What’s in a name? 87 Years of Service to TN
By Matt McGarry
One might wonder, as Shakespeare did in Romeo and Juliet: What’s in a name? Well, the partners at Wallace Real Estate have given that quite a bit of thought lately.
Ask Claudia Stallings, Chief Operating Officer at Wallace Real Estate, and she’ll tell you: “The Wallace family name has been known locally for providing exceptional real estate guidance for 87 years. As you can imagine, the East Tennessee market has changed quite a bit since then. It has changed since the company became a franchise 35 years ago. And it has changed in just the last few years. We have adapted and evolved with the market, and the next step for us is to return to our roots as an independent firm.”
This month, Coldwell Banker Wallace became Wallace Real Estate. And while the name is changing, many things—such as the foundational principles and practices that have made the firm one of East Tennessee’s premier real estate agencies—will never change. This company has had a Wallace—in fact, a pair of them—at the helm for decades.
Over the last 87 years, Wallace Real Estate has grown from a single office in the Journal Arcade building on Gay Street housing four or five employees to seven offices housing nearly 500 staff members and agents. “The company was started in 1936 by my uncle Charles Wallace and his father,” says Jim Wallace, the company’s Chief Financial Officer. “In 1945, Charles’ brother, my father, J.A. Wallace, joined after World War II.” Jim joined in 1974 followed by his brother, George Wallace, the company’s current Chief Executive Officer, less than a decade later. After the two original Wallace brothers passed away, the company became a Coldwell Banker affiliate, offering George and Jim a platform to grow their already thriving business.
While the Wallace family has always seen the value of changing with the times and market—“you need to be flexible and adaptable in this business,” says Jim—they’ve also understood the value of, well, not changing too much.
Over time, it became apparent to the firm’s partners that in order to truly give the local market the attention and service it needed, they needed to be able to make nimble decisions on their own. Which is why the firm announced this month it would part ways with Coldwell Banker and become Wallace Real Estate. “We have flexibility that we didn’t have before, which is very important in the local market,” says George. “More importantly, this is a way to protect a culture that the Wallace family has spent 87 years fostering, a culture of caring about people, their agents and staff… their families, as well.”
This last piece is critical. “It really is all about our agents,” says Andrew McGranaghan, Chief Development Officer. “Our agents are the ones that connect with the consumers at the end of the day, and we truly care about each and every one of them. This is really a move to support them.”
The services and commitment to the East Tennessee community remain, as does the Wallace name, which according to George is an important part of this company’s nearly nine-decade-long-history. “Our family name is on hundreds of signs all over the internet and on people’s tongues, which means our personal reputation is connected to every single customer experience. The character, professionalism, and knowledge of each agent who carries our name matters to us. The fact that every single agent is a client-focused professional matters to us. The fact that we back each of our agents with the unmatched set of tools they need to be the very best matters to us. And it matters that every one of our customers trusts their representative to act in their best interest. That is who we are.”
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