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Lunch with Ernest

Realty, racing, and the Amazon

By ERNEST HOOPER
Published June 24, 2005

Henry Brosnaham IV has worn a lot of hats during his 60 years: pilot, race car driver, balloonist and South American mining supervisor.

In this part of the world, Brosnaham is best known as a real estate agent. He started in real estate in 1985, gave it up to move to South America in 1991, and returned to the area in 1997. Now he's a broker/owner for Exit Realty in Apollo Beach.

Pull up a chair and join us.

Things were great until the late '80s, and then the recession started. It was terrible - you couldn't give away a house. We were selling like hotcakes until the recession hit, and then it was like somebody flipped a switch. I was faced with a decision of renewing my lease for another five years, and it didn't look like the economy was going to recover in the next few months, so I told all my staff, Let me help y'all make some nice resumes.

We were operating for a while in French Guiana and basically the heart of the Amazon, and we were in some areas where the monkeys had never seen people before. You could tell if you were really in a remote area because the monkeys would look at you from the trees. Had people been around there, they would run like jackrabbits because people would shoot them and eat them.

I moved to Brandon in July of '75 and it was a small neat little town with a touch of country, but close to Tampa. I used to ride my horse around Bloomingdale. There were dirt roads and stuff, and now it has a whole different atmosphere. But I knew it was going to continue to grow because it has so much to offer. Over the years, having dealt with a lot of out of town developers, when they see the Apollo Beach area they liken it to San Diego or Fort Myers.

It sure has, and there's so much on the burner that hasn't surfaced yet that in the next three years, people won't even recognize where they are.

It's an interesting point because I'm part of one of the pioneer families of Florida. My family goes back to Pensacola to the Spanish era. An old New York surgeon moved to Pensacola in the early 1800s, and Florida was still occupied by Spain at that time. Ultimately, he married this Spanish surgeon's daughter whose roots went back to 1783. So I'm an eighth-generation Floridian. To answer your question, if my ancestors had taken the attitude of a lot of these not-in-my-backyarders, they wouldn't be in this state.

I agree, and a lot of the real estate properties I'm involved in are fairly large tracts. Some of these folks have owned this property 30, 40 or 50 years, they're elderly and they're trying to cash out. They've maintained it, they've paid taxes on it all these years, and then sometimes, they get tremendous opposition from neighbors that have only recently moved to the area.

I've kind of always had it in my blood. I raced go-carts when I was little. I determined I was going to try it, so I went to the Sports Car Club of America and did there regional and national training, and then I went to the Road Atlanta professional racing school held by the late Jim Fitzgerald, who was one of the top drivers in the United States. He also was Paul Newman's racing partner. My first professional race was the St. Pete Grand Prix in '87. It was real exciting because everybody knew that I knew Fitzgerald and had met Paul Newman several times. In fact, Newman used to sneak out through our tent because the people were all around his big motorhome. The race started and unfortunately about the second or third lap, Fitzy hit the wall and got killed. It was such a great day and then in a period of about two seconds, I came around the turn and saw his car. I knew it was bad.

I honestly thought, I'm not going to race anymore. This is not fun. Well, about December they sent out the entries for the 24 Hours of Daytona. I got a call or fax from Newman, and I asked him if he was going to race, and he said, Yeah, Fitzy would want us to. So we raced several years and my best finish was seventh at the 24 Hours and sixth at the 12 Hours of Sebring.

I was previously with another company, Remax. I wore the colors proud. When I turned 55, I was fixing to do my taxes, and I kept seeing articles in Florida Realtor about Exit and about retirement residuals and death benefits. I kiddingly asked my broker, "What kind of retirement plan do you have for me in four or five years?" and he laughed. That's normal because all the other real estate companies, for the most part, are fine companies, but they're two-dimensional. They teach their agents two things: get listings, make sales. Exit has a third income stream called residuals. If you work for Exit and you meet some sharp person and you think they'll be an asset to the company, if we hire that person you are their sponsor and you would receive 10 percent of residual income on that person's production as long as you're both with the company. If you decide, I don't want to do this anymore, every time someone you sponsored has a closing you would get 7 percent instead of 10 percent, as long as she works with the company. If you fall off the boat and drown, your estate, your kids, whoever, would get 5 percent as long she works for the company. It's a great concept.

What Steve Morris (Exit CEO) has created is an environment where we try to encourage everyone to really visualize their dreams. They have "Your Life Plan," and it basically addresses goals. Most people have no idea about goals. This thing is so specific. It addresses what's your house going to look like, what kind of car are you going to drive, where are your kids going to college. It makes you do some serious soul searching. Without it, it would be like trying to drive my boat to China without a compass.

Exactly. Steve Morris will tell you God gives us all the ability to have pretty much anything we want. You have to be careful with what you want, but most people focus on their needs. If you focus on your needs, that's just what you'll get, just what you need.

How much has Brandon changed? When Brosnaham first moved here, he lived near the Brandon Airport - yes, Brandon had an airport - and flew planes from a small runway near Providence Road. And he helped start the Brandon Balloon Festival, which was first held on an empty field on the northwest corner of Valrico Road and State Road 60. That empty field has since become a Publix. Henry's race car was known as the Spirit of Brandon; his sponsors included Little Caesar's Pizza, Bayfront Medical Center, attorney Clif Curry and Jesse's restaurant. He plans to get back on the track, likely renting drive time with another team.

Ernest Hooper also writes a column for the Tampa & State section of the St. Petersburg Times. Lunch With Ernest is edited for brevity and clarity. To suggest lunch partners, call Ernest at 226-3406 or e-mail hooper@sptimes.com

[Last modified June 23, 2005, 13:28:20]