VIP president: ‘In the quality of life business’

Charles Ashby COURTESY PHOTO Charles Ashby, president of the Fort Myers-based VIP Realty Group, says the economic downturn may have a positive, though admittedly painful, long-term effect on the economy of Southwest Florida.

“We were invited to a local bank with a group of CEOs in Lee County to discuss where we are, how did we get here and how do we go forward,” Mr. Ashby says. “And from that meeting, a very interesting conclusion emerged. The conclusion was that Southwest Florida suffers from an abundance. We have too many Realtors, too many real estate companies, too many banks, too many restaurants, too many of just about everything.”

This overabundance was brought about, Mr. Ashby continues, by the relatively latearriving influx of retirees and vacationers who flocked to the area within the last 20 or so years.

“When I came here in 1992, I-75 was not completed all the way to Miami,” Mr. Ashby recalls. “(Southwest Florida) became popular because it was in the tropics — like Miami and Lauderdale — but it wasn’t developed. So when the roads opened it up, it became very popular and one of the most active markets in the country.”

Part of the attraction stemmed from the area’s wide range of real estate deals — deals that were not available on the state’s east coast.

“Southwest Florida offered something for everybody,” he says. “If you had $10,000, you could buy a double-wide back in the farmlands and you had the same sun and same great weather that everybody else had. You didn’t get priced out here. We had some of the most elite properties in the country and we had some of the least-expensive properties all within one market area.”

Of course, as we all learned, the bigger the boom, the bigger the bust. And Mr. Ashby, whose company lists properties throughout Southwest Florida, says the downturn is separating the strong from the weak.

“The market itself has sought out anybody in the service business that is doing a good job,” he says. “So the for-sale-byowner market and some of the smaller real estate companies that weren’t doing the necessary training or providing adequate support to their customers have gone by the wayside. The strong (companies) that are well managed and well capitalized are seeing a thriving market.”

VIP, which opened in 1975 and operates actively in the Naples, Fort Myers, Bonita, Sanibel and Captiva markets, has seen a 20 percent upswing in business. But that increase begs for perspective.

“More people are selling and more people are buying with VIP by about 20 percent, that is correct,” Mr. Ashby says. “But at the same time that units have gone up, the average sales price has gone down.”

Mr. Ashby declines to provide specific sales figures for the firm, which employs about 200 agents and 100 support personnel. VIP’s Web site lists more than 40,000 properties in Southwest Florida.

A Kentucky native, Mr. Ashby traveled a serpentine route to VIP and Southwest Florida. After studies at the University of Kentucky, where he met his future wife, Cindy, Mr. Ashby bought a real estate company in Evansville, Ind. As he became more invested in the Indiana market, he merged with the F.C. Tucker Company in Indianapolis, which is Indiana’s largest real estate firm.

“The owners of the Tucker Company all wintered and vacationed in Sanibel and Naples, and they heard that The Mariner Group here in Lee County might be interested in something with VIP, which they owned. VIP had an excellent reputation and marketing position.”

Talks between the Tucker Company and Mariner eventually collapsed and Tucker decided instead to strengthen its Indiana stake. As part of this decision, Tucker purchased Mr. Ashby’s firm, which was franchised and also agreed that he could begin his own talks with Mariner. Mr. Ashby came to Southwest Florida in 1992, and in 1993 the sale of VIP was completed.

“Our goal from the beginning was to fill out the Southwest Florida area and we’ve pretty much done that,” Mr. Ashby recounts in the soft Kentucky drawl that still flavors his speech. “We’re not involved in the Marco market directly or the Charlotte market directly, but we sell and list properties in those two areas, although we don’t maintain offices in those places.”

VIP has had to adapt to the changing economic conditions, but Mr. Ashby says the company’s strong financial base has made the transition possible.

He points out: “Eighty percent of the Lee County market has been foreclosures and short sales, which has to be unique in the United States. So, we represent government agencies in the sales of these houses in areas we’d never done before. We work with bankowned properties that we never handled before. You’ve got to fish where the fish are.”

Mr. Ashby, who is 63 and lives in Naples, spends parts of each year abroad, either at a home he and his wife own on the French coast at Brittany or at the apartment they maintain in Paris. When in France, Mr. Ashby continues to put in a full work day.

“The only difference is the six-hour time change, which means that I go to work at two p.m. there, which is eight a.m. here. The kickoffs for Monday Night Football come at three in the morning, so I have set my alarm to watch football when I’m over there.”

Mr. Ashby says he does not consider himself to be in the real estate business per se.

“Our mission statement has remained unchanged for the last 20 years or so,” he explains. “For sellers, we want the most amount of money in the least amount of time. For buyers, we maximize their quality of life. I know that sounds trite, but it is absolutely correct. We are not in the real estate business; we are in the quality of life business.” 