Nothing seems to deter Joy Bailey.
At 70, the owner of Joy Real Estate has thrived, both personally and professionally, through the trials of discrimination, economic upheaval and technological revolution.
Opening her real estate business in the late ’70s, Miss Joy (as even her son and business associate, Craig, calls her) faced an interest-rate roller coaster that has never been equaled. In 1975, when Joy Real Estate opened its doors, interest rates lolled at around 8 percent. By 1978, they were up to nearly 12 percent. And in 1980, they reached nosebleed heights of 21.5 percent – a level never seen before or since.
What a time to start a business that would rise or fall based on people being able to get financing to make large purchases. But it didn’t stop Miss Joy.
“I didn’t fathom it was a problem. What others see as a problem, I see a just a speed bump. Something we have to get past. We found creative ways to get owner financing,” she recalled.
During the more recent recession, Bailey found the same perseverance and aggressiveness helped her steer her business successfully through more rocky shoals. “We really didn’t suffer that much [during the recession],” she says. “It’s your mindset. If you think there’s no business out there, then there is no business out there.”
This sheer will to succeed has been instilled in her son, Craig, her daughter, Pam, and granddaughter Brittany, all of whom work with her.
“We aren’t afraid of failure,” says Craig Bailey, managing broker, “because we know we can make it back. We may get knocked down, but we recover and get back up.”
The most important thing he learned from his mom? “To fearlessly lean into opportunity, if it’s worth going after.”
Started by a fluke
And so it has been for Joy Real Estate. The brokerage is the largest independent real estate agency born and based in Greenville County. Eighty brokers strong, the company had $72 million in sales volume in 2015 and sold 434 units.
Joy Bailey fell into real estate through a fluke of a sale in 1970: With no license and no agency, “I sold a house without the people ever going inside.” A local banker told her she should be in real estate, but her efforts to get a job with a local agency were met with discrimination. “We don’t hire women,” she was told. “But I didn’t let it hold me back.” She went to night school, earned a license and “eventually found someone to hire me.”
“She won’t tell you this,” interjects Craig Bailey, “but when she first started the company, she would only hire women.”
“I was going to take all the women who were being told they can’t do this and bring them under my wing. And we’re going to go forward together,” Joy Bailey said. Fifteen years later, she and her husband and business partner, David, bought the agency in a “friendly” deal from the broker who first turned her away.
Bailey’s accomplishments in her industry have been a series of firsts: First woman president of the MLS and Greater Greenville Association of Realtors. First woman Realtor of the Year.
Is she a feminist? “Not at all,” she says. “I like to instill confidence in women.”
It seems that about the only thing that gets her ire up is excuses. “If I have a problem, it’s a lack of patience for people who are not willing to work and better themselves. Wasted talent? Oh my goodness gracious, I cannot stand it.”
Growing market
Although she’s comfortable with the new technology that has been developed to fuel the industry, she isn’t married to it. Technology is a tool, but it takes a backseat to relationships and customer service, Bailey says. She has encyclopedic knowledge of the market and near-instant recall of it. She asks where you live and can immediately throw out a couple of key stats about your home and its value on the market. She jokes that she’s awful with names, but can remember the floor plan of just about any home she’s ever sold.
Both Baileys are excited about the Greenville real estate market. Joy Bailey cites reports that 2,000 new jobs were created in the county in 2015. That job growth coupled with the popularity of new downtown developments predict a strong 2016 and beyond, she says.
A surprising trend is the number of cash sales being made by millennial buyers, Joy Bailey notes. “I’ve had more cash deals in the last two years than I’ve had in the previous 40,” she says. Millennial buyers are reluctant to put their money into a turbulent market and are putting cash in the safer investment of real estate, she says.
The agency, with Craig Bailey taking on more of the management and business duties, sees unlimited potential growth fueled by a strong market, strategic partnerships and the “untapped” international market.
Joy Bailey attributes much of her success to great mentors, and she’s giving back by providing that mentorship to others. “The good Lord has a plan for me to help others,” she says. But helping is not coddling. Not in Miss Joy’s book. “If you want a raise, make more calls. Real estate is a no-limit business. There’s no limit to what someone can do.”
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By the book
In 1974, David Bailey sat down with a business ledger and some sharpened pencils. It was well before calculators and computers, he said, so he charted out the business plan for Joy Real Estate on graph paper and an accountant’s ledger.
“He spelled out the goals we had to meet to stay in business,” Joy Bailey says.
The first year, 1975, David Bailey said they had to make $5,000 or they would have to move on to something else. He mapped out a one-year, five-year and 20-year plan and monitored and updated it monthly, writing in totals that he added up by hand.
“It’s astonishing,” says Joy Bailey, ”to look back at this now.”
They made their goal in 1975 and have exceeded goals ever since. Recently, David Bailey, affectionately referred to by some as the “man behind the curtain,” retired the book. “We’ve about used that plan up,” he says.
