Real Estate’s Steel Magnolia

By Roger Cruzen

A steel magnolia. • That may be the best way to describe Betty Graham, president and chief operating officer of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Greater Los Angeles, a 44-office Realogy franchise whose 3,000-plus agents represent some of the most expensive and sought-after luxury properties on the planet. • Steel, because you have to have a strong constitution to ascend to the top peaks of real estate, especially if you are a woman and your climb begins in a cotton field, as did hers. Magnolia, because Betty Graham’s true gift, friends say, is her ability to inspire those who surround her to bloom and grow.

“What’s not to love about Betty?” remarks longtime friend and top performer Ellen Francisco, recruited by Graham in 1979 in what today is Coldwell Banker’s Point Dume office in Malibu. “She’s charming and delightful and a lovely person anyone would want to work for. Betty has a way of making anybody and everybody she talks to feel very special. She finds the absolute best in every person and helps them rise to the occasion again and again. The qualities she has you just don’t find in other real estate executives.”

Graham credits her success to mentors like Jon Douglas, founder of Jon Douglas Realty, which merged with NRT under the Coldwell Banker brand in 1997, a move that sent shock waves through the real estate community. Under Graham’s leadership since 2004, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Greater Los Angeles was number one in Los Angeles County with sales of $12.5 billion for the 12 months ending June 30, 2008, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal.

“I’m just excited every day—I don’t even feel like I am going to work,” Graham marvels. “It [real estate] may be a challenge, but there’s absolutely zero boredom in our business. When you come from the cotton fields, this is like a fantasy world I’m in.”

She Who Picks the Most Cotton...

>> One of eight children raised on a cotton farm outside Tuscaloosa, Ala., Graham learned at a young age that she who picks the most cotton makes the most money. But after her family relocated to western Kern County in the early 1950s, Graham found herself dreaming of a more glamorous life across the Tehachapi Mountains. She studied photojournalism at the University of California, Los Angeles, but eventually landed a job as personal assistant to Johnny Carson, who was just beginning his television career. When Carson moved to New York, Graham was invited to relocate. Instead, she remained behind and married.

Fast-forward to 1976. Newly divorced and finding it difficult to make ends meet as a photographer, Graham did what a lot of divorced women did: She got a real estate license. With a group of similarly driven women, Graham opened Coast and Canyon REALTORS® to serve the Topanga and Malibu markets. Carson was a source of encouragement—and referrals. “We had always stayed in touch,” she recalls. “When I got my real estate license, we were taught to contact everyone we’ve ever known, so he became a resource for me in business. He had a very strong loyalty if he trusted a person, and I was privileged to have his trust.”

The brokerage was a success, but in 1982 competitor Jon Douglas convinced Graham she could do even better with his company.

She did, putting her experience with luxury coastal properties to work for such stars as Charles Bronson, Rod Steiger, and then-newlyweds Sean Penn and Madonna. Douglas put her in charge of his firm’s Malibu presence, which Graham grew by adding a branch and recruiting 75-plus agents.

But in 1990, Betty Graham put her success on the line to head up The Jon Douglas Company’s expansion into the San Francisco Bay Area. It was a gutsy move to make in a difficult market.

“I go strutting up there thinking I’m working for the greatest man in real estate and half the agents don’t even know who Jon Douglas is,” marvels Graham, who managed the Pacific Heights office while serving as regional manager and vice president.

Although Graham’s charm and “can-do” attitude won over Bay Area agents, it was a difficult time for real estate. Eventually, it became clear the new venture was in trouble. But Graham wasn’t about to give up without a fight.

“I remember I had just closed down the Mill Valley [office] and was hurrying across the Golden Gate Bridge to tell Fillmore and Clay that they were closing. Meanwhile, of course, the Mill Valley agents were on the phone to Fillmore and Clay. I was kind of thrilled that the reaction I got was ‘We won’t go.’ They couldn’t tolerate the idea of being abandoned.”

Shortly after, Jon Douglas held an all-company meeting at the Beverly Hills Hotel. “We went up on stage and sang ‘San Francisco, open your Golden Gates, we at Jon Douglas wait outside your door,’ and the audience just loved it,” she recalls. “The banker and Jack [Douglas] were standing in the back of the room, and the banker leaned over and said they would give it some more time.”

In 1993, Graham went south again to manage the 140-agent Beverly Hills North office, which she led to record sales. When Douglas merged with NRT to become Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in 1997, Graham’s leadership helped Beverly Hills agents loyal to the Douglas name understand the value and stature of a national brand. Her office routinely was tops in the nation. Not surprisingly, Graham was named Manager of the Year in 1998 and 2002.

Her rise to Coldwell Banker’s executive suite in 2004 can be attributed in part to her ability to rally her troops and preserve a culture of success during chaotic times and challenging markets.

“Wherever she managed, that office did well,” observes Francisco.

“There really was nothing left for her to do. She needed more of a challenge.”

These days, Graham worries about the ability of her office managers and agents to weather the dramatic quieting of the Southern California luxury market.

“Financing is a greater challenge today for the high end,” says Graham. “I tell agents they have to look at where their business is derived. If the high end is quieter, then you have to expand to the periphery of your market.”

And she’s still unafraid of taking risks if it helps an agent make a sale.

Last October, Graham’s region took part in a 10-day national Coldwell Banker campaign that aggressively advertised homes whose sellers agreed to slice 10 percent off their price.

“The goal was to put a little heat in the market. At first we thought, ‘Oh, we don’t do that in L.A.,’ but as we got used to the idea, we felt we had an obligation to do it,” Graham states.

The strategy worked—to a degree. Some 200 sellers dropped their prices and buyers got out of their cars for a look. And there were some successes: In Santa Monica, for example, a $3-million property that previously was stalled received an offer from a Korean investor, for whom the reduction was a sign that the seller was willing to show his vulnerable side.

“The power is in the pricing,” Graham concludes. “We can’t direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.”

Stats

Gadget You Can’t Live Without: A thumb drive

(“I wear it around my neck like a piece of jewelry.”)

Favorite Web site: Inman.com

Actor Who Would Play Me: Jessica Lange

Passionate About: Her weekend retreat in Frazier Park.

Favorite Quote: “Do the right thing.”—Jon Douglas

Life’s Goal: “In the end, I want to live on a farm and be able to be self-sustaining. I don’t want to pick cotton again, but as the Roman poet Horace wrote: ‘This used to be among my prayers—a piece of land not so very large, which would contain a garden, and near the house a spring of ever-flowing water, and beyond these a bit of wood.’”

Roger Cruzen is a freelance writer.