Building Up a Business and Community with Bear Stephenson
Bear Stephenson is the owner of Stephenson Realty and Auction in Clinton, Tennessee. On this episode of ConnectTheKnox, Bear explains how his early career was shaped by some of Knoxville’s most influential business leaders.
Bear Stephenson is the owner of Stephenson Realty and Auction in Clinton, Tennessee. On this episode of ConnectTheKnox, Bear explains how his early career was shaped by some of Knoxville’s most influential business leaders, and what he learned about good growth versus growth that is detrimental to the region. Bear and I also discuss what he’s learned from the ups and downs of real estate, and Bear shares some invaluable advice and insights on our current economic situation. Bear also reveals his wish for the future of East Tennessee, and explains the history behind what made the recent growth in our region possible.
Highlights
00:00 Intro
00:22 Julia introduces Bear and Bear explains how he started Stephenson Realty & Auction
06:17 Julia and Bear discuss how Bear’s early career was shaped by prominent Knoxville business leaders
09:34 The event that happened in 1989 that Bear will never forget
11:50 How Bear established his brand during his early years of entrepreneurship
14:52 What Bear has learned about surviving the ups and downs of the real estate and business markets
17:43 Ad - Dr. Joe Chiro
26:34 Bear describes a time in history that closely mirrors the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting economic impact
30:06 The ideal future Bear envisions for the East Tennessee region
34:27 Ad - Just Homes Group
36:24 Julia and Bear discuss the importance of understanding the history of our region and sharing our stories
41:59 Why Bear chose to stay in the Knoxville area after all his travels
43:44 Julia asks Bear her lightning round questions about his favorite Knoxville spots
Links Mentioned in this Episode:
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Stephenson Realty & Auction: https://www.tennauctions.com/
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Just Homes Group: https://www.justhomesgroup.com/
- Dr. Joe Chiro https://www.goseedrjoe.com
Connect with ConnectTheKnox
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Just Homes Realty Group: www.justhomesgroup.com
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Find my Home Buyers & Home Sellers Guide here: https://linktr.ee/thejuliahurley
Transcript
Julia: Welcome back to another episode of Connect the Knox. I’m Julia Hurley, your hostess connecting Knoxville to the nation. Today’s guest is Bear Stephenson. Bear owns one of the most prestigious auction companies in the East Tennessee market. We’re in the same industry and I’m going to tell you right now friends, we’re going to—we are in for a treat on learning all about how East Tennessee real estate came to be and how he has helped that come to be. He’s going to pretend like that’s not who he is, but we’re going to get it out of him today. Bear, thank you for coming on our show today.
Bear: Well, thank you for the invitation. I’ve been looking forward to it.
Julia: We have been trying to schedule this for a month, so we’re super excited that we made it to Clinton, Tennessee, today. Tell us basically how you came to be. How did Stephenson Auction get here and what changes have you seen and contributed to in the time that you’ve been here? And you are one of the top auction companies, pretty much from Nashville to Kingsport. So, tell us how that whole story came about.
Bear: It’s a very interesting story, but if I can go back to an earlier time in my life, I was into service. I went to Tennessee Tech and got a business degree and shortly after I graduated, I got commissioned a second lieutenant in combat engineers and Uncle Sam’s Army and wound up having a tour in Vietnam. I came back from Vietnam in March of 1972. And I’d been back about a month and I met a fella by the name of Jake Butcher who was in the banking business here in East Tennessee. But Jake, a lot of people don’t realize it, but Jake, when he graduated Union County High School, he went into the Marine Corps for four years, and he was partial to veterans.
And by having just come back from Vietnam, exiting out of the army, he hired me to go to work in his banks. And while I was working for him, one of the banks that I worked at was in Campbell County up in LaFollette. This was 1973. I opened a new bank in LaFollette, [CNC 00:02:25] bank of Campbell County. But while I was up there, Hack Ayers, Haskel ‘Hack’ Ayers, who had a real estate and auction company became a customer of the bank.
