by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Having had to work since he was 14 years old, Bill Watson III was instilled with a strong work ethic from early on.
“I’ve worked my whole life, pretty much, since I was legally able to work,” said Watson, the executive vice president of Watson Mortgage Corp. and son of William Watson Jr., owner/broker of Watson Realty Corp, Inc.. “My parents told me they would provide me with the nice necessities. They said ‘You’ll have a nice place to live (in their house.) You’ll have a nice bed to lie in (in their house.) And you’ll have nice clothes to wear to school because you reflect on us, but anything else you want we hope you have some money.’ So, I went to work.”
That work ethic helped him to enter Watson Mortgage a little over 10 years ago as a trainee and work his way up to his new position as executive vice president.
“It really made me a good human being,” said Watson. “I would say that my father instilling a good work ethic in me is probably one of the best things that he could have given me.”
Watson originally went to college with the intention of becoming a stockbroker and he graduated from Stetson University with a bachelor’s degree in finance.
“If you take into context that I graduated from college in 1996, and the way the market had been going, stockbroker looked to me like being a real estate agent did until last year,” said Watson. “It looked like you could get in and really make some good money. I started putting out my resume before I graduated. I started getting offers saying when I graduate I could come on board at this or that rate. After reviewing the offers, I thought I was worth more money than that.”
He called his father and explained that with all the money the family had put into his education, he thought he was worth more money than they were offering.
“He told me, ‘Well, the only way you will ever get paid what you are really worth is to go into commission and then you will learn exactly what you are worth’,” said Watson. “At that point I didn’t really realize what he was selling me. I said ‘Sir, I don’t think at this stage I could be a very successful Realtor.
“First off, my main source of business is going to be the people I know and my friends are lucky to buy a car, let alone a house. The other side would be to go to people I don’t know as in cold calling which is the other side of being a Realtor, and is a pretty tough part. I’m going to go up to someone at 23 and never owning a house and tell them that I know how to sell their house? Or, why would someone looking for a Realtor think that a 23-year-old would know how to negotiate a contract for them to purchase a house?”
All of those roads told Watson that he was not ready to be a Realtor.
His dad asked him if he had ever given the mortgage business a thought.
“He told me it was kind of the same thing, but more with computer work, and it goes along the lines of knowing how the market is going to move and it would fall right in line with my educational background,” said Watson.
At the time, his father had just started Watson Mortgage Corp.
“My father said that in the mortgage industry they are looking for a young, computer savvy, sharp person who would be able to organize customer’s finances,” said Watson. “I said that sounds like something I could do.”
So, when he graduated from college in 1996, he decided to try his hand at mortgages.
“He told me I would have to interview with the person who is running it and see if I would make it,” he said. “He told me, ‘If they don’t think you will make it, then you won’t have a job. If you get the job and mess up, they are going to fire you. Rest assured that I am going to make it perfectly clear to them that if you don’t do a good job, they don’t have to worry about calling me, they should just let you go.’”
He started in the mortgage fulfillment as a trainee in March of 1997.
“I came in and started basically as a receptionist while I read the guidelines,” he said. “I read the VA, FHA and conventional manuals in about two or three weeks. I processed loans for two months and then moved out into the field at the end of May.”
He started originating at the Mandarin South office of Watson Realty.
“I went out and started talking with the Realtors and asked them to give me a shot and took my first application the weekend I was working,” he said. “It really did fit me well because you are looking at people’s finances and that’s what I’d gone to school for. Crunching numbers has always been one of my specialties.”
At the end of his first year, he came in third in his company and continued to be a top producer for the next several years.
“We had some changeover in management in 2000 and I came out of the field for a little while to actually run the mortgage company,” he said. “We were without a leader, so I became a vice president and had to keep it together until we were able to recruit Vicky Walker as executive vice president. One thing it taught me, at 26 years old, was that I did not want to run a mortgage company. I wanted to be back in sales where I was happy with what I was doing and making more money.”
