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Hometown: Greg Garrett's Helicopter Hearsay Spawns Nuclear Sub 7-11

By Tom Davis Sunday, February 07, 2010

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“Ever since the Daily Press ran a couple of stories, everybody thinks I have a helicopter,” begins Greg Garrett, owner of Greg Garrett Realty, and a waterfront resident in York County.

garrett“I've never had a helicopter.  I've never had heliport. I've never tried to get a heliport. I've never flown a helicopter.  I've never had a helicopter license.  I never even thought about buying a helicopter,” he laughs.

So what about his plans to build a nuclear submarine refueling station between the docks at his house? Click here and he’ll tell you right now.

Garrett is a native of Hampton Roads, and recently found out that he has family roots in the region dating back fourteen generations, since 1620.  As he puts it, “I am deeply from here.” He started Greg Garrett Realty at the age of 25.  His success is well documented, and his multiple offices provide service to “anything east of Richmond.”

Garrett and his wife of 30 years have three sons and a daughter.  Middle son Trent (20), wanted to be in acting.  “He took off with 500 bucks and an old Malibu . . . and now he's doing commercials and has an audition for a soap opera,” says Garrett.  One of Trent’s many commercial roles is the “Mooch” in Pizza Hut commercials.

Garrett’s oldest son is a hedge fund manager in New York, and his youngest has plans to take up missionary work.  Meanwhile, the Garretts' daughter Sarah is the youngest spokesperson for the American Heart Association.

Garrett loves the water and is "so sad about the degradation of the Chesapeake Bay.”

“I'm really kind of an environmentalist developer, which seems like a contradiction but it's really not.  We are oyster farmers,” he says.  Garrett has thousands of oysters growing off their docks.  They “help clean the bay and taste delicious as well.”

While Garrett owns the company, he lets others run things in the offices while he prefers to stay out in the market selling houses.  He personally sold 184 houses in 2009.

“I still stay on the street, out there day to day sitting in people's living rooms so I can see what's going on,” he says.

So what’s going on?

“We're in a very, very unusual, illogical real estate market.  Interest rates are around 5 percent.  House values have come down between 10 and 20 percent," he says. "Some high-end houses are down 30 percent.  People need to get out there, especially the move-up buyer.”

You can hear Greg Garrett's full conversation with Hometown Radio by clicking here.