And he and I got to be real good friends. And one day after I had left the bank, he and I were talking—I left the bank in 1976. My father passed away very suddenly with a massive heart attack in 1976 and I moved back to Clinton from Knoxville and got into the real estate business. But about two, three years or so after I had gotten out of the banking business and in the real estate business here in Clinton, Anderson County, I ran in a Hack one day and he said, “Bear,” he said, “You know, for years, I’ve been wanting to align myself with an Anderson County realtor and develop the auction business in Anderson County, and I just never have done it.” And I said, “Well Hack, if you’ll hold off for a few months,” I said, “I plan on going back and getting my broker’s license and opening my own company.” And I said, “When I do,” I said, “Let’s go in together. You be the auctioneer, I’ll be the broker and we’ll go into business together.”
Which we did. And in 19—I went to auction school six months after I opened Stephenson Realty and Auction Company 40 years ago in 1982, but after having three or four options here in Anderson County, all of which people here in Anderson County called Hack Ayers in Campbell County, the adjacent county to Anderson, called him about doing an estate auction. And I was involved with them. And after a while, I thought, “I think I’m going to go to auction school. I think I can do this myself.” So, I go to Nashville Auction School for two weeks, February of 1983, come back, serve my two-year apprenticeship with Hack, and then I went out on my own.
Julia: It’s required? Is it still required?
Bear: No. The laws have changed since then, but this was 40 years ago, 39 years ago. But at that time, they wanted to make sure that before a new auctioneer went out and started doing auctions on their own, that they knew what they were doing.
Julia: Sure.
Bear: They didn’t want to turn a green auctioneer loose, trying to help liquidate Granddaddy's farm for the—his siblings and not be able to maximize the value and get all that they could for the heirs. They just wanted to know that auctioneers, young auctioneers going out on their own had the experience to do it, and it required a two-year apprenticeship. And then they a number of years ago, they changed it to just a one-year apprenticeship. And that’s what it is now. But the fact that young auctioneers working under a master auctioneer to gain experience and learn what to do and how to serve the public, we as auctioneers, and as real estate agents as well, our job is to help people.
And for that help, we’re paid a fee, so we can stay in business to help somebody else five years from now. But that’s the attitude that I’ve always had about what I do is I’m in business to help people. And every situation is different and every estate needs a different kind of help. But it’s very gratifying being able to help people.
Julia: So, let’s recap that because there’s a lot of that conversation right there. You went to work right out of being drafted. You got back home safely—so thank you for that. Thanks for coming back home. We appreciate that—to go work for the Butcher brothers… ba—
Bear: Yeah, I worked for—I worked for them for three-and-a-half years.
Julia: So, people that don’t really know, so the whole point of the podcast is to understand nationally why Knoxville Tennessee is such an attractive place. Because it has become one of the more attractive places over the years. But in 1982, that’s when the World’s Fair was brought to Knoxville by—
Bear: Jake—
Julia: —reallly and truly, the Butcher brothers.
Bear: Yes.
Julia: They really were. They were the reason that the World’s Fair came to the Knoxville Tennessee market. Shortly thereafter… what happened?
Bear: Shortly thereafter…
Julia: [laugh].
Bear: There were some people that think that—thought that the Butcher brothers had, had—
Julia: They’ve had their share.
Bear: They had engaged in some things they shouldn’t have been engaging in, and as a result, the banks that they had were closed by the FDIC. And they had to serve some time for what they were convicted for.
Julia: Right. But at the time, the Butcher brothers built Knoxville.
Bear: They—yes, they built—
Julia: —they built Knoxville. So, you had the opportunity to be involved with people who understood a very serious business and understood how to grow Alcoa Aluminum, brought the World’s Fair, brought the airport, people who understood. And they were here—from here locally, to have that knowledge and expertise that is rare to find in anybody’s businesses in this day and age. And then to move on to the Ayers family.
Bear: And one of the things that the Butcher brothers were very good at, they were able to surround themselves with people who were very knowledgeable in the world of finance and banking who helped them along the way and gave them good guidance. But when interest rates went to 21%, they were involved with growing the banks that they were acquiring, they were doing it on borrowed money and they were so heavily leveraged that when interest rates went to 21%, they were having to pay interest on loans that they had procured to pledge the stock of the banks that they were buying. And it just got out of hand and they were almost forced to create —
Julia: It was ’08 before ’08.
