By Aleasha Sandley, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
ANDERSON — When Surbaugh & Son real estate company first started operating in Anderson, buying a house involved going door-to-door to real estate offices looking at what they had to offer.
Today, 100 years later, house hunting can be as simple as the click of a mouse.
Surbaugh & Son will celebrate its 100-year anniversary April 1. The company was started by Will Surbaugh in 1910, and his son, George, joined the business in 1948. Since then, both have deceased, and George’s son Bill has taken over the family business that he joined in 1972.
The business has remained small throughout its 100 years, just the way Bill Surbaugh likes it.
“I never aspired to be the big guy,” he said. “I like to have direct customer contact. The larger you are, when economic conditions change, it’s harder to make adjustments.”
During their time in Anderson, the Surbaughs have committed themselves to their community. Although he isn’t an Anderson native, Bill Surbaugh has served boards such as Maplewood Cemetery, Anderson Public Library, Madison County Community Foundation, Center for Mental Health and Indiana Public Radio. He has been a part of real estate professional associations, school-related committees, religious organizations and Rotary Club.
The elder Surbaughs also were community-oriented, and Will Surbaugh served as president of the state real estate association in the 1920s.
“If you live and work in a community, I think you have a social responsibility to be involved and give back to your community,” Bill Surbaugh said. “You should give back to your community where you earn your living. It’s just good business to be involved.”
Although Surbaugh & Son has changed over the years, Bill Surbaugh now is focused on commercial, residential, industrial and agricultural real estate, and the company has a firm that manages market-rate rentals, as well. More than three years ago, Bill Surbaugh sold the portion of the business that sold property and casualty insurance.
Some of Bill Surbaugh’s most notable sales include the property on South Scatterfield Road where Lowe’s sits, buildings at the Flagship Enterprise Center park, a Remy building and the former Guide Plant 6, he said.
The sell of large industrial buildings is a far cry from the single-family homes Will and George Surbaugh built during their careers. Real estate also has changed in the way home buyers finance their homes, Bill Surbaugh said.
Back when Will Surbaugh started Surbaugh & Son in what is now the Union Building in downtown Anderson, most properties were sold on contract with the real estate agency. Bank financing wasn’t popularized until the 1960s or ’70s, Bill Surbaugh said.
“The Realtors were acting as bankers,” he said.
Also today, the cooperation between real estate agencies has resulted in multiple listing services, which came about in the early 1970s, where buyers can shop for houses represented by multiple agencies. Educational requirements for real estate agents have changes as well, resulting in more training and certifications.
Today’s is the toughest sales market Bill Surbaugh has ever experienced, he said, even comparing it to the market in the early 1980s when unemployment and interest rates were higher.
“The psychology of the buyer today...has caused people to lose confidence, and we are in the process of rebuilding consumer confidence,” he said. “You have to know how to operate in the downtimes. It’s not impossible. The professionals are really those that know how to do it in good and bad times.”
Bill Surbaugh said he didn’t know yet what the business would do for its 100th anniversary celebration in April, but he credited the company’s customers with its success.
“Maybe it hasn’t hit me as much as it should, but I have been doing what I’m supposed to do to help buyers, sellers and customers,” he said. “The community has been very nice with us and we have appreciated their confidence and loyalty in helping them to achieve their goals.”
Bill Surbaugh said he didn’t always know he would take over the family business. He spent two years in the Peace Corps in Turkey — which he said is the best training for any type of customer service job — before earning his MBA from Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., and working as a certified public accountant. He came back to his hometown of Anderson in 1972 after he and his wife, Cheryl, decided the travel required by his career was not a good way to raise a family.
“We came back to Anderson for lifestyle,” he said. “We’ve not looked back.”
Bill and Cheryl Surbaugh have two children, a daughter in Brooklyn, N.Y., and a son in Tofte, Minn., who runs a real estate business there. Bill Surbaugh doesn’t anticipate continuing Surbaugh & Son as a family business after his time there and said he doesn’t know what he will do with the business when he is ready to retire and move to Wisconsin with his wife.
“I’ll think about that when the time comes,” he said. “It just depends on what I choose to do at that time. I’ve always said that as long as I was having fun, challenged and that it was economically viable, I would stay here.”
One of Bill Surbaugh’s customers, Leon Filburn, has worked with Surbaugh & Son for a long time and received help buying and selling farm properties.
“I feel like Bill is a very good individual to work with for both buyer and seller,” Filburn said. “I think he’s very fair, very honest, very thorough and very hardworking. Surbaugh carries a very good name.”
Gene Roop bought a house with Bill Surbaugh’s assistance in January, when he moved to Anderson from Richmond. The Realtor told him not to look through houses until he was in a position to buy one, otherwise he would find the right house at the wrong time.
“The kind of way he guided us through and some of the helpful advice he gave us was remarkable,” Roop said. “His decades of experience really showed I think. I can imagine that almost everybody feels like Bill thinks they’re the most important person in the world. We certainly did.”
Contact Aleasha Sandley: 640-4805, aleasha.sandley@heraldbulletin.com.
