years. I am eternally grateful. May the relationships, memories, and lessons learned continue on into this next season of life.