Bear: Yes.
Julia: But regardless, during a time—and to make it a comparison, during 2005 to 2008, anybody who had just gotten into real estate would learn from developers like you had the opportunity to learn from the Butchers. I mean, it’s one of those very rare opportunities you get a chance to surround yourself with that kind of knowledge at that young of an age. So, that’s unbelievable. And then the Ayers family, you went into business with the—it—was it the Ayers family, correct?
Bear: Yeah, from LaFollette, it was Hack Ayers, Ayers Real Estate Auction Company. But that was in 1982. And then he and I were affiliated for about three years. And then I went out on my own in 1985, started doing auctions of my sales. But in 1989, something happened and I’ll never forget. 1989, I was chairman of the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce here in Clinton and I found out that at the Greater Knoxville Chamber of Commerce annual meeting at the Holiday Inn World’s Fair site, that Walter Cronkite was going to be the speaker.
Julia: At the Knoxville Chamber event?
Bear: Yes.
Julia: Interesting.
Bear: And I thought—I said, “I would love to hear Walter Cronkite speak.” So, rounded up nine other people and we go over there and buy a table of ten, the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce bought a table of ten, and during Cronkite’s presentation, he said, “I have traveled literally all over this world.” I said—he said, “I’ve traveled very extensively within the United States.” And he said, “In my opinion, what you have right here in East Tennessee, you have the last unspoiled region for development in this nation.” And when he started talking about this, I perked up. I remember it if it was from yesterday and it’s been 33 years ago.
But he said, “There’s two things you need to concern yourselves with. Number one is the kind of growth you don’t pollute your environment, and number two is the kind of growth you don’t spoil the quality of life you have here. You got these mountains, you got these lakes, you got these rivers, you’ve got these four seasons.” He said, “You’ve just got something special and unique. And people are moving here from all over the country.”
And this pandemic has caused an additional influx of people moving to East Tennessee because they’re wanting to get out of the big cities and move to less populated parts of the country, and people are moving here literally from California, from Colorado, from Chicago, from New York, all over the country, and moving here from Florida. But we have something special and unique right here in East Tennessee. And also the fact that Tennessee does not have a state income tax that is attractive to a lot of people who are wanting to make their new home here in East Tennessee. And I think it’s going to continue to grow. We just got to make sure that it’s good growth, like Walter Cronkite said, it’s kind of growth we don’t pollute our environment, we don’t swallow quality of life that we have here in East Tennessee.
Julia: I agree with that. So, between 1985, when you went out on your own and 1989 when you really started to see national figures visit Knoxville, and conversations about growing in Knoxville, what did you do in that five years to establish, kind of, your own entity? Because at that time, there weren’t very many other real estate firms, but you’ve a—I mean, your name is synonymous with real estate and auctioning. So, how did you establish that aside from maybe just being involved in the chamber?
Bear: I [laugh] was involved in the chamber, I was involved in the Rotary Club here in Clinton, and when I finished my apprenticeship and went out on my own in 1985, I did five real estate auctions that year. In 1986, I did 9. In 1987, I did 15. In 1988, I did 23. In 18—I mean, in 1989, I did 33.
Julia: Wow.
Bear: And in 1990, I did 39.
Julia: It’s a big jump.
Bear: You could have laid a pencil on a graph, it how my business had grown. But you have to serve your apprenticeship, literally. I had already started my two year apprenticeship with Hack Ayers, but you have to pay your dues because you go out and talk to an executor of their grandfather’s estate and they look at you and they say, “Now sonny, how many auctions have you done?” I said, “Well, I’ve done two.” They say, “I think we need somebody with more experience.”
But when I opened Stephenson Realty and Auction, there had never been a real estate auctioneer company in Anderson County. I just found a niche no one was filling, because auctioneers from Knoxville, Roane County, Campbell County, came into Anderson County, and serviced this market and did the auctions. But I just found something that no one else was doing here in the county. But it took a while for me to get established and to prove myself, but it’s been an interesting journey. And it’s—I was determined to make it work [laugh]. I had no choice. Nobody’d hire me.
Julia: Nope. Nobody else would do it [laugh].
