Editorial
Front Page - Friday, September 25, 2009
Realtor Robert Fisher receives CCIM designation
Sally Bailey
After growing up on Signal Mountain in a “real estate family,” Robert Fisher headed to Knoxville to study industrial engineering at the University of Tennessee. His dad Ed is a 45-year veteran of the business. Upon graduation, he returned to Chattanooga to begin his career with Scholze Tannery, a company that made leather for the saddle industry. Several years later he went to work for the local photography company Olan Mills.
“I worked in the church and supply divisions,” Fisher says. “We did about a thousand church directories a year. I was involved in the printing process and distribution.”
After several years with that company, Fisher decided to change gears. When Olan’s brother, C.G. Mills, began an acquisition company, he joined him.
“The company bought five or six different manufacturing companies and I was kind of the guy that went from each company, trying to find ways to do things better, faster, quicker, cheaper,” he says.
Fisher made rounds, evaluating companies that produced carpet, fiberglass boats, blue jeans and PVC pipe. “It was a lot of travel,” he says, “but it was fun to see the different industries.” One company, the blue jeans manufacturer, even made national headlines because of its “shot gun wash” jeans.
After a few years, he transitioned once again – this time, into the hamburger business. He joined the ranks of local fast food restaurant Central Park.
“I was doing the real estate,” he says. “I was handling (and) managing the real estate portions of the franchising business, the Central Park business, in terms of helping buy property, managing the leases.
“I was doing site selection for company and franchisee stores. We had stores in 12 states, so I was covering 12 states, looking for store sites.”
Fisher helped grow Central Park from a small and local company to a regional chain of about 80 stores. He represented Central Park on many fronts, even serving as president of the company for his last two years. Perhaps most important during this time, however, was that he developed a hunger for buying and selling properties.
“Even back then, I was interested in commercial real estate, in terms of investing,” he says. “During my latter Central Park years, I started buying up real estate – self storage facilities, office complexes, apartments – as investment property, some of which I still have, some of which I’ve sold.”
After 10 years with Central Park, Fisher changed gears one more time. He became licensed in real estate in 2002 and began his career selling commercial properties with Bob Hunter at GVA Hunter in Chattanooga.
“At that point, I probably knew more than the typical new guy,” he says. Fisher had seen his dad, who was still in the residential business, complete transactions since his youth. Personally and professionally, he had been active in the commercial market himself for years. Still, he listened to and learned from Hunter, and quickly started doing his fair share of commercial deals.
In 2005, Fisher moved to Re/Max Renaissance Realtors. A year later, he began taking courses for the Certified Commercial Investment Member designation. He had decided “pretty early on” to attain this designation, he says, as he’d begun hearing about it fairly early in his career.
“There’s about 160 hours of course material that you have to take, and these are ... 8 to 5, go home, study and homework kind of courses,” he says.
Fisher calls the CCIM courses “probably the best real estate training out there,” as far as commercial is concerned, and encourages everyone on that side of the industry to take at least the first course to see if they like it.
“To get your designation, you have to have all the courses, pass all the exams, then you have to have transactions where you create a portfolio to show you’ve had the experience,” he says. “You have to have either 30 transactions or $10 million worth of deals done.”
Fisher took his six-hour, comprehensive exam in August and was recently pinned, signifying his designation.
“Once you get your pin, or certification, there’s a CCIM network of Realtors,” he says. “It’s a good way for referrals. If I have a client who’s looking for a Realtor in California, I would go to the CCIM network of Realtors to find one, because you know what they’ve been through, so you know who could be qualified to help their customer.”
Aside from referrals, has receiving his CCIM designation helped him sell more real estate? Fisher says it’s too soon to tell. One thing that’s certain, though, is that he’s having his best sales year ever.
“I think I’m the exception,” he says. “It’s been very spotty. Some things are still trading. Retail’s really slow. Office leasing seems slow but industrial’s picking up, partly due to Volkswagen.
“There are a lot of folks who see the population growth coming so apartment activity is very high. So parts of the market are still trading but it’s definitely a buyer’s market.”
Fisher says the key to his success in the Chattanooga commercial market is being a generalist instead of a specialist. This area isn’t big enough to specialize in one area or another, he says. Rather, he thinks Realtors who keep abreast of all commercial real estate have more to offer their buyers and sellers than those who specialize.
“I’m still doing self storage, office, retail, industrial, manufacturing, raw land,” he says.
“Another thing I do is I do some business brokeraging – selling businesses, finding buyers and sellers for businesses… I have a different company set up for that but they’re very similar in terms of how you find buyers and sellers and listings.”
Additionally, Fisher recently joined the Argus Self Storage Network, a national sales organization of 40 or 50 Realtors around the country who brand themselves as self storage real estate professionals.
Professionally, he has served on several boards on the local level, including the Chattanooga Association of Realtors and the MLS, and has served for several years on the board of the Manker Patten Tennis Club. He also serves on the North Shore Review Committee, which approves new building plans and renovations on the North Shore.
When he’s not working or serving his industry in some capacity, Fisher enjoys spending time with his wife, a freelance court reporter, and three daughters, ages 13 to 21. He also plays competitive tennis. As far as plans for the future, he likes to keep it simple.
“Just continue selling real estate,” he says. And with a background as solid as his, he should fulfill that plan for many years to come.
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