Terrell Newberry doesn’t know how to be a stranger.
Asked to share “the story you don’t want to tell,” he launches without hesitation into a tale about Brownie, a pet goat he had as a child.
There aren’t too many things cuter than a goat, he recalls. They have oddly rectangular pupils and they’re curious about everything.
The story has a sad ending, though.
His family returned Brownie when the neighbors complained about the bleating. They checked back six months later and he was no more — Brownie the goat had been eaten.
It’s five minutes into the conversation and Newberry has already been friendly, vulnerable, funny, poignant.
The 63-year-old real estate broker is president of the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors for 2016.
Newberry isn’t a guy who’ll surprise you with the latest new trick for how to succeed in the business. Instead an old truism: Businesses grow because of relationships. The best way to build relationships is through transparency. Just be yourself.
He grew up in Pelham, Ga., a town that still has fewer than 4,000 residents.
A place as unassuming as Newberry, Pelham was a waypoint for The Goat Man, an itinerant who lived out of a wagon and raised a herd of goats.
When Newberry was 11 his father, an electrician, committed suicide. The instant loss was surreal at first and then, a void and sense of guilt followed.
It was that moment Newberry became the man of the house. His mother, more dependent and more protective, held onto the family she had left.
It was a small circle that included Newberry and a half-sister, who was six years older. When Newberry joined the military years later, it would be the first night he spent away from home.
The family moved to Chattanooga, Tenn., then to Athens, Ga., and finally to Jacksonville.
Newberry would help care for his mother until her death at 93.
Living nearby in Arlington, she was a child of the Depression who made ends meet on Social Security without complaint.
Sounds of Nat King Cole, Dean Martin and Big Band-era music take him back to memories of his mother.
As a young man, Newberry served in the Air Force.
It was 1970, the Vietnam War was winding down and the armed forces were calling up 18-year-olds whose birthdays fell on 25 randomly selected days.
Passed over in the first round, Newberry enlisted before the second.
He thought it would be interesting to be a pilot, but the Air Force picked his job — installing bombs on the bottom of planes.
The work would lead Newberry after the war to become a parts mechanic for JC Penney.
He eventually rose to management, opening new stores in Gainesville and Tallahassee.
It was on the job in Jacksonville where he met his future wife — a saleswoman in fine jewelry.
He was smitten.
“I saw her one day as I was coming down the escalator. And I just knew it,” he said.
When a call would come over the intercom for a manager in fine jewelry, Newberry raced to get to her counter first.
JC Penney had strict rules about employee relationships. Newberry left the company in 1989 so the two could stay together.
He teamed up with a Realtor in Mandarin who flipped houses. Newberry provided the supplies, the Realtor repaired the homes.
They made “a lot of money,” and the work led to a real estate license for Newberry.
Following a stint with a Ponte Vedra brokerage, he joined Coldwell Banker Walter Williams.
It was a company that gave Newberry a national brand, something that told prospects immediately he was in real estate.
Today, Newberry is president of Benchmark Investment Group, a renovation company, and broker/owner of Century 21 Atkins Realty.
Since Newberry first went into real estate almost three decades ago, the world has changed.
Zillow competes with the MLS as a new customer gateway. Social media is the latest method for customer engagement.
Newberry’s theme as NEFAR president will be remaining relevant through professionalism.
“An important part of the transaction is the customer service you provide,” he said. “A Realtor has knowledge and experience that a lot of people don’t have.”
Keep well trained, return phone calls, respond to emails and listen more than you talk.
Asked about social media, he launches into another story.
He recalled a South Florida Realtor who blogged about and then started posting short videos of bicycling trails she used.
She started attracting niche buyers — people who liked bicycling — by sharing something she enjoyed.
“Have you ever noticed if you write about something that’s family related, you get this huge response,” he said. “But, if you post — here’s a new house that I listed — it just gets a few.”
All social media does is grow your ability to build relationships, he said.
In the end, the path is still old-school: Be available, be yourself.
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