Bear: I’m not going back to work in a bank again. I’m going to do something on my own. But I knew when I—the time I spent in the army and the time that I spent working in banking for the Butchers, which was a very, very good experience, I just am so independent. I just realized I was going to have my own business. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew that I was not going to work for somebody else. And that’s what I’ve done for the last 46 years. I’ve worked for myself.
Julia: That’s what it takes, I guess.
Bear: [crosstalk 00:14:41].
Julia: That’s what it takes to get it out there.
Bear: Yeah, nobody would hire me so I had to [laugh] go to work for myself.
Julia: So, you have seen… you saw gas shortages, you saw interest rates increase exponentially, we’re in a high-interest rate market at the moment, but nothing like it was.
Bear: Oh, no nothing—
Julia: Nothing like it was. So, you’ve went through so many business cycles. What has been the ups and downs, what are the best lessons and the hardest lessons, and sometimes those might have been the same, that you’ve experienced throughout your time in real estate?
Bear: The thing that I’ve learned early on, you better have your nest egg saved back because it’s just like life itself. I learned this long time ago, I don’t know how many years ago I first heard this, but the tide goes out, and the tide comes in. It’s the same in our personal lives. Where things are going good, you better enjoy it, you better appreciate it because it ain’t going to last, as we say, here in Clinton. But you just have to salt some money back, have your little nest egg because—to weather the storm and the downturns because lean times are coming.
But I don’t think anybody has repealed the economic cycle. We’re going to continue to have economic cycles, we’re going to have excesses which caused the dotcom bust of the 1999-2000 era, when we went into recession in 2001 2002, came out of that and—
Julia: Went right back into a crash in ’08.
Bear: Went right back. Real estate was booming, it was going great, and then all of a sudden, bottom fell out in spring of ’08. And then, I’ll just give you an example, from 2007 to 2011, over that four-year period, my income declined 74%. That’s how much real estate went down in sales, my revenue for the company. But like I say, I had… just like a little squirrel gathering up nuts in the winter when times get lean, he’s going to be okay.
And it’s the same way in business. You just have to make sure that you don’t spend all your money and then bad times come and you broke. We had to file bankruptcy because there were so many people having to file bankruptcy in ’09, especially in the construction and real estate business because they had houses that they had built and borrowed money on, and they couldn’t sell them because they were such a decline in real estate values, that I didn’t want to ever get myself in a position that I would have to do that. So, I’ve just been very conservative in my real estate ventures.
Julia: It is a trying situation when you’re in development in real estate on a regular basis because when it’s up, it’s really up. And I think that that’s a long lesson in cyclical business that people forget to remember. They forget to remember. And what is it that you carry in your wallet?
Bear: [laugh]. I found it about two months ago. I was going through some things at my house and I found a payment schedule for Y-12 Credit Union in 1987. Now, I’ve got it here in my pocket. But it is a little card that has Y-12 credit union.
Julia: All right. Check that out. From 1987, from the Y-12 Credit Union’s calendar. That’s sweet. When was my birthday that year? It was on a Monday. No one wants to Monday birthday. And this is 15%. 15% annual percentage rate and what your payments would be in 1987. And you survived that—
Bear: Oh yeah.
Julia: —in business.
Bear: I remember [laugh] I remember, friend of mine and I bought a 275-acre farm right outside of Clinton up on the Clinch River in 1987. And then we developed it and was selling lots. But we had large acreage tracts; we had lots. Smallest lot we had was about two-and-a-half acres. But they were like two-and-a-half to five acres each.
And even though interest rates went so high, people still wanted a little farm close to town, out in the country, and we had that product and we were selling our lots even though half-acre lots in Clinton in a subdivision, you couldn’t give them away. But we were selling our lots and things were going well. But we built two houses to kick this subdivision off. We sold one of them and then we had another one that we had a construction loan on at First American Bank here in Clinton. But I told David, my partner, one day, I said, “David, let’s drop the price of this house. Let’s just figure it out about what we’ve got in it and let’s drop the price and let’s sell this house and get rid of it and stop paying the interest on this blame construction loan every month.”
