One of the things I’ve always loved about real estate is the interesting people I get to meet and hearing their stories. The picture below is of a seller who owns a tract of land we just closed on in Lucas. Erin Hickman worked with Mr. Hunter to sell the land.
I didn’t get to meet Mr. Hunter until closing yesterday. When he got up from the table I immediately noticed he had a cane and was struggling to walk. When I asked what happened he told me a long time ago a boat ran over his legs and took both of them off just below the knees.
I asked if someone was meeting him outside to drive him home, he said no, he drives. When we walked outside there was a one ton pickup truck in the handicapped space. He jumped up into the seat, swung his legs in, and was ready to go.
I asked how difficult it was for him to drive and said he’d been driving trucks, big rigs, and excavators since the accident. Back then, it was the only way he could feed his family, so he didn’t have a choice. He knew he could do it, he just needed to get is commercial drivers license.
When he took the CDL driving test the instructor noticed something was wrong with his legs. He told her it was just an old sports injury so she let it go, but she only gave him a restricted CDL. That wasn’t going to help him so he convinced her to talk to her superior.
Her boss asked how he did on the driving test and she said he was the best in the class, so he said “give him the full certification”. That’s how he started his business which allowed him to invest in this 10 acre tract forty years ago.
The 10 acre tract of land is located in Lucas 11 Manor Lane, a shady, little asphalt country road. It reminds me of Blondy Jhune Rd with its canopy of trees. You’d drive right by if you weren’t looking for it.
Manor Lane is indicative of what’s happening in many parts of Lucas and Fairview. Big, new million dollar estate homes are going up and older homes on acreage are coming down. There aren’t many heavily wooded undeveloped tracts like this left in Lucas or Fairview so we weren’t surprised we had two buyers interested in it right away, but it took several months for the seller to get his ducks in a row to sell it. When he was ready, it went quickly, contract to close in about three weeks. The land was priced at $825,000 or $82,500 per acre.
I don’t know what land was selling for 40 years ago when he bought it, but I’d bet this was the best investment he’s ever made. He said he thought he overpaid at the time, but even if he did, he did very, very well on this sale.
There’s a story here about Erin too. She tracked Mr. Hunter down through the tax rolls and tried calling him but he was very hard to reach. That might be one of the reasons this beautiful tract of land sat there for so long. No-one knew how to get in touch with him, but Erin was proactive and dropped one of our listing presentation packages by his home.
Mr. Nelson told me he originally wasn’t even going to meet with Erin after looking at our package. He said with “all the big, pretty homes” we’ve sold he didn’t think we’d be interested in his land. But Erin finally convinced him to meet with her and with patience got the listing. That’s the sign of a great agent!
When I asked Mr. Nelson how Erin convinced him to use us, he said she impressed him by knowing the market so well. She also told him she thought we could sell the land for $200K more than the other agent, and we did. This was a win/win/win for the seller, a very patient buyer, and us.
Although this turned out well for us, it’s still disheartening knowing sellers sometimes hesitate calling us thinking we’re too high profile for their homes. That couldn’t be further from the truth. We take great pride in our professional marketing on every one of our listings whether it’s priced at $200K or $2.9 Million. If you’re in the market to buy or sell, we hope you’ll give us the opportunity to visit with you. We know this market!
Here’s link to the property on our site.
