David Lilley
David Lilley
Title: Real estate agent
Age: 56
Experience: 35 years
David Lilley has been buying, selling and renovating real estate in Cambridge, Belmont and Somerville since the early days of Ronald Reagan’s first administration. In addition to making his living in real estate, he also met his future wife when both were selling homes out of a Century 21 office in Somerville. David and Karen Lilley will be celebrating their silver wedding anniversary in October.
Q: How did you get started in the business?
A: I started in 1981. It was my first full-time job right out of college. I studied marketing and finance at UMass Boston. I worked in the construction industry in high school and college and I would see real estate brokers doing their thing and I often thought it looked more enticing than digging holes on a cold morning. I’ll never forget the time I was in a hole digging a sewer line for a new house in Tewksbury and I saw a well-dressed woman pull up in a 1978 Cadillac Seville. She had the heat on and the windows rolled up, and I was freezing. I asked someone what she was doing and they told me she was a real estate broker, and I just thought, “That’s what I wanted to do. Show up at 9 a.m., have a nice car, stay warm.” That image really stuck with me.
Q: Where did you start out?
A: I started selling in Somerville. The construction company I worked for was called Cape Real Estate and they’re still around. They did construction and were a real estate company. Even back then, they had a RE/MAX type of a concept where agents would pay them $1,500 a month to work there, but you could keep 100 percent of your commissions. I remember talking to my father about it because I knew people who worked there, but my father said, “Gee, that’s a pretty big nut at 20 years old.” But I wanted to try it. Back in 1981, my commission on a triple decker in Somerville would have been $400 or so. A new guy with no experience couldn’t afford to try that.
I decided I couldn’t do it, so I went and got my license. When you get your real estate license, you get offers in the mail to work for different companies looking for new recruits. I got a letter from Dan Silva of Century 21 Silva on lower Broadway in Somerville. I interviewed with him and a couple of others, but I liked him and the way he was offering a lot of training, which I needed, so that’s how I ended up in Somerville. And I’ve never left.
Q: How has the area changed since those days?
A: We used to sell in lower Broadway and Charlestown. That was before Davis Square became Davis Square and Charlestown became Charlestown. When I was doing rentals in Charlestown back then, I’d knock on a door at 9 on a Saturday morning and I’d stand to the side in fear that someone might shoot me. I had no idea where I was going or who was behind the door. It was a different time.
At that time those areas were considered the poor stepchild to Cambridge, not like today. I just read this morning that in the first half of 2016, the median condo sales price in Cambridge was about $706 per square foot. In Somerville, it was $565, so they’re catching up, but those numbers are still outrageous. I’m seeing things in Cambridge now selling for $850 to $950 a square foot. That’s pushing it, but it happens.
Q: You’re also an investor. With prices so high, is this a good time to buy investment property?
A: I’ve seen prices go from $65,000 for a three-family house to where now the same house would sell for $1.2 million. That’s the evolution of the values, but we’ve had our ups and downs. What I try to tell people is: Buy real estate. No matter what. The people I have watched make a lot of money over the years are the people who bought a lot of real estate and just sat on it. I remember dealing with a lot of Portuguese immigrants and I would watch these guys who could hardly speak English, but they would say real estate is solid. They would buy and now they’re selling their houses when they’re 70 and 75 and they’re cashing in for enormous amounts of money and passing it on to their kids. It’s proven.
So I tell anyone, if you can buy real estate, buy it. People are falling all over themselves to buy because the alternative is putting their money into treasuries and getting nothing or they get an asset that gives them unbelievable tax benefits. They get to depreciate it. They get to write off the interest and it’s making money at the same time. Plus it appreciates 4-5 percent a year. It’s the absolute best investment that you could possibly get.
Q: What advice do you have for new agents?
A: It’s about relationships. I’m out there every single day working in the real estate market, so I interact with lawyers, home inspectors, structural engineers, real estate brokers, buyers and sellers, etc. I can walk into any restaurant in Cambridge or Somerville and I’ll bump into someone I’ve met before. It’s about building relationships and being honest and fair. It’s about helping people.
I think people don’t care what you know until they know that you care. If they believe you and you really are an honest and giving person, then people believe you and they want to work with you. It’s not about the money. It never has been. It’s about helping people fulfill their dreams. It’s the biggest asset they’ll ever invest in and the most lucrative and it will give them a better quality of life now and for years to come.
I love what do. It’s not work to me. When something goes wrong and people call me in a panic, I always have an answer. There’s an answer for everything. I’ve been through it all before. It’s going to be fine. It will work out.
Lilley’s Five Favorite Golf Courses:
- Kapalua, Maui
- St. Andrews, Scotland
- Pebble Beach, California
- Ocean Course, Kiawah
- Port Royal, Bermuda
