By Donna Cornelius
Journal features writer
An unexpected birthday present led Margi Ingram into a career she’d never even thought about.
Ingram’s name is a familiar one in the Birmingham area real estate market. Her company, Ingram and Associates, is one of the largest new home marketing and sales companies in Alabama.
She started Ingram and Associates in 1977 and hasn’t slowed down since. These days, she divides her time between Birmingham, Fairhope and Opelika. A new project, the Manning Condominiums in Mountain Brook, also demands her attention and time.
But Ingram didn’t start her professional life selling houses. She was a teacher.
“I taught at Wenonah High School for eight years,” the Mountain Brook resident said. “I taught history and German, and it was a great experience.”
Ingram’s father was a Mercedes dealer, she said, and that association frequently brought German-speaking guests into their home.
“That led to my interest in teaching German,” she said.
The family moved from Montgomery to Birmingham in 1964. Ingram was working at Wenonah when her dad came up with a surprise gift.
“My father called me one day and said he had a birthday present for me,” Ingram said. “That was highly unusual, because my mother was always the one who bought our birthday gifts.”
The present itself was also out of the ordinary.
“My father was very nervous when I got home and asked me why I was so late. Then he said, ‘I’ve bought you a real estate course,’” she said.
Ingram wasn’t immediately on board with the idea.
“I thought, ‘I don’t want to do that,’” she said. “But my father saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. He thought I’d be good at sales.”
Despite her father’s confidence, Ingram hedged her bets before jumping into a new career.
“I got my real estate license in 1972, but I didn’t stop teaching until 1978,” she said.
Teaching wasn’t Ingram’s first job. When she was 11, she said, she worked in Montgomery at H.L. Green, a five and dime store. A special work permit allowed her to work on Friday afternoons and on Saturdays, she said.
“I wanted to work because we had a lot of children in our family, and things were pretty tight. I made 50 cents an hour, which seemed like a lot of money at the time. And I’ve always loved to work,” she said.
When Ingram left teaching, it took her a few years to find the best way to be successful in her new career, she said.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do in real estate. I was floundering a little, selling land,” she said.
Then, she said, an encounter with investors from Newport Beach, Calif., narrowed her focus.
“They had bought two apartment buildings here, one in Homewood and the other on Southside, and wanted to reposition the properties, to convert them to condos,” Ingram said. “They needed someone to help them sell the condos.”
That’s when Ingram had her first experience with onsite sales, which she said are “very much like retail sales.”
That venture “threw us into the market as specialists in repositioning properties,” she said. “We sold 150 condos from June to August of 1981, which resulted in other assignments.”
Ingram still wanted to enlarge her company’s services.
“I knew that to extend our brand, we had to get into single-family homes,” she said.
Her company’s first single-family home community was off Valley Avenue, she said.
Ingram said she likes working with new home developments.
“You can select your architectural style and even your neighbors,” she said. “You’re selling a community and a lifestyle.”
Ingram and Associates grew, at one time employing about 100 agents, Ingram said.
In 2003, she partnered with Birmingham-based Daniel Corp. to form a new company.
She was looking for new ways to expand Ingram and Associates, she said, when Charlie Tickle, Daniel Corp.’s chairman and chief executive officer, approached her about merging with his company.
“I’d worked with Daniel off and on in Greystone and other places, and we’d had an association for many years,” Ingram said. “We formed Daniel Homes. It was a perfect match.”
She works closely under John Gunderson, president of Daniel Corp.’s Communities division, she said.
Ingram said the heart of her business has always been “the achievements of the people who work with me.”
“I try to hire people who are more strong-willed than I am,” she said, smiling. “And over the years we’ve probably worked with the best builders and developers in the city. We’ve also had great relationships with other Realtors. Everyone who has touched this company has made a contribution to it.”
Ingram continues to stay busy, traveling to properties like the Colony at The Grand in Fairhope and National Village in Opelika.
“Every other week, I go to Fairhope for two days, and then I spend one day in Opelika,” she said.
Closer to home, she’s working with the new owners of Carrington Lakes in Trussville.
“There are 400 lots on the ground now and 300 we can develop,” she said. “That neighborhood has every amenity—lakes, tennis, a pool and an amphitheater.”
Ingram said her way of running her company may be a little unusual.
“This is not a very popular philosophy today, but I’ve always tried to run my business with my heart and not just my head,” she said.
In her spare time, Ingram likes to golf, she said.
“I haven’t been playing that long. It’s a real mind-teaser,” she said.
She finds time for reading, too.
“I like fiction and nonfiction, and I love mysteries,” she said.
She’s also a member of Cathedral Church of the Advent and enjoys attending the church’s 7:30 a.m. services, she said.
Her job still demands much of her time. It’s a career she said she loves, even though it’s not the one she originally chose–until her father stepped in.
“I hated to leave teaching because it was something I loved so much. I liked making a difference in people’s lives. But I feel like I’ve done that in real estate,” she said.
Margi Ingram’s New Venture: The Manning
Patience pays off, Margi Ingram said, even in the often fast-paced real estate market.
Her latest project, the Manning Condominiums, is a good example.
The Manning is the result of a venture she and her brother, Ray Ingram, started some time ago.
“The Manning will be built on parcels of property that my brother and I were buying over the last 20 years or so,” Ingram said. “The property is across from the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and behind it is the Birmingham Zoo. You can walk to English Village and Mountain Brook Village.”
The Manning will be a two-story building with seven condos on each floor, she said, and prices will range from the $700,000s to a little over $1 million. Units will be 1,750 square feet to 2,850 square feet.
“We’ve been taking reservations and now have 10 out of the 14 units reserved,” she said, adding that she expected to start writing contracts by the end of last month.
She said the target date for the project’s completion is late 2015.
Ingram said she and her brother bought houses on the property with the intent of tearing them down so the Manning can be built. The first houses they bought cost about $80,000, she said.
“The last few are more in the half-million dollar range,” she said.
Ingram said some prospective buyers have other residences but want a connection to Mountain Brook.
“Some have farms or other homes,” she said.
BL Harbert International is the builder for the project, and Ron Durham of Durham and Associates is managing the development, Ingram said.
The Lane Parke multifamily, retail and hotel development will bring additional energy to Mountain Brook Village, she said.
“I think you’ll see even more activity once it’s complete,” Ingram said.
For more information on the Manning Condominiums, visit www.ingramnewhomes.com.