Onward and upward. That should be the motto for Bob Parks. Onward also being the name of his most recent venture in the real estate business. A business he has been a part of as a business owner for 50 years as an agent for 53.
Parks’ easy manner and casual sophistication is surely a big part of why he has been so successful in the real estate business for so long. During the stressful event of buying or selling a home (or business as they also do commercial real estate) he is like the comforting uncle who really cares and is going to make sure everything is alright.
Born in Gallatin, he moved to Murfreesboro at the age of three. His father had just passed away, and his mother had just gotten the job as housemother for the freshman girl’s dorm at what was then called Middle Tennessee State College (MTSC). From the age of three until the age of 12, Parks grew up surrounded by 100 freshman girls every year. Something he feels helped prepare him for the real estate business. When he was 12, they moved to the boys’ dorms.
“My mother remarried a wonderful man, B. B. Gracy, and we moved off campus and into his home on Tennessee Boulevard.”
Growing up on campus, Parks remembers an idyllic small-town childhood. He rode his bike from the campus into downtown Murfreesboro to see movies at the old Princess Theater. From the time he was a small boy he loved going to football games and all of the activity surrounding them.
He went to what is now Campus School for his early education, Central High School and college at what was by that time Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). He joined Signa Chi Fraternity in college, and thoroughly enjoyed being a part of that organization. During his school years he made lifelong friends that he has to this day, including Andy Womack.
Womack was also a co-worker. They both worked part-time as file clerks for State Farm while in college. Womack would go on to have a distinguished career with that company, however, Parks took a different path. Although he started to work full time for State Farm after he graduated, within a year he decided to explore his fascination with real estate.
“I went into real estate with Clark Maples Realty,” explained Parks. “He was a wonderful man who taught me a lot. He was well respected and well thought of. Then in 1975, I decided to venture out and start my own company. And that was 50 years ago this year.”
He began with three agents, himself, Bill Burgess, who had been at Clark Maples and Peggy Thomas, who still works with him to this day.
“We had a very slow growth pattern,” added Parks.“Then in 1981 or ’82, we became the top company in Murfreesboro. That was a wonderful accomplishment in my mind. We had 40 to 50 agents at the time.”
Part of what made Bob Parks Realty so special was his focus on community. In 1990, the company began an annual event called “Christmas for the Children.” It was funded through a fashion show, a Walking Horse show and a golf tournament.
Since that time, the Murfreesboro office has continued the program, and it has become a non-profit that has served more than 5,500 Middle Tennessee families who were not able to provide their children with the magical holiday experience his many agent’s families got to experience.
As Parks opened new offices, he took that sense of community with him. While all offices have contributed extensively to Make-A-Wish Foundation for over 20 years, he also made sure that each office had a say in what they contributed within their community.
“We were one of the largest corporate sponsors of Make-a-Wish. We gave our agents an opportunity to give so much from each closing and then we would give a match on that,” noted Parks.
Over time, Parks expanded. In 1981, he opened an office in Smyrna. The mid-1980s saw the opening of an office in Shelbyville. By the mid-1990s, he added offices in Nashville, Hendersonville and Mt. Juliet. He bought Gordon Inman’s real estate company in Franklin in 1995, which was the introduction of Bob Parks Realty into Williamson County. Prior to merging with Village Realty in 2021, there were 10 offices.
“We merged with Village in 2021, and in the spring of 2024, our new partners decided that they wanted to sell the company to Compass,” explained Parks. “We have nothing against Compass, but we didn’t stay because our belief has always been that we are local. We invest back into the communities we are in philanthropically and through development. Compass is not a local company. It is a stock-held company out of New York. They have probably been the fastest growing company in the United States in the past 10 to 12 years. I admire everything they have done, but they just didn’t fit how we, Marie, my wife, and I, wanted to end our careers.
” Also involved in commercial property, ParkTrust continues to be a powerful force. That part of the business transitioned to the new Onward Real Estate venture and plays a significant part in its financial success.
Several years ago, Parks had a new inspiration on how to set goals for his company. Every year, at the annual banquet, he would give his agents production-oriented goals for the next year. Then his perspective changed.
“I am most proud of the culture of our company,” explained Parks. “What I have learned is that if you create a great culture of giving back, we as leadership giving back to the agents, the agents giving back to their clients and as a whole giving back to the community, then production happens naturally. So, we said at the annual banquet one year, ‘we are not going to set any goals, but our mission at Parks is for our staff and agents to live a magnificent life.’ That was truly a shocking and impactful statement to our agents because they knew we meant that.”
The definition of “magnificent life” was to be defined by the individual agent. It could be anything from wanting to send their child to a great college to family travel to a new car to being a multi-million-dollar seller.
“It is amazing,” exclaimed Parks, “when you focus on your people having a ‘magnificent life’ it automatically lifts everything up. They felt good about the environment they were in and became more productive. That was not a goal, but a result of saying, ‘it is about you agent, not about us.’ We think we have created something so special that it is hard to replicate. Yes, of course we look at the bottom line, but we see better results by focusing on our agents and what they want to get out of life. Some want to be multi-million-dollar producers, and some just what to be able to do special things for their families. That is what I am most proud of.”
Over time, Parks has seen a lot of changes in the business, the internet having the biggest impact. When he started, the real estate community controlled the information. The only three ways someone could learn about available listings was to drive all over a neighborhood and look for signs in a yard, the real estate ads in the newspaper or work with an agent.
“With the invention of the internet and the creating of a sophisticated multiple listing service,” note Parks, “a client will know a vast amount about the market. They have not only researched properties, but they have researched agents. What that has done for our industry is made us much better. Our agents have to extensively research the communities they are working in and thoroughly know the market because clients are going to know the market. If we do not know the market better, we are going to come across as uneducated or not prepared. It has kept us on our toes.”
In eight months, Parks and the Onward team, headed by Jenni Barnett as CEO, has had to gear up to go from three agents to almost 400. While Parks had intended to keep the business small, he began receiving calls from agents and brokers wanting to get involved. It took him almost 25 years to have that many agents with his original real estate business. Quite a comment about the reputation he has built during that time.
“Jenni Barnett is the catalyst for restarting and moving Onward,” said Parks.
The name for Onward came from a brainstorming session between Parks, Marie and Barnett. While it was really hard to find a name that was not used somewhere else, what they chose really identifies where they are headed.
“We are ready to move Onward,” added Parks.