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Specialization: Commercial/Industrial buildings, Land
Hobbies: Planting trees, volunteer work
Ann Arbor Office: 734.663.6694
Email: gary.lillie@svn.com |
Gary Lillie; "Driven by Legacies"
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The picture of the Scots was taken in 1914, and includes my grandfather, 'Grandy,' his three brothers, an uncle and a family friend. The only one in the picture that survived World War I was Grandy, seated in the middle. In 1918, when the War ended, Grandy returned to Scotland and continued working in the coalmines. He and my grandmother, 'Baba,' saved every pence that they could and by 1922, had enough for Grandy's passage to America. In 1924, he sent for his wife. My dad and his brother George (Dodie in Scot) stayed behind to live with an aunt an uncle. At age 14, my dad began working in the coalmines. There he developed into a soccer star and his company team, composed of teenagers, won the Allison Cup in Scotland's top adult league, two years in a row.
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At the age of 16, my dad quit the coal mine and he and Dodie boarded a steamer to Ellis Island. In America, dad and Grandy worked as coal miners, Baba found domestic work and Dodie went to school until he was old enough for the mines.
My mother has told me stories of growing up in Pennsylvania with her four sisters and six brothers. In those days, daily struggle was a way of life for most immigrant families. Then the Depression hit.
What sticks in my mind is a story of my grandparents preparing the garden in the spring. After he came home from work in the coal mine, my grandfather strapped himself to a horse-drawn plow and pulled it through the poor, rocky dirt while my grandmother steered with the wooden handgrips. The luxury of owning a horse was an abstract thought.
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Five of my mother's brothers served in WWII. They all survived, despite being constantly in the thick of battle. Emil, a rifleman, caught the tail-end of the 1942 battle of Kasserine Pass in North Africa, then went on to participate in the invasions of Sicily and Italy. As a Ranger, on June 6, 1944 he was in the first wave at Normandy. During the famous invasion, he was forced to swim ashore when, due to the intense fire, the landing craft operator refused to go all the way to the beach. Ditching their gear in order to stay afloat, those who didn't drown crawled from the ocean onto the shore of France with no weapons to fight with. Emil's platoon eventually regrouped and rearmed themselves, then scaled the cliffs to disarm the German artillery. The following months took him through France, and then to the Battle of the Bulge. In April 1945 he was sent home, just prior to the German surrender.
One day when I was at home alone, Emil came over for a visit. He spotted a book I was reading about a WWII battle and said, "I was there." For the next hour, he recounted his experiences. I was 14 at the time, and will always remember my sense of amazement while this quiet hero shared his history with me. Later, I would learn the emotions that go along with such stories.
I tell all of this about my family because I find it bewildering when I hear others complain of hard work or hard times.
It was the legacy above that led me to join the U.S. Navy Seabees in 1963, when the draft was looming on the horizon. The Seabees had established themselves as a rough-and-tumble, hard-working, hard-playing, hard-fighting outfit in World War II, and this appealed to me. When the Vietnam War escalated in 1965, I was already on active duty, and it just seemed natural that I volunteer for it. I made a nuisance of myself at the personnel office until I received orders to join a unit bound for Chu Lai.
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In Vietnam, our job description was to build things, not fight. I volunteered to be a waist gunner on Marine helicopters, but my superior turned me down, saying that he didn't want to write any letters home. Combat took place around us at times, and to this day I have the deepest respect and admiration for the American 'grunt,' as foot soldiers are called. It was this respect for the grunts that drove us to work so hard, building facilities to support them. My unit, MCB-3, was named the "Best of Type" in 1966 and awarded the battle flag "E," meaning we were rated as the best Seabee battalion that year. We also received three other well-earned unit commendations.
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An example of our efforts was the construction of the 3,500-foot crosswind runway at Chu Lai. As the War escalated, it became evident the Marines would need close-in air support during the monsoon season. We were given the month of September to build the runway, in addition to completing every other job we had already been assigned. We were already working 12-hour days, 6 ½ days a week, but through superb planning, hard labor and some extra hours, we accomplished all of our assignments.
