Sixth-generation Mendenhall to lead state Realtors' group

by Abby Rogers

November 13,2009

Ford, Richard, and Elizabeth Mendenhall

Elizabeth Mendenhall, who represents the sixth generation of the family's real estate business, is running the company that her brother helps manage and her father owns.

She will take over the presidency of the Missouri Association of Realtors in January and is heir apparent to the matriarch role that grandmother Mary Jane Mendenhall once held.

But don't expect to find family rivalry in their RE/MAX Boone Realty office.

"He's one of my best friends," Elizabeth said of Ford Mendenhall, who oversees the computer systems and does property management for the company.

Ford said it can be tough to separate family rivalries from work, but he couldn't ask for anything better.

"We always have those moments, but I love it a lot," Ford Mendenhall said.

Elizabeth Mendenhall, CEO of Remax and president of the Missouri Board of Realtors.

The family's ease with one other and mutual respect was obvious during a brief group interview and photo shoot, with Richard Mendenhall ribbing his daughter by referring to her as "Madam President." Richard Mendenhall was president of the state association in 2001 but still has a big one-up on his daughter — he was also president of the National Association of Realtors.

Although the firm's roots go back to 1894, Richard Mendenhall formed the current company in 1991 for both residential and commercial sales. The company has about 100 realtors in its Columbia office.

Elizabeth Mendenhall, 36, is the broker manager and CEO and has been with the company for 13 years. She will be leading the real estate trade group at an intensely political period, as the members attempt to get a constitutional amendment banning transfer taxes on the November 2010 ballot.

Elizabeth Mendenhall has experience in real estate far beyond her professional years.

"I remember touring around and tagging along to open houses," Elizabeth Mendenhall said. As a kid, she would work in her family's office on snow days and during summer vacations and did odd jobs such as cutting up old contracts to be used as scrap paper for taking phone messages, answering the phones and distributing phone messages.

Elizabeth was an assistant manager at Boone Tavern for five years but said she couldn't imagine having a career in anything but real estate.

"The real estate business is about helping families, and my family certainly has been doing this for a long time, so I think it is a nice fit," she said.

When Mendenhall was 22, she went to work for her father. His administrative assistant's husband got a new job, and she left RE/MAX, which left a vacancy Elizabeth wanted to fill. Elizabeth transferred from MU to Columbia College and worked her way through the rest of her college degree as her father's administrative assistant.

Although anybody new in any situation needs to prove himself or herself, Elizabeth said she was more worried about her status as the boss' daughter than other employees were.

As CEO, Elizabeth oversees the agents, including training them, and oversees the management of the office. It was her work with the agents that guaranteed her success in her father's eyes. He said he knew she would succeed when agents started telling him how good she was.

CEO of Remax and President of the Missouri Board of Realtors Elizabeth Mendenhall, right, answers questions that agents have on double taxation. Mendenhall, a spokesperson for the Vote Yes to Stop Double Taxation, hopes that legislators will not impose new taxes on the sale or transfer of homes or any other real estate.

"They really liked her management style and the things she was doing to improve the company," Richard Mendenhall said.

The camaraderie between the Mendenhalls and the agents was apparent during CBT's photo shoot at the office. The agents seemed very comfortable with one other, as well as with Elizabeth, Ford and Richard. However, the agents deferred to Elizabeth for direction.

According to Elizabeth Mendenhall, working with the real estate agents is the best aspect of her job.

"I think Realtors are committed to helping people not just achieve a house but really make a home and live in a community, and I love being associated with the independent contractors," Mendenhall said.

In January, she'll be working for a whole state-load of Realtors. Because Elizabeth has already done so much work with the organization and with agents, Richard said he didn't think there was much he could tell her he'd like to see her accomplish as president.

"I think Elizabeth has done so much already at the state level, she pretty much tells me what she wants to get done," Richard Mendenhall said with a laugh.

Elizabeth's main task will be to lead the campaign against transfer taxes.

A real estate transfer tax is a tax that can be imposed on property when the property is transferred from one owner to another. It is up to the individual state, county or municipality to determine how much the tax will be.

Missouri is one of 13 states without a transfer tax; all of its border states have some sort of transfer tax. Illinois has a 0.10 percent transfer fee rate, while Chicago and surrounding Cook County have separate transfer fees. Nebraska has a 0.175 percent transfer fee rate.

The Missouri Association of Realtors is working to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the November 2010 ballot that would give voters the option to bar politicians from enacting transfer taxes in Missouri.

No legislation concerning transfer taxes has been discussed in Missouri's General Assembly in about 10 years, according to the group's senior vice president for governmental affairs, Sam Licklider. But the state is facing a severe revenue shortage, and Licklider said there might be discussion in the general community about the taxes.

The campaign is essentially a preemptive movement, Licklider said.

Elizabeth is opposed to transfer taxes, or "double taxation" as she calls it, because of the burden she says it will place on homeowners.

"Missourians already pay thousands of dollars each year in property taxes, so an additional transfer tax would be a double tax on their property," she said. "Missourians have always had an appreciation for homeownership, and an additional tax denies fairness, and it defies Missouri's common sense."

Her father supported her stance on transfer taxes and said the taxes have hindered the real estate industry in other parts of the country and only hurt the economy.

The Association of Realtors' Web site concerning transfer taxes, www.YesToSaveHomes.com, details the organization's proposal.

The proposal asks voters if the Missouri Constitution should be amended to prevent the state, counties and other political subdivisions from imposing any new tax, including a sales tax, on the sale or transfer or homes or any other real estate, according to the Web site.

Although she doesn't know specifically how many signatures the campaign has collected so far, Mendenhall said the goal is to collect 157,000 plus a comfortable cushion. The next step in the campaign will be to educate the public about transfer taxes.

"Because we don't currently have transfer taxes in Missouri, we need to make sure that everybody understands what a transfer tax is and then give Missourians the opportunity to vote yes to say no," Elizabeth Mendenhall said.