HOME PRICES, PROCEDURES CHANGE DRASTICALLY; `WE WOULD LIST A HOUSE AT 10, AND BY 2 IT WOULD BE SOLD'

After receiving his discharge from the Army in February of 1946, Thomas L. Meyer had no idea what he was going to do. He had joined the Army with a friend as a way of avoiding shoe factory work in Perryville, and now he was back in Southeast Missouri.

His wife did not want to return to Perryville, so Meyer stopped by the employment office in Cape Girardeau and talked with Woodrow Wilson about the kind of opportunities in the job market for a young man like himself.

Wilson referred him to Ben Vinyard Realty Co., at Spanish and Broadway. And, in March 1946, "I agreed to go to work there, not knowing a darn thing about real estate," said Meyer.

Forty-seven years later, Meyer is still in the real estate business, operating his own business and proud of the fact that he has worked to improve the real estate profession and played a role in bringing new industry to Cape Girardeau.

When Meyer started with Vinyard, the company was one of six real estate firms in the city. The others were: Deevers, F.E. Brown, Al Hunze, John Craig, and Popp and Springer.

In his early days of real estate, listings were hard to come by, but sales were fast. "Very few houses were for sale because during the war years none were built," said Meyer. "We would list a house at 10 a.m. and by 2 the house was sold. If you had five or six listings, that was considered a lot because there might be 30-40 houses for sale in the whole town."

Now, closing a home loan normally takes about six weeks; in his early days in the business, closings were only a matter of hours.

"We would make a sale at 9 a.m., talk to Cape Girardeau Savings or First Federal; it was not unusual to talk to them by 10 and close the next day by noon."

Even Veterans Administration loans could be completed within two days, and even faster if someone drove to St. Louis with the paperwork.

"Everybody was willing to work together. We did not have all this government interference; everyone had a feeling of trust and confidence," explained Meyer. "In those days, people would shake your hand and that was their bond. That may still be true today, but the regulators want it all signed and all t's crossed and i's dotted."

He added, "In 1946 you did not have to know much, because there was not a heck of a lot to know. Really, all you needed was money to buy a house ... it was an arm's length transaction like you buy a car."

With the changing times, property values have also increased. Meyer recalled a house on College Street he sold for $4,200 in his early days in the business, he later bought for $15,000, re-sold it, and then sold it for someone later for $23,000.

Later, Meyer also got into the home construction business. During his time as a builder, Meyer estimates his company built 75-100 homes, including 29 one year.

In the early 1950s, a frame house with two bedrooms, gas heat, located on a paved street with 720 square feet sold for about $6,200.

Meyer pointed out that a brick, story and a half home he built 25 years ago and sold for $12,000, which had been well maintained over the years, recently sold for $57,000.

To get his first realtors license in 1946, Meyer recalled that all he had to do was send $2.25 with an application to Jefferson City, mailed with a 3-cent stamp. Three years later, when Meyer decided to open his own office, he took a written exam to get his broker's license.

On April 15, 1950, Meyer opened his own office at 120 North Sprigg, becoming the sixth real estate broker in town.

"I had no secretary or other sales people for the first six months," Meyer said.

In 1954, he moved to his current location at 230 N. Sprigg.

In the early 1950s, the real estate business started changing, with an increased emphasis on the use of VA and FHA loans and other innovative loan programs. There was also a move to license real estate agents and a recognition of the need for professionalism in the industry.

In 1953, Meyer helped organize the Cape County Board of Realtors, which now has over 200 members. There were nine charter members, with Meyer serving as secretary/treasurer. The first president was John Craig, Mike McCrate was vice president, and other members included Fred Springer, John Popp, John Riley, Al Hunze, and Lura Vinyard.

As the town continued to grow, realtors became more involved with commercial real estate. In 1958, Meyer landed the city's first big industrial prospect when Armstrong Cork Co. purchased 1,100 acres near the airport. The firm had purchased 50,000 acres of woodlands in this region and hoped to build a plant here.

But technology changed, and Armstrong never built its planned facility. In the early 1960s, the Greater Cape Development Corp. bought 119 acres, and later tracts were sold as the Nash Road Industrial Park. Armstrong still owns 240 acres of its original tract that is for sale.

In the mid-60s, Meyer said the city saw an increased interest from national concerns to locate in Cape Girardeau. For example, K-Mart, to whom he sold the land for its store, was one of the first of several major chains that started moving to town.

But Meyer's most exciting industrial prospect was Procter and Gamble. In 1968, he put together the sale of a 1,300-acre tract north of Trail of Tears Park to the company. They had inquired about locations in the area, and Meyer had found the tract north of the park and a similar size tract south of the park for company officials to consider.

One day he received a call from Procter and Gamble officials asking him to come to Cincinnati to close the deal. They had decided on the north tract.

"You never really know where you are with industrial prospects until they say `we're ready to go.' That's when things start happening," said Meyer.

During his visit to Cincinnati, P&G officials handed Meyer a news release and told him to call a press conference in Cape Girardeau and announce they were coming. "Nobody knew who they were until I announced it," said Meyer. "That's the only way to work with large prospects like that. They prefer to work in secrecy."

The announcement of P&G's decision to bring 1,200-1,400 jobs to this county led to a boom in the area real estate market, particularly commercial development.

"All of these things happened largely because Procter and Gamble decided if it (Cape Girardeau) is good enough for Armstrong Cork it is good enough for us; if it's good enough from P&G, it's good enough for us. One thing leads to another. All of these announcements build on the other."

Meyer explained that both Armstrong Cork and P&G had investigated Cape Girardeau as a site before local officials knew anything about their interest. Both firms had people dressed like hunters surveying land areas around the city before they contacted his company, Meyer said.

"Any time an industrial company wants to move in, they've pretty much already decided they want to be here," said Meyer, adding that it usually boils down to how much land they need and helping them find it.

The entire real estate profession has changed dramatically over the years, requiring more training. Meyer owns a local real estate school that provides training required for real estate license tests and continuing education classes.

Having good knowledge of changes in real estate is essential to being successful and keeping up with the times, Meyer says. "The real estate business has gone from `I want to sell, I want to buy' and where we make a deal, the money passes and the deal is done.

"Today, real estate is a highly sophisticated situation. A well informed individual can do well in this business, especially if you are concerned about being well educated and not worried about how many hours they work."

Now, Meyer points out, real estate is "a constant paper war. We've gone from a lead pencil and small notebook to highly sophisticated computers, but the one thing constant is the knocking on the door and asking people for their business."

Throughout his career, Meyer and his associates have knocked on doors in neighborhoods, asking people for their business if they ever need a realtor.

"You have to meet the people where they live. That's the key to success. Give me a door knocker and I'll show you a successful man," observed Meyer.

As for his own career, Meyer has never regretted the professional choice he made 47 years ago. Retirement is not even under consideration.

"I've looked forward to every business day to come to my office," said Meyer.