J.B. Goodwin

J.B. grew up in San Antonio and was inspired by his father’s business skills. His dad was in the auto parts business, and also got involved in other business deals. “My father had one golden rule, and that was he had to own the real estate and lease it back to the business venture,” explains J.B. “Every time a business failed, he would make money by selling the real estate. I watched that closely. In fact, I was usually the one who had to clean out the building.”

Working hard was nothing new for J.B. Since he was in junior high school, in between sports, he would work at his father’s auto parts store. At the University of Texas, J.B. first worked in a campus cafeteria, and later as a bank teller at Community National Bank. When he shared his thoughts about taking up real estate with a bank colleague, the colleague called a broker friend and told him about J.B. “That person asked me to lunch and hired me,” says J.B. of his new job with a small home builder complete with a small brokerage house. “He gave me a booklet to pass the test since you didn’t have to take any course back then. Since I was already a student, studying for a test was no big deal.”

But the job was a big deal to J.B., who was still only a junior in college. He continued working through his senior year. As he was about to graduate, he was dating a girl by the name of Marilyn and started to think about marriage and the future. “I wanted to stay in Austin and I liked what I was doing,” says J.B. of his part-time job that often consisted of 85-hour weeks. But the small homebuilder J.B. was working for suddenly announced the company was moving to Houston. So, J.B. started to interview with all the big Austin real estate companies. “I felt they should be offering all sorts of training, relocation and marketing ideas, but they didn’t,” recalling those early days in the business.

So, after graduating in 1972, J.B. took the $600 he got from the loan on his really old car, and started his own company. Today, the J.B. Goodwin Company has more than 200 employees located in three offices in the Austin area. The firm has handled more than $33 billion in real estate and leases, comprised of more than 46,500 individual transactions. And, JB Goodwin, REALTORS®, is the largest independently owned real estate firm in Austin. “I just sat back and said, ‘there’s opportunity out there if you help new sales people by training them and through relocation activities,” says J.B. of his business philosophy then and now. “We take the approach of helping them by generating leads and assisting them as they become better corporate citizens.”

Over the years, that has involved fundraisers for Austin’s Ronald McDonald House, which provides a place for parents to stay when their child is in the hospital. “It’s a wonderful charity, and so needed when people find themselves in perhaps the most anxious, worrisome spot in life with a child in the hospital.”

And J.B. tries to lead by example when it comes to civic involvement. He has served on the Austin Symphony Board of Directors, the Brackenridge Hospital Foundation, and the Texas Association of Realtors. He was the TAR’s youngest Education Committee Chairman at the age of 25. There have been many other groups he has served, including most recently as Chairman for the Economic Development Council of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. “I like what I see,” J.B. says of Austin’s economic future. “I like the planning that‘s now been done for transportation. I think you’re going to see it improve drastically in 2007 with the completion of projects underway right now. There’s a mix of growth in all sectors of the city. The community has as good a balance as I’ve ever seen in my business life here.”

It’s natural that J.B. appreciates what appears to be a stable local economy. After all, the J.B. Goodwin name has always stood for stability in real estate. Part of the marketing campaign early on had that in mind – not just with the money spent on advertisement, but with the effort put forth. The company policy remains the same. “If you’re not happy with our service, you can cancel any agreement with 24-hour notice,” says J.B. “We want to have happy customers.”

And if you talk to J.B. for any length of time, you know that he’s a big Longhorn fan, and an even bigger fan of his wife and children. Marilyn is a professor at Texas State University; son Chris Hamm, 38, operates an investment advisory firm; daughter Lindsey, 26, is involved in J.B. Goodwin’s commercial properties; and youngest son Ben, 22, has recently joined the firm too. “That has reenergized me in the business,” admits J.B. of Lindsey and Ben’s arrival. “Having a new generation around is very refreshing to me. I’ve been very fortunate throughout. A lot of people have helped me along the way. You can’t build a company from scratch without a tremendous number of dedicated associates and customers.”

– written by Paul H. Brown