Ozarks Profile: Galen Pellham

What is your job?

Galen Pellham, an architect for 28 years, is a commercial real estate broker with Carol Jones Realtors Commercial Group. "I was formerly with Pellham Phillips Hagerman," he said of his architecture background. "When I left that firm I formed Pellham and Associates to complement my real estate services."

Please tell us about your business.

Pellham describes his real estate business as having three stages. "The first is to get listings," he said. "My second phase is to market. I develop color flyers of our listings, place all of our properties on various Web sites, and do mailings to other brokers and clients. The third phase is negotiating. As an architect I represented clients but also had to work with general contractors in designing and building the building together. I feel my success in real estate has been my ability to negotiate so that both buyers and sellers feel that they came out a winner." Architecture, he said, "gives me a better understanding of what clients are trying to accomplish."

What prepared you for work as an architect and Realtor?

Pellham earned his bachelor of architecture degree from the University of Arkansas. In real estate, he recently qualified as a certified commercial investment member, which required four one-week courses. "The first was in financial analysis," he said, "the second in market analysis, the third in user decisions and that is basically comparing leasing to purchasing and the last in investor decisions analyzing a property based upon the financial projections." Pellham became a CCIM, he said, "to give me more knowledge in analyzing a piece of property and to be able to present those calculations to a prospective buyer."

What's the best part of your job?

"In architecture, the best part of my job was solving a client's problems and the gratification of seeing a completed project, such as the Hammons Center for the Performing Arts and James River Assembly Church," Pellham said. "I thought that I would miss that in real estate, but I find that I have the same sense of satisfaction in solving my clients' unique problems."

Can you tell us something about your personal life and family?

"My wife Marleen has been in commercial real estate eight years," Pellham said. "Not only are we complementing each other, we're working with each other. Our daughter Melanie is our full-time assistant. She recently got her real estate license and just completed her broker's school. Our son Christopher is taking business and marketing classes at OTC. Our oldest daughter Ame is in sales with AT&T in Phoenix, Arizona."

How do you like to spend your leisure time?

"Golf with Marleen and Christopher," Pellham said. "We also have a boat on Table Rock Lake. Marleen and I also enjoy traveling so far this year we've been to Phoenix, Kansas City and Denver for my CCIM courses. I also like in my leisure time to sell real estate, because I don't view what I do as work, I enjoy it so much."

by Frank Shipe