He stayed in the office for about a year or so helping Walker get her footing, but then started to itch to get back out in the field.
“I went back out to the Mandarin North office in 2002,” he said. “I was happy with that but Vicky started pushing for me to come back inside because I was a good problem solver. She wanted me in the office helping others, but I tactfully declined the offer.
“In September of 2005, I came back into the office as vice president of production. It was time for me to consider moving back in out of the field. I did pretty well as vice president of production. I helped solve the problems the mortgage consultants ran into and helped manage the relationships between the mortgage consultants and the Realtors, managers of the offices and processors.”
Walker recently vacated the position for personal reasons.
When he started as a mortgage consultant, did he ever think he’d be running the entire company?
“It was on my agenda but I figured it would take about 15 years by my family’s track record of what it takes to earn a chance of responsibility,” he said. “If you take on a mortgage consultant position, you have to prove that you could excel at that before you could get the chance to move up and that’s why I thought 15 years, because I was enjoying the sales. I thought I would be in the vice president of production for at least three years before I would have any opportunity to move further, but whenever a spot vacates, we like to look within to fill it.”
When the opening came up, Bill was a little hesitant to apply for the position, but two women close to him convinced him he should.
“My mother asked me if I was going to apply and I told her I wasn’t sure if I had had enough time to establish a track record,” he said. “She said it didn’t hurt to apply and that my father wouldn’t put me there unless I was ready. If I didn’t apply and then they hire someone, it would be at least five more years before the office would likely vacate. She told me I could be putting off a great opportunity.
“Our lead underwriter, Brenda Rowland, also asked me if I put in my resume in and I told her I had been considering it, but hadn’t done it yet. She told me I had always been great with this business. She said my files were always great and I could always solve the problem. She said she thought it would be a mistake if I didn’t. Between those two folks telling me that I should probably put in my resume and apply for the position, I decided to apply.”
Several other people applied for the job and they were all interviewed by Watson Jr.
“He had to interview several other people to make sure I was the best candidate for the job,” said Bill. “In our family, nepotism doesn’t go very far.”
As the executive vice president, he oversees the operations of the entire company including making sure they have adequate volume coming in the door, public relations events, reviewing profit and loss statements and the books, underwriting production, mortgage consultants.
“The buck stops here unless I have to borrow a buck from Mr. Watson,” he joked.
Did You Know?
• Four out of 10 respondents to the National Association of Realtors 2005 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers were first-time home buyers — their median age was 32 years and household income was $57,200. They made a down payment of two percent on a home costing $150,000, but 43 percent purchased with no money down. Of first-time buyers who made a down payment, 23 percent received a gift from a friend or relative.
(2005 National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers)
Now that he has been in his position for a little over a month, Watson is planning for the future of the company.
“I have very big plans for where we are headed,” he said. “My goal is to take it all new levels. I have certain capture rate goals, volume goals and long term goals.”
With his father as owner of Watson Realty Corp, Inc. and his sister, Carlotta Landschoot, as the executive vice president of Watson Relocation Services, the family almost certainly always has something to talk about at family get-togethers.
“It makes great conversation,” said Watson. “We are always brainstorming together.”
Growing up in a real estate household had a lasting impression.
“It gave me great background of the industry lingo,” he said. “Our dinner conversation almost always revolved around real estate. My father works at least 12 hours a day and when he comes home at 8 p.m. or so, he brings an additional box of work home and continues to work until about 11 p.m. before he goes to bed.
“He does that every day except on Sunday, when he goes to church before he starts his routine again. He doesn’t think it is a sin to work on Sunday because he thinks it is fun to work.”
Watson gave some advice to others looking to advance in the mortgage industry.
“When you think you are done for the day, make one more phone call,” he said.
Watson III has been married to Jennifer, president of the Watson Title of Northeast Florida, for a little under a year. Between them, they have three children, Zach, 14; Sara, 12 and Alex, 7.