Tomblinson Real Estate changes hands after 35 years

Zacharias looks to carry on tradition

By Matt Smith/msmith@trcle.com

KEENE — Keene mainstay Tomblinson Real Estate is now Zacharias Real Estate LLC.

The former owner, Wayne Tomblinson, sold the business on May 1 to Dan Zacharias and his son, Greg Zacharias.

Tomblinson plans to move to Daytona Beach, Fla., to “retire and become a beach bum.”

Tomblinson’s parents, Dudley and Reta Tomblinson, began the business in 1975.

Tomblinson and his sister, Carolyn Jo Wear, began working for their parent’s company in the early ’90s, with Wear handling property sales and Tomblinson managing rental properties.

Tomblinson took over the business in 1995 when his father retired, a business that sells properties and manages about 200 rental properties, about 90 percent of which are located in Keene.

Tomblinson and Wear also own Blue Star Mobile Home Park in Keene, which they’ve put up for sale. Once Blue Star sells, Wear plans to move to Coppell to be closer to her daughter, Julie Boone and her family.

Tomblinson hired Dan Zacharias to sell real estate three years ago, after Wear retired from the business.

Tomblinson said he decided to retire after undergoing surgery last year.

“In March 2008, I underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery,” Tomblinson said. “That experience had a dramatic impact on my outlook and my future interest. I knew I didn’t want the responsibility of running a business for the next 10 years.

“At that time, I approached Dan Zacharias about taking over the business. I decided it was time I looked toward slowing down and living a simpler life.”

For Zacharias, the purchase represents a new chapter in his life as well.

“I sold my other business seven years ago and retired,” Zacharias said. “I didn’t like being retired so I went back to school and got my real estate license and began selling real estate, which I liked. Then I came to work with Wayne with the idea that if the opportunity ever came up to own my own real estate business that was what I wanted to do.”

Zacharias, a 30-year resident of Cleburne, said he intends to handle property and real estate sales while his son will oversee rental-property management and perform some sales work.

“I just want to thank everyone who has given us business over the years and assure them that we will continue the relationships and traditions that the Tomblinsons have had with the community over the last 30 years.”

Zacharias is a member of the Keene Chamber of Commerce, the board at Southwestern Adventist University and the executive board of the Texas Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Churches.

Zacharias also sits on the Johnson County Real Estate Association board.

Zacharias admits this might not be the best time to enter the real estate business but said he feels confident with his decision.

“We’ve been pretty busy,” Zacharias said. “The economy is down as far as housing is concerned, but I feel it’s coming back a little bit at a time.”

Tomblinson plans to stay on until July 31 to aid Zacharias with the transition and said he will remain available as the businesses’ broker to assist afterward.

Tomblinson said Florida will represent a definite change, given his deep ties to Keene.

“Oh sure I’m going to miss Keene,” Tomblinson said. “You can’t have lived and worked here, made friendships here for 17 years and not miss it.”

Tomblinson’s great grandparents were among the first residents to settle in Keene, Tomblinson said, and his mother was raised there. His father moved from Oklahoma to attend SWAU and remained heavily involved in later years as a board member as well as being active in the Keene Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Tomblinson served as president of the Keene Economic Development Board and became a perennial figure at city council meetings.

Tomblinson’s Sunshine State, beach-bum life will have to wait until he sells the mobile-home park, he said.

The beach bum part being only partially true, Tomblinson said.

“Actually, I want to live in a beach community so I can enjoy long walks on the beach, as my doctor has ordered me to exercise,” Tomblinson said. “It’s not that I will sit at home and not work. I will always be involved in doing something, but it will be without the responsibility and pressures of running a business.

“Now is the ideal time for me to buy [in Florida] because the depressed housing market makes it possible for me to buy something I wouldn’t have been able to two or three years ago.”

Tomblinson said he hopes to find something two or three blocks from the beach, but he hasn’t seriously begun looking at properties except for Internet searches.

“When he finds what he wants down there, I’m going to sell it to him,” Zacharias said jokingly.