When I returned home I worked in a Detroit auto plant, but quickly grew restless. I quit the plant and went to work as a carpenter. It wasn't long before I noticed that there weren't many old carpenters around. Realizing that I made a poor career choice, I decided to move on. It was then that my friend's father, a real estate broker, asked me to work for him. I liked the idea-besides, I swore that after Vietnam I'd never walk in mud again-exactly what I was doing as a carpenter.
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In 1967 I entered the real estate business working for Bill Jennings, an eccentric Canadian who once played for the Detroit Red Wings. Bill was an avid outdoorsmen with a passion for land. This suited me just fine. As a child, I had spent a lot of time canoeing, fishing, hunting and camping in northern Michigan and Ontario. Selling homes was something I would do, but my heart was in the land.
Bill's office was located in the then-agricultural community of Farmington. Looking for an excuse to spend time in Northern Michigan, Bill listed a farm for sale, and quickly began to advertise for more. Within a few months he and his family were taking weekly trips to Crystal Mountain Ski Lodge, where he set up real estate appointments.
I made my first sale that winter of 1968, a farm that Bill listed. The bizarre thing was, that I never showed the property! I directed the buyers to the site with a map and they decided to buy it. To this day, I've never seen that 80-acre hilltop and can't even locate it on a map. I recall a farm home, complete with an orchard and views of Lake Michigan to the west and Grand Traverse Bay to the east. The price reflected the isolated location of a lonely farm on the Leelenau Peninsula, just north of Traverse City: $8,500 on favorable terms, with a $500 rebate for a new well! I traveled north with Bill to present the offer to the sellers.
I had never seen Northwestern Michigan and was awestruck by its winter beauty. We stayed at the ski lodge and Bill spent money freely. I went back to Detroit just to get more clothes and moved north to the Crystal Mountain Ski Lodge, where I spent my first winter in the real estate business living in a chalet. Bill and I sold home sites, hunting land, farms, orchards, riverfront, lakefront, commercial and development land. We carried a reputation for hard work and innovative marketing.
I learned a lot from Bill and gained valuable experience working for him. He was unorthodox, exuberant, creative, and far-sighted. He was also a pain in the neck.
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Eventually, I missed playing hockey with my friends in Detroit. I had a love/hate affair with the position of goaltender, having started playing before anyone wore masks. Despite the stitches and the frustration when the red light went on behind my neck, I needed to get back in the nets.
In 1969, I moved to Ann Arbor and have been here ever since. My first job was selling advertising for the old Huron Valley Advisor, where I eventually became sales manager. My goal was to spend two years learning marketing and earning a regular paycheck while I learned the lay of the land. Selling real estate in an unfamiliar area is difficult; I had done that once and didn't care to do it again.
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That's pretty much my story. I subsequently worked for several real estate firms in Ann Arbor, including Standard Realty, owned by Craig Hall. Craig went on to syndicate and purchase tens of thousands of apartment units and office buildings, write a number of highly successful investment books, and become part-owner of the Dallas Cowboys. He reportedly took down three lending institutions plus the Speaker of the House when the Savings & Loan scandal broke.
I worked for a number of the largest residential firms in Washtenaw County, as well as a few of smaller ones. One thing is the same in every agency-few brokers and even fewer agents know how to sell vacant land. They think that all you need to do is put a sign in the ground and the job is done. I get frustrated when other agents and brokers ask my advice on how to sell their land listings.
I've sold and closed on a number of building sites that had previously been declared "unbuildable." In fact, I learned ex post that one University of Michigan professor was trying to give his acre lot away because it wouldn't 'perk,' when he received a letter from me asking if he would sell. I sold the property, 'perked' it, and closed a cash sale for fair market value.
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I truly believe that the team that I've assembled at Gary Lillie & Associates is the most qualified in southeastern Michigan for selling the types of property we specialize in; vacant land and non-residential properties of all classifications. On occasion, we sell new homes for handful of builders, so we can still put you in a home. And I must say, my agent Bob Butler goes against the grain and loves to sell homes. But land and 'investment' property is our forte.
Why have I written such a lengthy history to establish the essence of my company? Simply to tell you that hard work and commitment are part of my heritage and I offer that to the people I work with and for. When you do business with Gary Lillie & Associates, we guarantee our personal and professional dedication to quality in every dimension of the sale.
Sincerely,
Gary Lillie |
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