So, we did that and we sold it about two weeks later to a couple from Michigan who had transferred into one of the plants here in the industrial market in Clinton. And I told them at the closing statement—as the closing table, I said, “I’ll be honest with you two.” I said, “We’re not making any money on this house, you’re getting this house just about what we’ve got in.” But I said, “You know when I’m going to make money on his house?” The husband said, “No.” I said, “Next month,” because I’m not going to have a $700 interest payment.
Julia: No doubt.
Bear: That’s what I’m going to make money is next month, on this house [laugh]. But you just have to be willing to cut your losses and going down on the road. That’s what we did.
Julia: That’s one of the biggest things at the end of every year, as a real estate agent—and I’m still—I’m a newbie, eight years in. I mean, I still have—you’ve forgotten more than I have learned so far, honest to goodness. I have so much more to learn. But I will say one of the things that I learned quickly was basically it’s the same as car dealerships in July. Come December first, every builder and developer out there wants their debt off their books and to pay that bank.
And when the interest rates go up, buyers say, “Oh, wait till they go down.” And I say, “Buy now because a builder is going to cut their losses. They don’t want that bank note.” And every year, around about December 1, we sell more homes in December to closing January than we usually do in four or five months combined in the total year before. Every year. It never fails. Cut your losses and go. And a lot of builders will do that if you just have the conversation with them. That fascinates me.
Bear: That is true. You've talked about you having your license se—
Julia: Eight years.
Bear: Eight years. Yeah. I’ve had mine—
Julia: [laugh]
Bear: I’ve had mine—
Julia: I get headaches every day over it [laugh].
Bear: I’ve had mine 46 years. When I got—
Julia: That’s amazing, though.
Bear: About six months before I left the bank in 19, I was with the United American Bank over Knoxville. But about six months before I left the bank, I went over to UT and took a real estate—principles of real estate class at night school over there at UT, and got my real estate license about six months before I left the bank because I had an inkling that I was going to get out of banking anyway. And so, when I made the decision to leave and come back to Clinton and get in the real estate business, I already had my license, so I was a little bit ahead of the game at that time, didn’t have to wait to get my license. But I’ve had my license for 46 years.
And it’s been a heck of a ride. It’s been a heck of a journey. It’s been a very interesting journey being in real estate, just like we talked about a minute ago, the ups and downs and economic cycle. When I was—I went to several banking schools when I was first went to work for the Butchers, and one of the things that I remember that they were talking about, the average life of a builder is about seven years.
Julia: Interesting.
Bear: Because people—I mean that was 45 years ago.
Julia: Because they have to be able to keep and maintain lending as well? Or is that just because they get tired of it?
Bear: No. It’s the economic cycle gets them.
Julia: Interesting.
Bear: Just think about how many people went out of business, went bankrupt, how many builders who were not capitalized well enough to weather the storm that went out of business, took bankruptcy because of the downturn in real estate market that we experienced in—
Julia: So, so far—
Bear: —2008.
Julia: —what I can remember, 2005, and back then I had just started—when I say sic—when I say business cycles, I’m referring to my adult life because I experienced the ’80s with my parents, having 15, 16% interest, but I didn’t have to pay it. I didn’t understand money. So, I’m going to say my business cycles—or my adult life, so I witnessed, 2005, a whole bunch of people getting real rich real quick, and me going, “I’m not so sure that’s going to last. I think this is interesting.” ’08 crash happened, 95% of those people I’ve never seen since.
But I’ve seen their properties just absolutely go for pennies on the dollar. And then in 2011-12 I saw the roofing industry have a peak because we had all the hail damage here. So, we had people overnight millionaires who then packed up and left. So, the builders left us in a way, the roofers left us in 2012, started coming out in 2014, out of the foreclosure system, which is when I got my real estate license, and I was still having to go make 5, 600 phone calls to beg buyers to beg houses because—to buy houses because nobody wanted them because you still couldn’t get decent housing because the builders had let them fall apart. It was very interesting.
And then we had the 2019 pandemic, where you literally sat there and you were just a contract writer. All you had to do was take a phone call, write a contract. You wrote—I wrote 135 contracts in 2020 by myself. And now we’re starting to see interest rates creep back up. Now, we’re starting to see people taking a nosedive a little bit because they overleveraged [either 00:25:25] they bought too many rental properties or they started building back too fast, developing too fast, and in a way was doing the lending, and now I think it’s due more to lack of maybe poor financial planning.
