The following interview by Editor Bill Bruns with Palisadian Scott Gibson, founder and owner of Gibson International in Brentwood, continues our series of monthly question-and-answer columns with leading realtors and real estate executives in Pacific Palisades.
BRUNS: Tell me a little about your parents and where you grew up.
GIBSON: I grew up in Palos Verdes, a community quite similar to Pacific Palisades. My mom was from Iowa and my dad was born and raised in Hermosa Beach. He met my mom during World War II and fought in the Pacific, notably on Tarawa.
BRUNS: As a teenager, what were your first paying jobs? Did you gain an early interest in becoming a businessperson, or an entrepreneur?
GIBSON: Our community had a jobs program for local youth to keep us busy, whereby local residents would call for services such as washing windows, garden work, even painting houses. I did a retaining wall one summer and had no idea was I was doing! While in college, I cooked and waited tables throughout Southern California for the Chart House restaurants.
BRUNS: How did you decide on where you went to college?
GIBSON: I was looking for a college where I could play baseball or basketball. I was 6’3” and I pitched and played first base and center field. I had a few scholarship offers for baseball, most notably Brown University, but ended up going to Long Beach State to play basketball. I made the team but did not play because of injury. I then transferred to USC and made the basketball team as a walk-on after getting an exemption from the Pac 8 to transfer, but I decided to transfer to UCLA to play baseball. I played a little there until they determined I was not going to be eligible to play for two years. So, I decided to focus on school and finish getting my degree, but I still believe I could have played baseball at any level if I had focused entirely on that.
BRUNS: After college, what was your first job, and how did you transition into real estate?
GIBSON: I started selling real estate right out of college, in 1978, for Dingy Real Estate in Marina Del Rey, which was shortly thereafter purchased by Harleigh Sandler, and then Merrill Lynch. At that point I went to work as the third agent in the Jon Douglas Company’s Marina office, and from there I went to manage for Fred Sands in Marina Del Rey and, in 1987, his Brentwood office.
BRUNS: Who were the important mentors in your early years?
GIBSON: All three owners—Harleigh Sandler, Jon Douglas and Fred Sands—contributed greatly in forming my approach to real estate and running a business. All three are considered nationally as important innovators and drivers of our business and the way it is done all throughout the country.
BRUNS: When did you work here in the Palisades?
GIBSON: Actually, I never worked out of a Palisades office for any company. I was an agent until 1983, and then became a sales manager for Fred Sands and the owner of Kent Realtors from 1988 to 1993, when it merged with Prudential. I became executive VP for the merged Prudential/Jon Douglas company until the sale of the company to Cendant (now Realogy) in 1997, when I was put in charge of converting all of the Jon Douglas company to Coldwell Banker, then moving to general sales manager of Southern California, then to president of the Coldwell Banker NRT operation in Los Angeles. Realogy had purchased the rights to operate under the Sotheby’s brand and I was asked to replace the individual who became president of the Sotheby’s brand in New Jersey.
BRUNS: What were your job responsibilities back East, and what did you like/dislike about living there, especially after always living close to the Pacific Ocean?
GIBSON: I was senior vice president for the northeastern region, meaning I had direct responsibility over eight operating companies under the different brands from Maine to Manhattan to Palm Beach. In addition, I managed a number of national initiatives for the company like talent growth, a new transaction platform, and redesigning how our offices were configured and what technology we should be implementing.
My wife and I were there for about three years, from 2004 to 2007. I loved the seasons and the people and New York; I did not like the humidity and all the leaves you had to rake up in the fall! I was reminded why we all love the lifestyle in Pacific Palisades.
BRUNS: How did you meet your wife, and what are your children up to today?
GIBSON: I met my wife, Suzy Shea, on Halloween night, and we got married in 1982. She was born and raised in the Palisades (one of six siblings), so we bought a home on Erskine Drive that year and moved in. We have three daughters: Heather, Hayley and Skyler, all of whom graduated from Palisades High and college. Heather (36) lives in Topanga with her husband, Shane Lerner, and their two boys, Landon and Kanan. Hayley (27) is married to Ricardo Brums and working on her MBA at USC, and Skyler (25) is living in Denver and working for Coldwell Banker.
BRUNS: When you left NRT/Realogy, how long until you decided to start Gibson International?
