Among them, the three owners of Dalton’s Coldwell Banker Kinard Realty — Bill Blackwood, Mike Maret and John Thomas — have almost 90 years of experience in the real estate business in Northwest Georgia and Southeast Tennessee.
“Coldwell Banker Kinard Realty was started by Bob and Dixie Kinard in 1974, so we are celebrating our 50th anniversary this year,” said Maret, who has been with the company 28 years.
During those five decades the company expanded through a series of mergers and acquisitions, first, into Catoosa County in the late 1980s, then Gordon County around 2000, Bartow County in 2016 and into Bradley County, Tennessee, in 2019.
“We have a really good footprint in Northwest Georgia and Southeast Tennessee,” said Maret. “We cover the I-75 corridor from Atlanta to Chattanooga. All of the cities we cover, if you really think about it, are kind of small towns. Dalton, Cartersville, Calhoun, Ringgold, Cleveland (Tennessee). We like that. We like the small town atmosphere, the small town people. It’s easier for us to build long-term relationships.”
Blackwood, who has been with the company for 37 years, said the competition for commercial real estate has really grown during the period.
“Some of the national and regional stores, the grocers and restaurants, that 15 or 20 years ago might not have considered Dalton are now looking at us,” he said. “The problem is they can’t find a place in the areas they want to be.”
Thomas, who has been with the firm 25 years, said residential development has started to soar after more than a decade of sluggish growth.
“The Great Recession really hit homebuilders hard, especially here in Dalton,” he said. “We’ve got a great need for inventory and that need is finally attracting developers. We’ve got three big projects right now, and I think we are going to see more. Supply is going to catch up with demand.”
Thomas gives a great deal of credit for the new developments to a study done in 2018 by Believe Greater Dalton, which detailed the lack of housing in Whitfield County at all price levels.
Maret said even with all of the information available to buyers on the internet that wasn’t available 20 or 30 years ago, they still need realtors to help them sort through the data, and that Coldwell Banker Kinard Realty’s experience gives them the ability to help buyers make the right decision.
“When you think about it, buying a home is probably the biggest investment most people are ever going to make,” he said. “You really want to make sure you make the right decision.”