But we’re starting to see a lot of ups and downs come in my adult lifetime, so much shorter than the ten-year cycle. So, what are your predictions for that future coming forth because what I’m experiencing is a lot of ups and downs within four-year spurts instead of ten. Like, it used to be you could almost count on a ten-year cycle.
Julia: We all know that real estate is location, location, location. Our team at Just Homes Group has the true expertise, pairing buyers and sellers with the right opportunities. Whether you’re looking to buy or sell a home right here in Knoxville, Lenoir City, Clinton, or Farragut, we have the expertise throughout every Knoxville surrounding area. Call just Homes Group today.
Bear: One of the things that has happened, you mentioned, alluded to the pandemic. When things shut down the second week in March of 2020, almost three years ago, we didn’t know—last time we’d had anything like this that happened was the 1918-1919, what is referred to as the flu pandemic, which was really a virus that first place they had any indication that something was going on was at an army base in Kansas. And GIs were getting sick, some are dying, and then they shipped off and went to World War II, went to Europe, and they spread it worldwide.
Julia: Oh, wow.
Bear: But anyway, we hadn’t had anything like that since… you know, a hundred years ago. But the Fed drove interest rates. The Federal Reserve Board is what controls the economy in this country, and Congress passes a few laws that can affect it in small ways, but the Federal Reserve is what really controls interest rates and the economy in this country. But the Fed drove interest rates down to unprecedented historical lows just to keep our economy from falling off a cliff. And it caused excesses in our economy, and then the supply chains got disrupted, and it couldn’t get parts and it’s just a whole combination of a lot of things, and inflation took off. And then they said, “Oops, we will have to stall the economy to get inflation down.”
And that’s what we’re in the middle of right now. And interest rates are going to probably continue to go higher to get the economy slowed down and so we can get inflation back down to 2% or so, which historically is traditionally the level that they want inflation to be at. But we’re in another cycle, and—but I think that probably by the end of next year, a lot of economists that I listen to on CNBC every morning trying to keep up with it, what’s going on with our economy and interest rates, most of them—the consensus by the end of next year, we should have inflation down to a tolerable level and we’ll continue with the kind of growth that we’ve been experiencing last several years.
Julia: So, buckle in, kids [laugh].
Bear: Buckle in. Things are going—things are going to be a little slow come springtime.
Julia: Some money.
Bear: Save some money for your—
Julia: Save some money.
Bear: You got a closing? Salt some of it back.
Julia: Why do you say ‘salt some of it back?’ What is that?
Bear: Put it in a savings account and forget you got it because you might need it at some point in the future. That’s what I call salting it back. That’s an old—I grew up on a 40-acre farm about five miles from here, and that was an expression out in the country, to salt some back. And I guess it has something to do when you kill a hog, when salt the bacon and the hams down to cure it. I guess that’s what it refers to. I don’t know, but that’s the expression I grew up with.
Julia: Well, I’m going to steal it. I’m going to start using that. Let’s carry that on.
Bear: Just salt some back—
Julia: Just salt is back.
Bear: —for a rainy day. You might need one of these days.
Julia: You might need it to soak up that rain. What is your dream or your outlook for the Knoxville market? And Clinton, Tennessee, for as much as they have tried—God bless y’all, have tried—to keep everything inside of just Anderson County, that pandemic drove people here from all over the country, and now Anderson County for as quiet of a town as it has been is truly on par with the growth rate of one of the highest percentages counties we’ve seen. So, there’s some growth happening here. What is your future projection and wish for that growth over the next decade?
Bear: I think all of East Tennessee is going to continue to grow. I know right now, Loudon County is fastest-growing County in the East Tennessee. Knoxville is growing West, growing North, is growing in all the surrounding counties around Knoxville, and as a result, we’re going to have, I think, continued growth in the real estate market for a long time to come.
Julia: Yeah?
Bear: I don’t see anything that’s going to stop it because we have the amenities that people are looking for here in East Tennessee.