GIBSON: Once I decided I was ready to move onto a new career path, I took a year to investigate a number of options, including a job offer as managing partner for a partnership between a large U.S. company and a country in the Middle East to develop 10 residential projects around the Middle East. But I always came back to thinking about our home in Pacific Palisades and the Westside and what special places they are, especially in the world of real estate. With the full support of my wife, I made the decision to go forward with Gibson International in early 2008, after writing out my business plan.
BRUNS: Of course, by 2008 the economy and the real estate market were beginning to collapse. Did you have serious second thoughts about what you were trying to achieve?
GIBSON: While it was clear that real estate was slowing and a recession was coming, I have to admit I did not see the severity of the recession that came. There were many adjustments that I had to make to my original business plan. The challenge was to grow in a meaningful way while conserving resources to last out however long the recession was going to last, and in 2009, people were thinking that it was going to last forever.
I realized I did the right thing from the start; I just wished I had a little better timing. I have always been 110 percent committed to this and I have been especially fortunate to have such special people around me to support and help in every way including Suzy, who went back to working fulltime after 20 years.
BRUNS: How did you build your staff, starting with Pat Heller, who specializes in operations and staff development?
GIBSON: When I decided to start the company, I immediately thought about bringing on Pat as executive vice president, who I knew could help me build the type of company that would stand out for the way it treated its people and build a culture where people knew they were important. Pat has a fantastic knack at helping people work through problems and guiding them to achieving their goals. She also has a creative eye that enables her to see different ways things can be achieved within the company’s operations that few people I have worked with possess. Her positive energy is a shining light at Gibson.
BRUNS: How did you build an office from scratch and hire so many agents in such brutal economic times?
GIBSON: When Pat joined up with me, her reputation and standing within her former company, coupled with my standing within the community, enabled us to get agents to speak with us. The next thing we did, before we hired any agents, was bring in the best staff we could find to service our agents and their clients. Those two elements enabled us to successfully recruit highly respected, successful agents who were looking to make a change. The word spread about the positive culture that was being created at Gibson International. During those tough days, agents were and still are looking for a positive and strong leadership to help them get through hard days and keep them focused on being leaders for their clients.
BRUNS: How large is your office today?
GIBSON: We have grown to have 101 sales associates, who have an average of 15 years in the business, and only three have left. We have been very fortunate to maintain such a respected group of agents, and I’m humbled by the faith and trust they have given to me to help them in their careers. We have also built a successful escrow company, Vicente Escrow, and three weeks ago we opened our second Gibson office in Marina Del Rey on Washington Boulevard—close to where I began 35 years ago!
BRUNS: What about your outside interests, such as park softball and traveling?
GIBSON: I have not more than four days off in a row for seven years, but this summer we will take our first week-long family trip to Lake Tahoe. I have played softball in the real estate league at the Palisades Recreation Center for 30 years, I love fly-fishing and surf fishing, and I golf whenever I get invited to play by someone who can put up with my play.
BRUNS: I’d be interested in knowing more about your international clientele—where do they come from, how do they find you?
GIBSON: Our international clients come to us three main ways. First, through our Internet presence including our interactive Web site www.gibsonintl.com and a dynamic presence on many major real estate sites like Zillow and Trulia, where we work with our agents in building their presence and gaining leads. We’ve had many instances of international buyers reaching out to us and our agents directly because of this collaborative effort. Second, we belong to the world’s most successful international referral network, Leading Companies of the World. This network has high-end brokerage contacts in virtually every major country and does more sales over $1,000,000 than any other network or brand. Third, we have been developing relationships with large private wealth-management firms that are focused on servicing money coming in from other countries and that need a referral source for their clients to purchase homes on the Westside, including Pacific Palisades.
BRUNS: I like how your company has established the Gibson International Charitable Foundation as a way to give back to the Westside community.
GIBSON: I am particularly proud of our foundation as it was built solely with money contributed by the agents from their own commissions at the close of their escrows. We started this in 2009, during one of the most difficult times for agents, but they came through with their support. Our culture is one of teamwork and giving, and the foundation now distributes about $30,000 a year (and growing) to local charities, mostly supporting women and children.
BRUNS: Do you envision yourself always living in Pacific Palisades?
GIBSON: I don’t believe we will ever leave the Palisades. The people, our friends, their children, the climate, the charm of being our own special community is almost impossible to find anywhere else. Why would anyone leave heaven?”
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