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Norfolk — Realtor Wayne Russell has an unusual history with a certain house in Norfolk.
In 1968, it became the first house he ever sold.
The next year, he sold it again.
A few months ago, he sold it again.
Same house. Three times. Over the course of half a century.
“We’ve never come across anything like that,” says Denise Rose, a marketing specialist with The Real Estate Group, where Russell is an associate broker. “As far as we know, it’s unprecedented.”
There’s nothing particularly unique about the sticks and bricks — a few thousand square feet under asphalt shingle, circa 1950s, in a lineup of look-alikes on Johnstons Road in Larrymore Lawns.
Instead, the milestone is a testament to Russell’s longevity in the business — he’s 80 years old. And his habit of staying in touch with his clients.
Renee Anderson, whose parents bought the house through Russell in 1969 (sale No. 2) is the one who listed it with him again (sale No. 3) after her folks passed away.
“They lived there for 52 years,” Anderson says, “and Mr. Russell would stop by and talk, especially after Daddy died. He sent Mama a calendar every year.”
Russell can’t recall the exact price of the first sale in 1968 — somewhere around $18,500. But he does remember his commission check: $363.
“That check seemed huge to me,” says Russell, who was 28 at the time, newly married and in the second week of his career.
When that buyer, an assistant manager of Woolco — the Kmart of the times — was transferred the following year, Russell resold the house to Anderson’s parents, Robert and Jane Cheairs, for $21,700.
Don’t get too blown away by yesterday’s housing prices. That amount in 1969 would be close to $154,700 today.
“But a $20,000 house was upscale back then,” Russell says. “Larrymore Lawns was an executive neighborhood. Naval officers. Bank managers.”
Robert Cheairs was in the Navy, retiring as a master chief. Anderson was 6 when her family moved in, one of the first Black families in the neighborhood.
Over the years, it became fully integrated and more blue-collar.
“It was a good place to grow up,” Anderson says. “Nice neighbors.”
Naturally, Russell’s lengthy career has spanned plenty of changes. Roller coaster housing markets. Bubbles that burst in a flood of foreclosures. Rocketing mortgage rates, as high as 18 percent interest.
He remembers paper files instead of computers. Working the landlines instead of cellphones. Single-page contracts — with carbon paper to make copies — instead of a stack of documents that’s now inches thick.
Everything had to be hand delivered or dropped into a mailbox back in the day. Sellers and buyers actually met each other. Entire families were lugged around town to traipse through dozens of homes. No Zillow.
“People are buying houses over the internet now,” Russell says. “I just sold one to a guy in California and he’s never even seen it in person.”
Russell marvels at today’s “virtual staging” — where a home can be digitally “decluttered” for online photos, or filled with attractive furniture that doesn’t really exist.
“I pay a guy $25 a room to do it,” he says. “It’s amazing.”
The house on Johnstons Road fetched $280,000 in its latest change of hands. Anderson did a lot of remodeling to get that price.
Still, it was emotional to let go. A house is more than walls and ceilings. More than an investment.
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“That was my homestead,” Anderson says. “I’ll definitely drive by just to see it whenever I’m in that part of town.”
She and her husband, Raymond, live near Great Bridge in Chesapeake now. Russell was their agent for their current house, too.
“Whenever I’m ready to sell this one,” she says. “I’ll be calling Mr. Russell again.”
There’s a chance he’ll still be working. He likes what he does. His son is an agent, as well.
“I’m just piddling these days — mostly past clients and referrals,” Russell says. “And my father told me when you retire you die. So, I’m planning to keep going.”
Wouldn’t it be a hoot to sell that same Norfolk house again?
Joanne Kimberlin, 757-446-2338, joanne.kimberlin@pilotonline.com