Ronald Moody and Farley Grainger are the owners of Broom, Moody, Johnson & Grainger Real Estate Appraisers and Consultants.
WHAT DOES THE FIRM DO?
The firm provides professional commercial and residential real estate appraisal and consultation services as well as feasibility studies and market analyses.
WHAT DOES
MOODY DO?
“I focus on the litigation work,” said Moody, CEO of the company.
WHAT DOES
GRAINGER DO?
“I manage the commercial banking business and the government business for the company,” said Grainger, president of the company.
HOW LONG HAS THE
PARTNERSHIP BEEN TOGETHER?
Twenty years. It was originally set up with four partners, but two of them have since retired.
“We made a decision a long time ago to set up a large appraisal company,” said Moody.
AS PARTNERS, HOW DO
YOU SHARE RESPONSIBILITIES?
“It’s kind of like a marriage, we each take different responsibilities and we try to do the things that we are good at,” said Moody. “Farley does a lot of the management and the organizational type work and decisions. I head up the appraisal and research department.”
WHERE DO THEY
DO THEIR APPRAISALS?
Mostly in Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Nassau and Baker counties. They also do work all over Florida and in southeast Georgia.
WHAT IS YOUR INVOLVEMENT IN DOWNTOWN PROJECTS?
“We were involved in doing the work for the sports complex for the City of Jacksonville and we do a lot of private client work,” said Grainger.
WHAT RESULTS
FROM AN APPRAISAL?
“It really depends on the purpose that the client looking for,” said Grainger. “A bank in most cases is looking for a market evaluation of what the building would be worth on the open market. A corporation may be trying to decide what to do with a structure, whether to sell it or lease it depending on the real estate value.”
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE LOOKING FOR AN APPRAISER?
“Use a good appraiser,” said Moody. “Don’t be penny wise and a pound foolish. Many people try to cut corners and they really don’t realize how valuable their property could be. We have have always prized ourselves in doing a very good job of verifying the data and turning out a good appraisal work.”
HOW DID YOU END UP AS PROPERTY APPRAISERS?
“I took it as an elective,” said Moody. “And I was so interested in it that I went out and got a part-time job doing it while I was in school and decided that I liked it.”
“Like a lot of kids in college, I changed my major probably about four times,” said Grainger. “I started out pre-med and wanted to be a pediatrician. I found out that I was not going to be a medical doctor, so I rolled over into the college of business. I had a counselor who was involved in real estate and he got me pointed in that direction. I did well with it, so I stuck with it.”
HOW ARE COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE AND LAND PRICES RISING IN JACKSONVILLE?
“I would characterize our real estate market as having been very good over the last five years,” said Moody. “A lot of it is tied to our football team and to the city coming of age. A lot of sectors including residential, retail and commercial have done very well. Our downtown is back on track and I would say that prices have shown a fairly steady increase. A lot of it has been tied directly to our economy, which has been healthy.”
HOW HAVE THE BUILDINGS CHANGES?
“Real estate is cyclical,” said Grainger. “It runs in cycles. We’ve seen a lot of rehabilitation and changing uses of some of the older buildings in downtown. They may have not necessarily gone up in value, but they may be changing use and adding back to the value of downtown. You see a lot of reinvestment in downtown that we haven’t seen in a long time. There is residential downtown that we have never really had.”
WHAT UPGRADES HAVE YOU SEEN IN COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS?
“The biggest difference that you are seeing in rehabilitated projects or in new projects is all the wiring and computerization preparation for the what they are calling the smart buildings. They are trying to upgrade the physical structures to be able to take the technology,” said Grainger.
BIRTHPLACE
Moody was born in Philadelphia, but raised in Jacksonville. Grainger was born in Jacksonville.
COLLEGE
Moody has a bachelor’s in business administration with a concentration in land economics from the University of North Florida. Grainger has a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a focus in real estate from the University of Florida.
DESIGNATIONS
They both have the Member of the Appraiser Institute designation and are real estate brokers.
FAMILY
Moody has been married to Mary for 32 years. They have four children, Kim, 30; Sam, 27; Monica, 25; and Blake, 21. Grainger has been married to Athena for 24 years and they have two children, Paul, 18; and Nick, 14.
RESIDES
Moody lives in Orange Park and Grainger lives in Queen’s Harbour.
CIVIC OR PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Moody is a member of the Association of Imminent Domain Professionals and the Rotary Club of Orange Park. Grainger is a member of the Rotary Club of Jacksonville. They are both members of the Northeast Florida Association of REALTORS® and the Northeast Florida Builders Association.
— by Michele Newbern Gillis