by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Linda McMorrow and Selby Kaiser are identical well beyond simply being twins. Not only do they look alike, they act alike, dress alike (what else can explain nearly identical all-black outfits without a phone call?) and think alike. They finish each other’s sentences and often say the same thing at the same time.
The fact they have both been selling real estate in Jacksonville for the past 18 years should come as no surprise. And, neither should the fact they left the job and financial security of Prudential Network Realty to hang their own shingle.
Halfway through week three as the owners and sole agents for The Legends of Real Estate, business is already good for the pair. After all, 18 years in the same town will establish quite a clientele.
“It’s amazing. We have been in business two weeks and two days and business is flooding in,” said McMorrow while enjoying Tuesday’s weather. “That’s wonderful. There has been a lot of divine intervention and everything we have done sine the day we made this decision has gone perfectly. Everything has fallen into our laps.”
Kaiser said leaving one real estate company for another is unlike most other job changes. They didn’t tell Prudential President Linda Sherrer they were going out on their own and then slowly cut back on clients and wrap up sales. It was much more abrupt than that.
“There have been no bumps, but you can’t transition like that. The nature of the business is that when you indicate you are going to leave, you better be prepared to leave that day,” she said. “You are telling your employer you intend to become the competition. If you are retiring, that’s different.”
Opening their business was an easy decision. It was something Kaiser and McMorrow have talked about since they got into the business as a team in 1998 and gave a lot of serious thought to over the past five years. The plan was nearly put into action then, but misfortune struck Sherrer.
“We talked about the ideas we had for our company, then Linda lost her husband,” explained McMorrow, adding that both had become very close friends of the widowed Sherrer — a relationship they enjoy today and expect to continue. “We knew we could not leave her right then. We knew we needed to be as supportive as we possibly could. She has been very gracious to us over the years and she has been kind to us during the transition.”
In November, the pair closed on their San Jose Boulevard office and began selling homes. Between them, they have over 50 years of experience in the industry. Still, there were aspects of being self-employed that they hadn’t mastered. Enter the husbands and a receptionist.
McMorrow’s husband Tom is an attorney, the company counsel and handyman (“He can fix anything,” said McMorrow) while Kaiser’s husband Fred is the chief financial officer, and handles the bills and the accounting.
“He helps us write documents that we are ‘not allowed to by law.’ Now our discussions about business include the husbands, not exclude them,” said Kaiser, who served as president of the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors in 2003. “They love it.”
“Our husbands encouraged us to do this many years ago,” said McMorrow. “The financial end wasn’t the issue. We truly love Linda Sherrer, so it was a loyalty thing.”
Neither would reveal their age, but both believe they have 10-15 years left before they will call it quits. Both have seen the world and as Kaiser put it, “We have kind of OD’d (overdosed) on hobbies. We have traveled all over with our husbands but we value our roots because we never really had roots. We grew up Army brats and became Army wives.”
Despite being with the same company, the two have not always worked together.
At one time, McMorrow was an agent for Prudential and Kaiser managed the Prudential Mandarin office. Their parents were in poor health at the time and soon moved to Jacksonville from Crystal Springs. Their faltering health eventually required daily attention and doctor visits, and Kaiser and McMorrow realized that a change had to be made.
McMorrow’s freedom as an agent made it easier for her to attend to the parents while Kaiser’s obligations as a manager made it hard to get time off regularly. Kaiser soon resigned as manager to become an agent again. But, within a short time, adversity hit.
“Our mother died within the next month and dad died three months later,” said McMorrow. “We made the next step and never looked back. We have been a team since October of 1988.”
So, exactly how close are the two? They say they dress alike nine of 10 days and even being half a world apart for several years didn’t matter.
“When Selby lived in Europe and I lived in California, we could not talk for months at a time and many times we would send our mom the same birthday or gift,” explained McMorrow. “I would say it happened at least 10 times. There is a very, very strong ESP between us that we can’t explain.”