Wes Foster is the co-founder and CEO of locally based Long & Foster Real Estate, the largest privately owned real estate firm in the country, which sold $38.2 billion of property in 2006. Last year, his alma mater, the Virginia Military Institute, named its football field for him, and the school recently appointed him to its governing board.
To what do you credit your success in the real estate business?
I credit VMI a lot with my success. It’s been awfully good to me, and I think the education I got there, and the military bearing I got there, taught me not to lie, cheat or steal, and that carried over to our business.
You founded your company in 1968 and have had to suffer through some terrible real estate markets. Which one was the toughest?
This one is about the toughest we’ve been through. The one in 1974 maybe was a little bit tougher because we were new and just getting started. We had no cash reserves then. This time we are stronger and we will weather this one better, but this one’s tough, too.
You’ve said before that your company will never lose money, and you’ve gone as far as cutting your own salary by half during hard times. What measures are you taking now?
We’re doing that again. We had to lay off some people. Our sales are down about 36 percent from 2005, but that was a … record year. So we have had to trim just about everything. Personally, I’ve cut my personal compensation to nothing. We’re trimming it down so we’ll make a little money this year.
What advice do you have for people trying to sell their homes right now?
The best advice is to really do cosmetic repairs to their home — to paint it and fix it up and really make the home smile.
