Real Estate Industry

Real State with Jim

Not many people when they grow up think that one day they will work in the Real Estate Industry. This was certainly true for one of my managers Jim Barr. Jim came to the University of Cincinnati in 1988, as an undecided major at the College of Business, and at the time where UC didn’t have a college of business building and Sigma Sigma commons was still a desert of a parking lot. Jim spent most of his undergraduate years exploring and testing the waters of a variety of different majors from accounting to engineering and found in conclusion to his search that wasn’t that” ah ha” moment like most of his friends did when they declared their major earlier in their undergraduate. “At the time there wasn’t much available as far as class selection in the business school”, Jim said. “It was a basic curriculum, with not as much variety as the business school has today”. Jim was in his senior year and had co-oped with two companies in Cincinnati. Still in his final year didn’t know what the next couple of years looked like for him. “I was a little nervous; I had enough credits to graduate with business major, but still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I sat down with my advisor, and still to this day remember the conversation we had. I was freaking out and she said, “Jim, you are twenty years old, you aren’t supposed to know what you in life, you will work in a hundred different jobs in your life and probably in a hundred different areas you never thought you would be in, the only way you will find something is just be spontaneous and DO IT! Here is a list of classes that are going to be offered in spring quarter, choice some that are different, remember be spontaneous.”  From that moment on Jim had an open mind about school, he looked down at the piece of paper and saw the first thing that caught his eye, “Principals of Real-Estate”. It was a new class, Jim said. “I had no idea what it initialed but I was just doing what my advisor said to do” And from that point forward, the beginning of Jim Barr’s career in Real Estate started.

Jim and Real Estate:

Shortly after graduation, Jim Barr was hired by Phillips Edison Company as a Jr. Leasing Agent. Phillips Edison Co. “owns and operates a diverse portfolio of retail real estate assets across the country.” Phillips Edison primarily owns grocery shopping centers. “My job at the beginning of my career was working with short term leases with small businesses that are located off to the side of anchoring grocery chains.” Jim said. (An anchor is usually the largest part of the shopping center, usually a grocery store. Examples are Kroger, Giant Eagle, Meijer, etc...)  I really enjoyed what I was doing; I was with a company that invested a lot in me and had a great company culture, Jim said. I was in an industry that was continually growing company that had a great vision for the future. After a couple years being at the company Jim, moved up through the ranks holding various different types of positions at the company that involved leasing, where he is now currently the Director of Leasing.

Real Estate Industry:

In recent years working in the field real estate at any capacity was a difficult task due to the recession. When most people think of real estate, they quickly connect to what is relevant in their lives, which for most people is their house, apartment, and townhouse. And when the economic cashed happened, millions homes were foreclosed on with a majority of the homes still foreclosed on to. The real estate market was non-existent. People weren’t buying because they didn’t know if tomorrow would be last day at work. The number will never be exact, but millions upon millions of people around the world lost their jobs due to the recession and buying real estate wasn’t the top priority at the moment.

When the economic crisis came apparent, and the real estate market started to make a plunge we had no idea what would happen to the company, Jim said. The last time this event occupied was the great depression and that was long before anyone in this company was alive. We thought we would have to start making cuts like most companies were doing. We reviewed our current clients and tried to figure out which companies would survive and ones that might perish due to the rough times.  We came to the conclusion that instead of people going to “Jeff Ruby’s they would instead go to Ruby Tuesday’s.” What actually happened was completely different than we thought. Our properties and some of our largest clients actually made more money than ever before. Our business actually grew in size during the economic recession. People started cutting back on non-essential items, like restaurants. People still needed to eat so they started going to the grocery store to buy their food. The shopping centers had more traffic and most of the companies that were leasing from us prospered. 

Words of Wisdom:

Some of the final moments Jim and I had with our interview were about my current Co-op at Phillips Edison. I asked him to give some pieces of advice he thought would help in my career at Phillips Edison and for the future. He said:

·         Never burn bridges with co-workers, clients, or friends, it is important to be humble and courteous to everyone you meet from the time you are in college to when you die, you never know where someone will be in 10 years

·         Some things in life you can’t control, some days will be rougher than others, the difference between people who are successful and those who are not is solely dependent on your attitude, attitude is everything

·         Never eat lunch alone for the rest of your career, people bond over food, and one of the best ways to get to know someone is to eat with them; get to know the people you work with, chances are you will be working with them for awhile

·         Take a chance every day to stop what you are doing and take a deep breath and pause for  moment, if you don’t one day you will wake up very old and wish you did

In conclusion the interview the interview with Jim went very well. I got the opportunity to learn a little about him and also about the company I’m currently working for now and in the spring for my Co-op.