Name: Larry Rideout
Title: Co-founder, Chairman, Gibson Sotheby’s International Real Estate
Age: 64
Experience: 33 years
Larry Rideout was a hardworking, ambitious young man, but claims he wouldn’t be where he is today without the encouragement of two strong women in his life: his mother and his wife, Patty. He bought his first home, a triple-decker in Chelsea, for $30,000 and following his grandfather’s footsteps, started selling real estate in 1984. After a few years of sales, he became a manager and moved up the ranks of Realogy before jumping ship to buy and grow his own company in 2006. What is he most proud of? His four daughters, two of whom now work for him.
Q: How did you get started in real estate?
A: I grew up in New York City and Philadelphia. When I was around 18 years old, I went to college in Pennsylvania to study business administration, but I wasn’t quite mature enough to maintain my credits and I had to leave. While I was in school, my father got transferred to Boston. So when I came out of school penniless, I had to go to Boston. My plan was to stay for one summer then head back to Philly to figure out what I was going to do with my life and I never left Boston. I wound up getting a job at a factory in Charlestown throwing 100-pound bags onto trucks for three years. I enjoyed the physical work and, at the time, I needed to grow up.
After a while, my wife decided that I should be doing something else because that wasn’t a great long-term career; I was still thinking short-term. I had a real estate license because my grandfather was a big Realtor in Malden and owned French Real Estate. When I was growing up, my mother always said I had her father’s personality. So when I was living at home, she more or less forced me to get my real estate license and I did it. It was 1978. I put it in my wallet and went to work. Then in 1984, I interviewed for real estate positions, but I had no résumé. No one would hire me.
At the time, Century 21 was the ultimate real estate company, so I went around to three or four of them, and in Woburn a man named Joe Crowley took a chance and hired me. The rest is history because it’s been an amazing run for me. I went from agent to manager to a consultant with Century 21 New England, then vice president of Century 21 New England. I oversaw 400 offices. Then I moved over the franchise sales side; it was wonderful. They eventually gave me Coldwell Banker and ERA. I had three teams doing mergers and acquisitions and that’s what I did for 11 years.
The support of the brand and the impression customers have of the brand is amazing. I tell agents they have to meet the preconceived notion their clients have when they walk in the door. They expect to be impressed. But it’s been wonderful for us. We’re No.3 in the state with just seven offices.
Q: You just had a book come out. How’d that happen?
A: It’s kind of funny. There are eight or so of us who Ben Briggs reached out to. Briggs Freeman in Texas is a big Sotheby’s affiliate. He placed his son in Hong Kong five or so years ago and he’s very ingrained in the Hong Kong marketplace. He decided he wanted to write a book about the ability to purchase real estate in the U.S. He reached out to us in seven Metros and asked us to write a chapter on our communities and that’s what we did. I wrote an entire chapter on Boston and he included it and me as a co-author. It’s written in Chinese and meant to help people understand the benefits of buying over here. And that’s what I meant about the value piece. We try to do something different to bring a little more to our customers so they see we’re making a huge effort to bring buyers here.
There’s a huge market here. There are still people in the market place. The ultra-luxury market has slowed. Millennium Tower took 400 buyers out of the market. If you looked at Boston historically, that’s essentially a year’s worth of buyers in our marketplace. It’s going to take time for that to grow again, but I don’t think that’s because things are slowing. They’re not making any more land, so we’ll always have demand.
In the Seaport they’re creating wonderful properties in a place where there was nothing but parking lots. I think Boston is sitting in a very good spot right now. Even with the market softening and rates maybe going up. We’re in a really good spot compared to the other major metros like Miami and New York. I think we’ve got a couple of years of a good run left. Look at prices in San Francisco, Miami, New York. They’re much higher than Boston.
People in New York and the Asian market see us as a buy because we’re not there yet. We’re one of the best buys in the country and the world when you look at the properties we have.
My hope is that the casinos finally give my Chelsea a break. It has missed several bubbles. East Boston is our Brooklyn. Some of that good fortune has to get to Chelsea.
Five of Rideout’s Favorite Things:
- Favorite movie: “A Bronx Tale”
- Favorite food: chicken parmesan
- Favorite pastime: morning coffee, reading real estate news feeds
- Favorite song: “My Girl” by the Temptations
- Favorite view: sun rippling on the water
