Kay Cantrell Remarks on Facilitating, Pioneering in the Atlanta Market

Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio

Founder and President Kay Cantrell with Cantrell Properties joins the Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio podcast as the sixth Legends of Real Estate guest to shar her vibrant history in the homebuilding industry. Cantrell joins host Carol Morgan on the All About Real Estate segment and touches on her role as the second female president of the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association and first female president of the Home Builders Association of Georgia. Growing up under the shadow of Williams Brothers Lumber Company, Cantrell begged her father at 12 years old for a summer job at the successful lumber business. Firmly believing in hard work, her father gave her a position. Throughout several summers, Cantrell developed a love for the homebuilding industry and was fascinated by all the moving parts of the business. Every afternoon on the way home from work, her father would pass through subdivisions to speak with clients, this allowed Cantrell to learn how the housing market functions. Cantrell said, “It really interested me – what goes together to make a house and how much it impacts a family or an individual in their whole life.” A force in the Atlanta market, Williams Brothers Lumber Company eventually started Williams Brothers Concrete, where Cantrell held a bookkeeping role. Cantrell’s first-hand experience and education allowed her to develop a deeper understanding of the homebuilding industry. A natural person of business, her father used his intelligence and work ethic as his driving force, providing her with a stellar example on which to base her career. Cantrell said, “I appreciate his contribution to my success.” While working at Williams Brothers, Cantrell held several positions. One role Cantrell particularly noted was her task of photocopying every invoice the company received in the company’s basement. Recognizing the stark contrast between the industry then and now, Cantrell commented on how much the homebuilding sector and her career have evolved in comparison to her humble beginnings and her previous role as a builder. When Cantrell took her first steps as a home builder, her husband Jack worked in the field while she took care of the bookkeeping and planning side of the company. As the recession approached, her husband searched for another job to accommodate the unsettling times. As her husband stepped away from the company, Cantrell took on his previous role in the field. Cantrell said, “After that experience, I came back and said I’m not going back…It was so interesting getting to know my subs…developing relationships of quality. [I] treated them with respect which many builders I watched did not.” During the transition, the internet took the industry by storm, allowing her husband to take over her previous administrative role while she embarked on her exhilarating journey in homebuilding. Realizing that Cobb County had a shortage in lots, Cantrell was in a bind as her company was in the process of developing a subdivision. Her father came across an opportunity to learn the inner workings of the development business and proposed entering this venture to share his expertise with Cantrell to benefit her company. By spending time on the 50-lot site and working closely on the project, Cantrell learned how to develop land. Following this, she purchased land and began the development of a project that consisted of multiple phases. At this point, Jack Cantrell acquired a few wallpaper-lining stores. While Jack ran the stores and managed the bookkeeping responsibilities of the company, Cantrell was out in the field building and developing. Founded in 1984, Cantrell Properties saw many changes during its impressive tenure in the Atlanta market. Cantrell remarked that in the beginning, the company produced homes priced between $80,000 to $150,000 to accommodate the move-up buyer market. The company’s most recent product presents a collection of homes priced $500,000 to $700,000,