Million dollar Meza beats her own record

Despite back-to-back years of being the No. 1 residential real estate agent in Northwest Arkansas, Meza Harris is still driving her 1994 Lexus. It’s not that the senior vice-president of Lindsey & Associates in Rogers can’t afford a brand new car. She just won’t stop selling long enough to buy one.

“It’s got about 115,000 miles on it,” Harris said. “I’ve been wanting to go over to Tulsa and buy a new one, but there’s just no way with the volume we’ve got right now. It won’t be long until there’ll be houses I’ve sold twice while driving the same car.”

Harris even outdid herself in 1999. She sold and listed $20.3 million worth of residential property, a 41 percent increase over her area-best total of $14.4 million in 1998. It was the third-straight year the executive broker has competed for the top spot after finishing second in 1997 with $9.8 million.

The $20.3 million tally is even more impressive when considering 1999 is the first year the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s top real estate agent rankings have separated residential and commercial properties. Top agent lists in all previous years have combined the two.

The distinction didn’t make a lot of difference for Harris, however, since she focuses almost exclusively on residential property.

“The difference this year was I got Suzett Sparks as a licensed executive assistant broker,” Harris said. “If someone called and I was out on a listing, she could go out immediately and show another home for me. Then we added Wilma Terrell as another assistant, and those two are really what made the difference.

“We don’t do any of the prospecting that they say you’re supposed to do. Referrals is almost all of what our business is. We just try to treat each person who comes to us like they’re the only one.”

Harris, in her 17th year as an agent, was followed by David Mix of Dykes Bassett Mix & Associates Inc. in Fayetteville with $13.8 million. Mix leapfrogged up from 1998 when he finished 12th with $7.6 million in sales — an 82 percent year-over-year increase. His sales primarily came in Springdale’s Thornbury subdivision and Fayetteville’s Savannah Estates and Brookbury Woods.

“I didn’t do anything special,” said Mix, also in his 17th year in the business. “It was just a lot of hard work and extra hours. I probably increased the hours I worked 15 percent just due to the amount of business coming into our office. Really, all of our people had a great year.

“I just had several sales that turned up each month. It was steady all year.”

Pat Moore of Lindsey & Associates in Rogers was third with $13.7 million after finishing second with $13.3 million in 1998. She was followed by co-worker Kirk Elsass with $12.5 million, John Carpenter of Re/Max Associates Inc. Realtors in Fayetteville with $12.2 million, Rick Hawes of Lindsey in Rogers with $11.9 million, Lana Patrick of Dykes Bassett Mix in Fayetteville with $11.4 million, Margie Moldenhauer of Re/Max Associates in Fayetteville with $11.3 million, Jan Oliphant of Coldwell Banker Faucette Real Estate in Springdale with $9.5 million and Wilma McIntosh of Century 21 Cupit Street Realtors in Fayetteville with $9 million.

Among the top 10 finishers, Mix and Carpenter had the largest year-over-year increases. Carpenter’s sales were up 190 percent from his $4.2 million, 40th-place finish in 1998.

Carpenter said working with Mike Philip, a licensed agent who was also the Re/Max & Associates statewide rookie of the year, and Diana “Dee” Stewart, an executive assistant, made the biggest difference. Also, their website at www.johnkcarpenter.com brought in a new stream of buyers.

“Mike and Diana are so customer oriented,” Carpenter said. “I get compliments all the time from other people about how nice they are and how good they are to work with. Really, we’re just blessed with loyal customers who we try to turn into ambassadors.

“Our motto is to under-promise and over-deliver.”

For the second-straight year, Lindsey & Associates Rogers division dominated the top 10. In 1998, the Fayetteville-based firm had six of the top 10 agents compared with four in 1999. The next closest in 1999 were Dykes Bassett Mix and Re/Max Associates with two each.

Harris, Moore and Elsass alone combined for $84.9 million in sales for Lindsey’s Rogers office over the last two years. Already through March of 2000, Harris is on pace to break her 1999 mark with $13 million worth of deals in the works. She pointed out that figure included both actual sales and negotiations that were still pending — at least, that were still pending during the last week of the month.

“This year has just started out with a bang again,” Harris said. “It’s been unbelievable. I just feel really blessed. Things are better than ever.”