WHO AM I

My name is Terry Coldwell, I’m originally from Kansas City, Mo. I moved to the lake in May of 1976 and have never had any regrets. I have now spent over half of my life living at the lake.

I’m from North of the river in Kansas City, a graduate of Park Hill high school and hold a Bachelor of Science degree from Missouri Western College in St. Joseph Mo.

In 1971 my parents bought a cabin on the lake and of course that changed everything. Dad was a pilot for TWA so Mom and Dad had plenty of time to come down and fish. When I graduated from college in 1972 I decided that I wanted to spend the summer at the lake. So myself and a fraternity brother ( I’m a Teke ) conned our way into building boat docks for Johnson Brothers Marina. Johnson’s had just bought the marina that year so we all learned together. After that summer me and my fraternity brother, Greg Lux who still works for Johnson brothers, were hooked on the lake.

My early career in Kansas City led me into the accounting business. Prior to leaving Kansas City I was general Ledger accountant for Feld Truck leasing company ( which no longer exists). As general ledger accountant, I put the numbers together each month for this $60,000,000 annual sales truck leasing company, which was a large company in the early 70’s, seems like a small number in this day and age. But, this experience has led me into many venues and avenues through my life and always gave me the prospective that nothing is impossible. Once you know the numbers you have a pretty complete picture of every thing.

In 1976 Feld merged with a larger truck leasing company and moved the accounting department to Minnesota. I decided it was too cold in Minnesota so I didn’t stay with them. Perfect excuse to leave the city and come to the lake. I was single, 27 years old with a free cabin to live in, thanks to Mom and Dad, who could ask for any thing more!!!

I started out working for a boat dock company as an accountant. At that time on the lake, no one had ever heard of double entry accounting, or inventory, or even better yet, inventory control. I set them up a set of books, got their cost under control and things were going pretty good until the winter of 1977 when the lake went down to 646 ft. and all boat dock work stopped due to no water to put the boat docks on. The lake was declared a disaster zone and the payrolls stopped. So, I opened up a small construction company with a friend and we spent 2 years building metal buildings and yes, even one house.

I got up one January morning in 1979, it was 10 below zero and the lake was frozen over and moaning and groaning, but I had real estate on my mind. To this day I don’t know why I got up thinking about real estate. So after studying real estate all winter, I passed my sales license test in April and my brokers license in May.

I started out as a broker sales associate for Christenson realty in 1979. Bob Christenson was pretty successful in selling shore line tracts and acreage and that interested me. He also had a complete set of topo maps for the lake. I was ready to go to work. I package several acreage and shoreline tracts into one package for $5,000,000 and started marketing my package. I answered a small block ad in the back of Forbes Magazine and mailed them my package. I got a response. Nine months later, I simultaneously closed on 16 parcels of ground, total of 16 miles of shoreline and 12,665 acres of land. The buyer was Forbes Magazine. Forbes at the lake subdivision was created from that sale and today is completely sold out. I obtained lots of fast development experience from the project. Fifty five mile boundary survey, 133 miles of roads, 2 forty acre lakes, negotiation with the DNR for wastwater exceptions and on and on. I worked for Forbes for one and a half years after they bought the property, I was active in the project development. They offered me the project manager job, but I refused, I liked real estate too much by now.

At this point, the most major thing that ever happened to me happened. The Forbes project was put together with option agreements. They were all set to expire on May 29th, 1981. On may 29th 1981 Forbes exercised their options. I new I had a sale, I was ready to party. That night a friend from Kansas City came down with his girl friend. We were trying to decide where to go. I had mentioned a church party was scheduled that night at St. Patricks church. I don’t know why, but my friend insisted that we go to that party. On the day Forbes exercised their options, that night, I met my wife at that Church party. One year later on May 29th, 1982 we were married. Making this story even a little more stranger, I had never met my wife prior to that night, but, her dad was also a TWA pilot and our dads flew together.

We now have four real locals, born and raised on the lake, three out of high school and one still in the Camdenton High School.

After leaving Forbes, I worked as a broker associate for Clayton Fink realty until 1986, when I opened Lake of the Ozarks Realty. I owned Lake of the Ozarks realty for 17 years, had a lot of fun and met a lot of great people. As happens with many business, when your in business long enough, things start changing. In the past few years the Franchise real estate offices have become tougher and tougher to compete with. They draw all the good real estate agents, and with out agents, offices don’t survive. So in December, 2003, I decided if you “ Can’t beat them, join them.” And, that is what I have done. I closed the office and I’m ready to be an agent again, answerable only to one real estate agent “ME”.

So far I’m really enjoying it. I got that great go out and make it a great day feeling that I had in 1979 when I got into this business. I’ve always enjoyed selling, the chase of finding that particular property for that client or the challenge of marketing for a seller.

I have always made honesty a trade mark, I like to sleep at nights and honesty assures a good nights rest. I’m motivated, educated, dedicated and ready to go out and make the impossible happen. I hope all of this doesn’t seem to personal or hoaky, but I believe that if you are going to do business with some one, on the largest transactions of your life, you need to know who you are dealing with. Education, Experience, Personal back ground and Integrity are all part of what you should know about your realtor.

I WOULD LIKE TO BE YOUR REALTOR, REPRESENTING YOU AS A SELLERS AGENT ON A LISTING OR AS A BUYERS AGENT ON A PURCHASE.
THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ MY STORY.