- April 26, 2024
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Tom Heiser says he is one of those rarities who has had just two jobs in his lifetime. He enlisted in the Army two months after graduating from high school in 1972. And 21 years later, he joined his brother’s Coldwell Banker realty franchise in Palm Coast.
Heiser, the managing broker at Coldwell Banker Premier Properties, recently celebrated his 30th anniversary with the company’s Palm Coast office.
Heiser spoke to the Observer about Flagler County's changing real estate market during the past three decades, and the Heiser Foundation, which his family established in honor of his nephew, Air Force Master Sgt. Michael Heiser, who was among 19 U.S. Airmen killed in the Khobar Tower terrorist bombing in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in 1996.
How did you start in the real estate business?
This was actually a second thought, because in the Army, I used to maintain computer systems. When I was ready to retire in 1993, I sent out resumes to companies that were doing contract work with the government, but at that time everybody was scaling down their operations. My brother said, why don't you come on down here and help with the real estate business. I said, sounds good. So we packed up our bags and moved down here to Florida.
Your brother owned the Coldwell Banker franchise at the time?
Yes. In 1996, after my brother and his wife, their only son was one of the 19 that were killed in the bombings of Dhahran, he eventually sold the company to an outfit up in Jacksonville, that kept me on as the managing broker. They sold it to somebody else and that person kept me on as the managing broker. They sold it to Steve Cupolo, the owner of Premier Properties, who just about two years ago merged with the Schmidt Family of Companies out of Michigan. So, right now, I think they're the second largest Coldwell Banker franchise in the nation. They have a little over 90 offices and a little over 2,000 agents throughout Michigan, Ohio, Florida and the Virgin Islands.
How has Palm Coast changed in the last 30 years?
It’s grown from one traffic signal to what we have today. It used to take me five minutes to get to the beach, and now it takes me about 30 minutes.
I guess traffic is good for the real estate business.
Yes, it is. And we're still behind what we need for homes here in Palm Coast and Flagler County. There's such a pent-up demand for housing. Builders left during the (real estate bust) in 2006 through 2008. They're now trying to catch up, but we still are short a lot of homes. There are a lot of projects going on within the county, but we're talking another five, six years from now.
So even with interest rates going up, buyers are still here?
The buyers are still here. People are moving down from up North where they're selling their homes for a ton of money, and the cost down here is a lot less, so they're coming down and paying cash. But we are seeing price reductions every day now in our Multiple Listing Service. So a lot of sellers are feeling the pinch of the interest rates, and they're reducing their prices.
How did COVID affect the real estate market here?
When COVID first hit we thought that was the end of the real estate market, but it just blossomed in Flagler County and actually in the whole state of Florida. I don't want to get too political, but we had we had a good governor that saw that this wasn't an opportunity to close everything down like in many of the other states. So we were basically open and people from states that were closed down for business were moving here so that we were seeing 25 to 30% increases year over year in prices.
You mentioned the real estate bust. How did your office survive the turmoil?
My office was doing about $10 million a month and we went down the following months to right about $800,000 or $900,000 in closed sales. So that was a very drastic thing. It was like real estate was basically not existent. I became more of a counselor to my sales team. I told my agents you need to take care of yourself and your family. So if you need to go out there and get a part-time job or whatever it takes to make ends meet, just go ahead and do it, and we're going to still be here somehow. And the company made it through that time, and since then we've been doing quite well.
During the past 30 years, when were the fastest growth periods here?
Back in the early 2000s, we were selling a regular 80-by-125 lot for $15,000 to $20,000. Then, within a two-year period in about 2004 to 2006, they were up to $70,000 to $80,000. Today, we’re selling these lots anywhere from $50,000 to $70,000.
What are some of the projects the Heiser Foundation is involved with?
We give out scholarships to high school seniors. We work with Teens in Flight and numerous organizations. Our company, itself (Coldwell Bankers Premier Properties), has helped out an organization called Gratitude America for the last 12 years. They have these weekend retreats up in the Marineland area, and they have an 18-month program called Warrior PATHH in Macclenny, Florida, which started out with post 9-11 veterans that have issues with PTSD or TBI to feel a little bit better about themselves knowing that they're not alone. The company has been doing fund raisers for them. I’d also like to say thank you to the company, because they didn't know how to celebrate my 30 years with Coldwell Banker, so they made a $1,000 donation to the Heiser Foundation.
