Charles Pool Real Estate is celebrating 50 years of opening doors for East Texans, and we invite the community to join us for a special anniversary party from 5 to 7 pm, Tuesday, May 5, at our office at 3505 North St. We’ll be serving finger foods fit for Cinco de Mayo, sharing memories and looking forward to the next 50 years.

Three generations and counting have grown CPRE into one of the most trusted real estate agencies in East Texas, with more licensed brokers and more multi-million-dollar producers than any other company in Nacogdoches. As they mark a half-century in business, founder Charles, his son, Ed, and grandchildren Abby Taylor and Colton Pool are looking forward to sharing their pride in the family business and the impact it has had on the community they love.

Charles grew up in Groesbeck and moved to Nacogdoches after high school. His father co-owned Pool’s Pharmacy downtown, in the building where Roma’s is located, and Charles worked there as a soda jerk. He and his wife, Rose Ann (Jones), met on a blind date arranged by his cousin and were married in 1959. 

Charles attended SFA until his National Guard Unit was mobilized during the Cuban crisis. When he returned home, he bought an interest in a local hardware store. Realizing that being inside was not his cup of tea, a friend suggested he consider the real estate business.

He began his real estate career working for Danny Powell, a local builder and broker, and then joined United Farm Agency, traveling all over East Texas in an orange and white Blazer to sell farms and ranches. He eventually got tired of all the driving and decided to open his own full-service real-estate company. He founded Charles Pool Real Estate in 1976.

“I traded a job where I worked six days a week for one where I worked seven,” Charles said.

As they built the fledgling business, they dealt with challenges big and small. The first location, in a small building north of CPRE’s present office, was drafty and cold in the winter.

“Travis Price was our broker of record while I worked on my broker’s license,” Charles said. “Travis would often come to work with his flannel pajamas peeking out of his pants and shirts. Soon we realized that we needed more space, and we built the building we now occupy.”

Luckily, the family lived close to the office and Rose Ann could fill in from time to time. She eventually earned her real estate license and worked at the office full-time. While she joked that she did important things like “going to the bank and buying toilet paper,” she took care of the bookkeeping and the financial end of the business. Some called her the “office manager.”

Ed didn’t plan to follow in his father’s footsteps. He studied finance at Baylor and worked for a bank in college. Although Ed got his broker’s license in 1981, he said he “originally did it to appease dad; I thought I was going into banking.”

After graduating, Ed joined the bank full-time, starting off as a teller and working his way up to loan review and compliance work. But he soon realized it wasn’t for him.

“I decided I couldn’t sit behind a desk,” he said.

He was also feeling the urge to return to his hometown.

“I was born here, grew up here,” Ed said. “I enjoyed being away, but I also saw that this was a pretty cool place to grow up, and I wanted my kids to grow up here. Moving back wasn’t a needs-based thing, it was a want thing.”

Ed began his real estate career in Waco and spent several years dealing solely in commercial real estate sales. He was impressed with the company’s business model and brought some of their ideas with him when he returned home to join the family business. Although it was very different from how CPRE had been run, Charles told his son he supported him and let him run with the new approach. Under Ed’s stewardship, CPRE went from a small company to the biggest in town.

“And then he took credit for my ideas,” Ed said, laughing.

With Ed and Charles working together, the focus became methodical growth over time.

“Dad had me running the company way before I owned it,” he said. “When I took over from him, we had 12 percent of the market and dad asked, ‘Are you comfortable with that?’ I said, ‘No, I want 16 percent. And when I hit 16, I wanted 20, up until we were at 51 percent.”

Although they were working together, Charles and Ed sometimes found themselves on opposite sides of a transaction – one man representing the buyer and the other the seller.

“Mother hated it when he and I represented clients on different sides,” Ed said. “She’d say ‘you all fight each other with the same tenacity you have when you’re working for the same client.’ She hated refereeing. She was pretty good about being neutral. She would criticize us both.”

“Things were never bad; there was just tension. But if you came out neutral, you were alright. If one side was excited and the other wasn’t, we didn’t do a good job.”

Ed guided the company through years of continual growth, honing his sales approach based on a client-first philosophy.

“Serve your client to the best of your ability and the money will come,” he said. “Commission is not your driver; your client’s satisfaction is. I’m less of a salesperson and more of a facilitator and information-gather. You don’t talk your client into buying something, you help guide them to the proper decision.”

In addition to focusing on serving their clients, Charles and Ed both felt a responsibility to be a supportive and positive presence in the community.

“Our company has always been intentional about being involved in the community,” Ed said. “Not only money, but time. We are very proud of that and hope the next 50 years will be the same.”

“I felt that being a part of the community was essential and I am so pleased that Ed has continued the legacy,” Charles said.

Like their father before them, Abby and Colton didn’t originally plan to go into the family business. Colton left town to attend Baylor, graduating with a degree in corporate communications and a minor in real estate. He spent time in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and California, gaining valuable experience in a range of fields.

“Dad always had a rule, and Pabub (Charles) had the same rule for him,” Colton said. “After college you must work for five years doing something else. Regardless of the field, go to college, study and find a job. After five years if you choose to come back and work at the office, you're welcome to. I initially thought I wanted to do construction after college, but instead I worked in timber, sold oilfield equipment, sold roofs, and then sold heavy equipment before deciding to come back to Nacogdoches to work with Abby and Dad. It taught me a strong work ethic and the passion to love what you do.”

Abby attended Baylor for a year to study nursing, then came back to Nacogdoches to study family and childhood development at SFA. She worked at a counseling office and a preschool and was office manager for American Glass before joining CPRE as Ed’s broker assistant and getting licensed.

As a mother to three daughters, Abby has a deep appreciation for the opportunity to carry on the family legacy while also focusing on her children.

“I’ve only been here five years, but I’ve learned from my grandparents, especially my grandmother,” Abby said. “She has given us notebooks of the history and the chronological timelines for property in the family. We talk about history a lot. Passing on generations of knowledge is important. One of the things I like about real estate is that it gives me flexibility with the girls. It's a full-time career, but I can still do mom things. That's important to me.”

While the family is celebrating this major milestone, they’re also looking toward the future and making plans for the next 50 years.

“My plans are to continue the legacy my grandfather and dad have built for Abby and me,” Colton said. “I want to continue building the presence we have established and add our own ideas to the mix.”

They recently created CPRE Farm & Ranch in addition to the commercial division, and are working on expanding into rental property management, but Ed’s focus is giving Abby and Colton time to grow into their leadership roles.

“At some point I’m not going to run the company anymore, but I’m not going to the house,” Ed said. “It’ll be theirs’ to run, and I’ll be a salesman.”