Lindsey Dominates Residential Market

If selling homes were a high-jump competition, Meza Harris would have competitors trying to clear the Eiffel Tower.

Harris led a another powerful year for Lindsey & Associates agents. In fact, many of Harris’ closest challengers are right down the hall from her at the company’s Rogers branch. Six of the top seven agents in 2001 are Lindsey agents, and five of those six are at the Rogers office.

Those agents made Lindsey, headquartered in Fayetteville, the top performer on the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s annual list of local real estate firms. Lindsey was a runaway in residential sales with $312 million, more than 37 percent more than Rogers’ Harris McHaney Shearin Realtors’ $227 million. Fayetteville-based Coldwell Banker Faucette was a close third with $220 million.

The Business Journal also listed all participating agencies’ million-dollar producers in 2001. This year, a record 25 agencies participated.

Harris, for the fifth consecutive year, led all Northwest Arkansas real estate agents in sales volume. Harris’ sales dropped from $32.3 million in 2000 to $24.7 million in 2001, but even the $7.6 million drop-off failed to knock Harris out of the top spot.

“Meza’s raised the bar and made other people compete a little bit harder,” said John David Lindsey, principal broker for Lindsey & Associates.

“It’s kind of like what Tiger Woods has done for golf.”

Kirk Elsass, the lone Lindsey agent from the Fayetteville office in the top 10, was the overall runner-up with $21.2 million. And David Mix, owner of Dykes Bassett Mix & Associates, was the lone non-Lindsey realtor in the top seven, as he continued his impressive run among the best agents in the two-county area with $17 million in sales in 2001.

The next four agents were all from Lindsey’s Rogers office — Pat Moore ($16.5 million), Paul Ohlander ($15.5 million), Rick Hawes ($14.1 million) and Angie Laney ($13.9 million).

Ohlander left Harris McHaney Shearin Realtors last summer. While he dropped from fourth to fifth, his sales improved by $3 million.

“The growth in Benton County has helped all our agents in Rogers,” John David Lindsey added.

“And there is no question that Lindsey & Associates is blessed with the number of quality top agents and people we have all the way through our company.”

Lindsey also became the largest agency in Northwest Arkansas with 130 licensed agents.

Harris McHaney Shearin, with branches in Bentonville, Bella Vista, Prairie Creek and Springdale, dropped into a tie for second with 125 agents. Coldwell Banker Faucette, with branches in Springdale, Rogers and Siloam Springs, also has 125 agents.

Bentonville tallied the most residential building permits of any Northwest Arkansas city in 2001. Its Benton County neighbor, Rogers, had the second-most permits.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that six of the top eight agents for 2001 were based in Benton County. No. 8 on the list was Sherry Hardie ($13.7 million) of Harris McHaney Shearin.

Jan Oliphant ($11.8 million) of Coldwell Banker Faucette and Margie Moldenhauer ($10.1 million) of Re/Max Associates Realtors in Fayetteville round out the top 10 agents for 2001.

Five more agents had over $9 million in total sales, including Wilma McIntosh of The McIntosh Group Realtors in Springdale and Patsy Simmons of Coldwell Banker Faucette with $9.5 million each, Alicia Demarest of Griffin Company Realtors in Springdale with $9.4 million, and Lana Patrick of Dykes Bassett Mix and Carolyn Vernetti of Century 21 A-1 Realty in Bentonville with $9.1 million each.

Mix is also the only non-Lindsey agent in the top five in sales volume for the last five years.

Harris practically owns the list. She was runner-up to Hawes in 1997, but she’s led the field ever since. She has $101.6 million in sales volume in the last five years, 62 percent more than second place Moore’s $62.8 million. Mix is third with $60.5 million, followed by Elsass at $60.3 million, Hawes at $60.1 million and Moldenhauer at $53.5.

“It’s great,” John David Lindsey said. “We are so blessed to be in what has to be one of the top five real estate markets in the United States.”

It is for that reason that agents in the Fayetteville market have continued their share of success.

Mix has been in the business for 19 years. He has seen Fayetteville remain a unique city during that time, in that many residents are willing to pay several thousand dollars more than they would for a similar house just a few miles in any direction.

Mix said he sees many clients looking for upscale living quarters.

“They’re definitely looking for the upper end of the market,” Mix said. “Four bedrooms are a bonus, for sure. The houses in the $300,000 and above range are about average. A $300,000 home probably averages about 2,900-3,200 SF.”

When asked what $300,000 would have bought a person 19 years ago in Fayetteville, Mix quipped, “About the most expensive house in town.”

A house that goes on the market in the $150,000 range in east Fayetteville doesn’t last long. Elsass said, “If [a house] comes available at that price, it’s gone. Nadine Yates listed one in east Fayetteville recently, and it sold in about three days.”

Elsass said the trend in Benton County is to build homes in the $150,000-$200,000 range.

He said Fayetteville and Springdale “just don’t have any available lots to build that type of home on.”

Benton County is obviously where the numbers are heading. Several new subdivisions and additions are going up in west Rogers and southwest Bentonville. Developer Charles Reaves has plans to eventually put about 4,000 homes in the Shadow Valley subdivision south of the upscale Pinnacle Country Club.

Shadow Valley will soon have its own 18-hole championship-style golf course.

“We have a tremendous market in Northwest Arkansas,” Elsass said. “And the driving forces are obviously the University [of Arkansas], Tyson Foods, Wal-Mart and J.B. Hunt.”

Mix and Elsass each felt the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States caused only a hiccup in the buyer’s market.

“People were still looking, and looking aggressively, but we had more tire kickers,” Elsass said.

“They were legitimate buyers, concerned for what was going on. It was completely new territory. In the past, we had history to back up anything that had happened, whether it was a recession or anything else. But September 11 rewrote the books.”

Mix believes the drop in interest rates gave agents “another push” needed to get through the year. But he also credits Mother Nature with Northwest Arkansas’ strong year in the real estate market.

“It was such a nice, mild year weather-wise until we had one cold spurt,” Mix said.

“It tends to help us a lot whenever the sun is shining and people are out looking.”