“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> As an African-American realtor working for a black-owned firm, “font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Brown-Kortkamp Realty, Myrtle Bailey must experience race as a daily reality in listing and selling properties. Right?
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Wrong.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> “I am such real estate tactician, I never pay attention to that,” she said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> “I come into a room to do business. I don’t think I’m looked at as a black female; I’m looked at as a competent realtor they can trust. If a deal is to be done, I’m going to make it happen.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> And there are deals to be done, even during an historic housing slump with widespread foreclosures and anemic property values.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> “There are horror stories, and they are true,” she said. “But in any down economy, in any period of challenge, the creative, persistent and (dare I say) prayerful survive and thrive.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> Forefront among today’s challenges: inflexible banks that won’t loan the money needed to complete transactions.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> “The banks are not very flexible,” she said. “Their lending criteria are more stringent. They require more investment from buyers – 20 percent for a home loan, 30 percent for a commercial loan. A lot of my time is spent looking for private investors so the sellers can sell and the buyers can buy.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> Back in “font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>February, she closed on a notable local building – the wedge-shaped structure opposite Dressel’s in the Central West End – that was on the market for more than two years and under contract almost all of that time, but that willing buyer never could secure financing.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Finally, she sold the property – “basically, a shell” – for $153,500 to an Australian architect, Alastair Swayn, who has friends in St. Louis and plans to retire here, once he goes through the historical preservation process and gets the green light to renovate his new home.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I really enjoyed working with Myrtle,” Swayn said. “She is at the top of my list of real estate agents for service and professionalism.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> In the meantime, Bailey’s side business ( “font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; color: black;”>Real Estate Development Solutions LLC “font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”>) has a “font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>small property management contract keeping up appearances at the abandoned dwelling. It’s one of several ways she earns money between sales.
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is always opportunity in real estate. I’m not sure how many
businesses have that many related opportunities,” she
said.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“That does not mean I’m independently wealthy,” she added with a laugh. “I am probably one of the hardest-working grandmothers!”
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>She has two grandchildren, ages 18 months and a mere six weeks. Her son Jared Odom works as operations assistant for the St. Louis Cardinals after getting a degree in sports management at SEMO.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Bailey is from the St. Louis area, graduating from Lutheran North High school “back in the ‘70s.” She lives downtown in a townhome near the Edward Jones Dome, having “downsized from the West End.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> She has been a licensed realtor only since 2002, though
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Brown-Kortkamp celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2010. As such, the firm stands as a pioneering black business in the field.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> Last week, Bailey sat with Gail Brown, the firm’s president, at the Missouri Association of Realtors’ 75th anniversary reception at the Ameristar Casino. In the history slide show, they noticed white women realtors begin to appear only in the 1940s, and African Americans don’t become visible in the industry until the late ‘60s.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> They are in the field to stay now.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> “R
estate is always a good business to be in,” she said. “Beneath it
all is land. Land isn’t going anywhere. Values fluctuate, so to be
effective you need to be flexible and reinvent yourself for current
market conditions.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Perhaps that’s why every home she has sold since that wedge in the West End has been a foreclosure or a “short sale,” sold for less than the value of the mortgage.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> Still – and not surprisingly, coming from a realtor – Bailey says now is the time to buy.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> “It’s an excellent time for everyone, and African Americans in particular, who want to transform their financial reality, because real estate is useful towards that goal,” she said. “As low as prices are, as low as interest rates are, this is the time.”
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> Contact “mso-bidi-font-style: normal;”>
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Bailey at 314-758-4894.
