Pat Harris is the co-CEO of Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette Real Estate of Fayetteville.
Raised in Rogers, Harris became a licensed real estate agent in 1972, going on to form Harris McHaney Realtors of Rogers in 1976. In December 1997, he bought Shearin & Co. of Rogers, which merged with Coldwell Banker Faucette Real Estate of Fayetteville in February 2010. The firm, which markets real estate in northwest Arkansas, northeast Oklahoma and southwest Missouri, is staffed by more than 200 agents who work out of three additional offices in Rogers, Bentonville and Siloam Springs.
Harris held the rank of petty officer third class and served with the Navy in Alaska supporting the USS Pueblo and monitoring the Soviet military in 1965-68. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1970.
What is your favorite part of doing what you do for a living?
Working with our agents and brokers as they grow their businesses and mature in their profession. We are in the people business, and watching them help families sell and buy homes and properties has become a very rewarding experience for both them and myself.
What are the most significant changes you’ve seen in the residential real estate business?
Our business has grown larger than I ever imagined (thank you, northwest Arkansas). During this period of more than 40 years, our profession, like many other professions, has made many changes and improvements in how we operate, especially as it relates to the interaction with the public. The communication and marketing tools that we now have available to us are certainly state-of-the-art equipment. When I started in the business we had five different MLS boards and now we have one, the largest single MLS board of Realtors in Arkansas.
What is the state of the residential real estate market in northwest Arkansas?
The market through the first five months of this year is slightly ahead in number of units sold, and the average sales price has moved upward slightly. Inside the market, the homes under $300,000 are moving extremely well, and the homes above $500,000 have slowed down. You have to remember that we are comparing against a strong 2016 real estate market.
Who are your mentors, people who made a difference in your life?
My wife, Lynnette, Jack McHaney, George Faucette, Jim Shearin and a host of other brokers and agents that I have had the privilege to work with. The values and work ethic of each of these individuals set a standard and a commitment to excellence that has guided me throughout the years.
What’s the best advice you ever received?
Come to work early and stay until the job is done regardless of the hour of the day. Put each person that you are working with first in your mind and your heart. Your devotion to these principles will carry you throughout your professional life, and your reputation will be written by the smiles and satisfaction you had the opportunity to help make.
Mistakes are said to deliver some of the most meaningful lessons. What was the most important mistake that has helped shape your career?
Thinking that the market would always continue to move upward instead of an occasional downward drop and not being properly prepared for such action. The real estate market is much more complex than you think, even for someone like myself who has worked in it for so many years. The market is made up of so many different forces of supply and demand, job growth, culture, environment and human interactions that it makes it almost impossible to understand it, much less to forecast it. The free enterprise system is alive and well in northwest Arkansas’ real estate market.