A Conversation With ... Doug Andrews

Title: President

Education: Bachelor’s in industrial education, master’s degree in industrial education and school adminstration, and a specialist in school administration degree, Missouri State University

Real estate ties: After a career in education, Andrews joined his family’s Century Realty 11 years ago

Tell us about GSBOR’s membership and its services.

We’re at about 2,600 members right now. It’s a large geographical area, but the counties that we are responsible for … are Greene, Webster and Christian. On services, certainly, there’s the Multilist. We’re big on education. We have both free and state and national educational programs taught out of our facility (at 1310 E. Primrose St.).

What key issues face GSBOR in 2008?

There are going to be some changes, because of lending practices that kind of went awry in 2006 and 2007. We’re paying the price for those right now, and then, also, the economy. Probably, more specifically for us, we’re going to be more Internet-based in how we connect with buyers and sellers. We have a new system in place that we’re using more now, called a transaction platform, which means that our buyers and sellers, real estate people, title people can all work on this one platform … to go directly in and (check) on a transaction.

Do you think this is still a good time to be in real estate? Why?

Oh, absolutely. Real estate is like any other economy. It changes a lot. We have ups and downs. ... Right now, we have a new term coming out – cocooning. People are kind of cocooning to see how their jobs and the economy (turn out). They say ‘If we’re comfortable right now, why do we want to move. Let’s see what’s going to happen.’ Next spring, maybe (they’ll) look at pursuing new homes. … We’ve come out of an extremely good market for many years, and the people that are new in the market have not dealt with a market that has any downturn at all. There’s one thing going on both nationally and locally that we’re going to deal with, and that’s that new starts are down, which means that builders are sitting on some houses … and they’re fairly reluctant to go out and start digging new basements and pouring concrete. (The National Association of Realtors) says that by late summer or early fall, we actually may be short on new construction, because the market should correct, and we should have some positive numbers coming through. Since the first of February, it seems our numbers of homes under contract and sold have shown a dramatic increase.

How does the nationwide spike in foreclosures affect the local market?

We haven’t been as affected by this as a lot of areas in the country (but the increase) definitely impacts values. It’s hard for somebody (whose house is) sitting on the market right now to compete with a foreclosure that’s three houses down, because the banks are wanting to unload those and move on to better times. Right now, some markets have 15 percent to 17 percent of listed properties that are foreclosures. Nationally, it’s 4 percent to 5 percent in a normal market and in Springfield, we’re at about 4 percent, which is at the low end of the normal market.

You’re also a broker-salesman at Century Realty. Tell us about that company.

We started in 1971, and it’s a family company. I’ve been there 11 years. My mother, Barbara Herren, actually founded the company, and Webster County’s a big part of our market.

What did you do prior to working in real estate?

Actually, I came out of education. I taught and spent most of my years in school administration, either as a high school principal or director of education, in several different places – Hollister, Liberty High School, and I started my career in Crocker.

I also spent eight years as a master toymaker at Silver Dollar City.

What drew you into real estate and keeps you interested?

I just kind of came back into the family business. (Real estate) is so diverse. You’ll be dealing with commercial property one day. You might be dealing with vacant land the next day (or) an FHA house for a young buyer, or a multimillion-dollar ranch or home on the next. My specialty is farms and suburban properties.

Tell us about your family and your hobbies.

I’ve been married almost 29 years to Debra, who works at a grocery in Marshfield. We have three children: a daughter in Kansas City who’s a fashion designer, and a son who’s a (high school) senior and a daughter who’s a freshman. I love to fish and hunt, and I also do tae kwon do. I actually just got my black belt.

Interview by Features Editor Maria Hoover. You can e-mail her with suggestions for future installments of this feature at mhoover@sbj.net.