He started the company in 1972 the day he graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a $2,500 loan from the Realtors Credit Union and pledged his car as collateral.
Six months later, with the help of a college friend, Goodwin began hiring and training real estate agents. His firm now has 680 agents in four offices in Austin and San Antonio.
“I did not know it was going to work out,” he said. “I was a believer in hard work and perseverance and was very fortunate to have decided to [open this business] in a city like Austin because the city has been for the last 43 years just continuing to grow. Frankly that in our business is a pretty good thing. I don’t want to write it all off to luck, but it’s pretty lucky to be here.”
The company represents buyers and sellers of residential and commercial properties, helps individuals and corporations relocate, and leases commercial and residential properties. Goodwin said it also has affiliations with companies for property management, title and mortgage services.
JBGoodwin Realtors initially expanded into Houston and San Antonio but closed those offices and was based solely in Austin from 1984 to 2009. The San Antonio office reopened in 2009. Goodwin said pulling back to focus on Austin was a personal decision.
“I had adopted my youngest son, and Austin was growing so fast that I didn’t want to divide my attention from both my family and my business,” he said.
This attention on family is in the company’s motto of helping people, employees included.
“Even though we’re a corporation we treat everybody and each other like we’re family members,” Goodwin said.
JBGoodwin Realtors is also one of just a handful of real estate firms that covers the entire Austin metro area, from Georgetown to San Marcos. In that region, Northwest Austin continues to come out on top as one of the most desirable places because of the schools, easy access to downtown, shopping and traffic.
“That’s where the most people are,” he said.
Besides reaching residents of Austin, Goodwin said the company has a global reach and has invested in technology to enable agents to handle transactions throughout the world.
“We rely in a much larger degree today on technology than we did in the past so that our agent partners and staff members are a lot more [mobile],” he said. “We have a saying in our company: We’re local, but we’re also global.”
Tips for buyers and sellers
Homebuyers: Founder J.B. Goodwin said buyers need to be prepared by getting prequalified for a loan and gathering any information they would need to make an offer on the spot. He said buyers should also view enough homes, whether that is 10 or 50, until they feel comfortable in making an offer. He said to be prepared if the first or second choice does not go through.
Sellers: Goodwin said sellers need to get their homes in the best possible condition before putting it on the market. Next is pricing it reasonably. Even though Austin is still considered a seller’s market, Goodwin said pricing a property too high could cause it to sit on the market for a longer period of time.
