President George McClure with The McClure Company joins the Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio podcast as the seventh Legends of Real Estate guest to discuss the company's founding. He looks at the building industry in the 70s and 80s and his involvement with the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association. McClure joins host Carol Morgan on the Legends of Real Estate series.
McClure is a native of Cherokee County with the humble origins of growing up on a chicken farm. In high school, he got a summer job working for his uncle’s framing crew as a carpenter and found that he enjoyed the work.
McClure said, “I loved it a lot. It’s physical, and when you face the end of the day, you have something to show for your work.”
After working in the building industry for a few years and following a sports injury, McClure had the tough decision of figuring out what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. After reading up about the career in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he decided to attend college to become an accountant. In his first role, his supervisors discovered he had experience in carpentry and handed him all the construction clients.
After developing his accounting skills and industry knowledge for a few years, McClure went into business for himself in 1974, achieving a goal he made during his high school years. In 1978, he bought out his business partner, taking full ownership of the company.
While running his own company, McClure, like many other builders, ran into the issue of lot shortages and decided to develop a subdivision to counter the growing problem.
McClure said, “As they say, the rest is history!”
At a time when many of Atlanta’s current builders were not in business, the 70s proved to be a crazy decade for many construction and homebuilding businesses. Interest rates sat at 17 and 18%, ordinary numbers for the time, and the Atlanta market was saturated with smaller builders. At this time, it was typical for builders to build only five to 10 houses each year.
During this time of growth, smaller banks also took the opportunity to finance builders and developers. This trend continued well into the mid-80s until the Great Recession. Now, big builders comprise the market with a noticeable absence of modest bankers to stand up for smaller businesses and a lack of capital.
McClure said, “I believe the way to succeed is to find a niche.”
While discovering his niche, McClure received advice from another industry member who produced upscale first-time buyer homes targeted at middle-class Americans. This is the market that McClure continued to target throughout his company's history.
In almost every home he produced, McClure consciously decided to conserve the environment by delivering basement floorplans, providing his buyers with expandable, lasting space.
McClure said, “I’m a big believer in the land tells you what to do. I don’t like [developments] that all look alike and feel alike.”
True to his beliefs, McClure shared that he was recently a part of a project in Louisiana that required moving trees rather than cutting them down. Each tree cost about $25,000 to 50,000 to transfer and greatly improved the property value.
In the late 80s, McClure and three other builders co-developed a subdivision due to their experience with low lot inventory. The team decided to combine their lot-buying capabilities into a trust to buy out a project facing trouble and bring on a fourth builder to run the business side of the venture.
McClure went on to produce larger and larger subdivisions, including Summerchase at Towne Lake, which contains 110 lots. To date, his company to date has constructed developments in Cobb, Cherokee, Forsyth and Henry County, providing inventory to a large portion of the state.
McClure said, “I try to stay in that move-up first-time buyer or that middle income [bracket].”
During his start with the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association,
