Dean Thomas, the founder of eRealestate.com, is a lifelong South Bay native. Born in Inglewood and raised in Redondo Beach, he was 15 when he started working for his father’s company, Home Realty. When he was a senior in high school, his father made him go to real estate school, a decision he has never regretted.
“I sold a few houses before I graduated,” admits Dean Thomas.
Interest rates were much higher back then (16-21%), and market conditions were, he says, arguably worse.
“That’s a difficult market,” he remembers. “That was 1981 through 1984. Rates were 18, 19, and 20%. So if you do a calculation on any house in these neighborhoods, triple it, and imagine what your payment would be. When rates were at 16-20%, we had to be creative to find ways for buyers to purchase property. You could have the owners carry the financing, for instance.”
In 1996 after 15 years at RE/MAX and Home Realty, his father’s company, Dean Thomas started a company called Bayside Properties. It quickly grew to have over 50 agents. Personal computers and the Internet were nowhere near as prolific as they are now, but the technology was rapidly changing and Dean Thomas took note.
“I was intrigued by the Internet,” he admits. “In 2006, I went to a seminar that was about bridging technology and real estate. I ended up buying about 300 domain names after that seminar.”
Dean Thomas founded eRealEstate.com with the goal of making it a national franchise specializing in online portals through which clients find him and his agents organically.
eRealEstate.com services not only the average, everyday buyer but helps connect veterans to real estate services and even provides a full-service gateway for commercial property-seekers as well.
Dean Thomas’ area of expertise is the entire South Bay including Lawndale, Torrance, Hawthorne, and “Everything south of the 105 and west of the 110.” According to Dean Thomas, in most South Bay areas, homes are consistently selling for much more than the listing prices and sellers are getting multiple offers.
“A lot of people who thought they were underwater on their property are no longer underwater,” Dean Thomas explains about the changing local market, “as prices have gone up about 12% in these areas since about one year ago.”
Photography Courtesy of Dean Thomas