Julia: Okay, what would you want—if you could plan it out—I mean, y’all have good planning commission. Most counties have, you know, good planning commission lately, a lot of different—lot of things have been changing, a lot of rules have been changing. But if you can do it for the next generation, what would it look like?
Bear: The planning commission?
Julia: No, just planning Anderson County in general. What would it look like? If you had a magic wand and said, “I have limitless capability.” What would it look like?
Bear: You would continue the same as we have been doing for the last 45, 50 years or so. A mix of industrial, commercial, and residential properties, but have it growth in such a way that you don’t spoil this—like Walter Cronkite said 33 years ago—you don’t spoil the quality of life you have here, to make it enjoyable living for everybody that lives here and who is going to be moving here. And at Morgan County, they don’t have the kind of growth that we have, but one of the reasons over there, I know they don’t have a… zoning office over in Morgan County.
Julia: Really?
Bear: Yeah. And as a result, there’s a lot of Amish who have moved to Morgan County around the Deer Lodge area, and the reason that they’re moving down here—and they’re coming—a lot of them are coming from Punxsutawney—I think I’m saying that—
Julia: Punxsutawney?
Bear: Punxsutawney Phil, that groundhog, Punxsutawney is a little old town up in Pennsylvania, it’s the population of about 10,000 people and they’re moving up—moving down here because they got tired. When they would go out and build a house, they would have to get a footer inspection, they’d have to wait around until somebody came in and inspected the footer inspection, and they have to—then they could frame it up and ask for somebody come out and inspect the frame.
Julia: So, it’s like Knoxville city? [laugh].
Bear: —and then to have to get somebody to come out and inspect the electrical when they got it roughed in. And they just got tired of it, so they come to Morgan County—somebody found out in Morgan County, you pretty much do what you wanted to. So, over in Morgan County—
Julia: Interesting.
Bear: They just build a house and they’ll have it built in two weeks and they don’t have to worry about any inspections or anything. They just build the house.
Julia: So, they have a bunch of Amish shops up there?
Bear: Yeah. They don’t have many Amish shops; the community’s not at large yet, but they’ve got a lot of fruits that they grow and sell.
Julia: I just learned something new. I had no idea that Morgan County, Tennessee, is the new Amish hotspot because they know how to make things.
Bear: Yeah, just like Muddy Pond down in Cumberland County, if you want some good molasses, go down the Muddy Pond, you can get some.
Julia: Really?
Bear: Oh, yes.
Julia: How do I not know this stuff?
Bear: Well, you’re learning it now [laugh].
Julia: Do you know anybody that makes—what is that? It’s not. It’s not sweetgum? It’s not molasses either. It’s like it’s thicker than molasses. Maybe it is sweetgum. Do you know what I’m talking about?
Bear: I think you’re talking about—
Julia: Sorghum.
Bear: Well, Sorghum and molasses are basically the same thing. It’s just a different form of sugarcane. But it’s sugarcane, molasses is.
Julia: Let me tell ya, we could sit here for days and I would learn more, just sitting here talking to you.
Bear: [laugh].
Julia: Heck, there’s one recipe that I made that requires sorghum over anything else. I’ve never found it.
Bear: People, they substitute sorghum for molasses. It’s—I mean, you can’t hardly tell the difference in between. But the thing about it, Julia, you sit there and talk to me—
Julia: [laugh]. I’m going to sit here until you tell me all the good stuff. That’s what’s going to happen.
Bear: Ninety—I’ve been saying for years that probably 90% of what I know, will never do me a bit good. I just know it. When I—
Julia: Well, I disagree. I think that you know so many amazing things that I think that you should tell the whole world about all the things that you know, and we can make just an entire talk of just, this is the Bear Stephenson show.
Bear: But on the other hand, who cares?
Julia: I care. I think it’s fascinating. I think it’s fascinating. I think that the more people in Knoxville area that move here, that every day goes by that we miss an opportunity to know and talk with the people that watched it grow, help it grow, and know the stories of the people that got it here because nobody talks about it. I have found that to be so unbelievably true that when I talk with young people that move here, I ask them, “Do you know how the World’s Fair got here?” They didn’t even know it was here.
“Do you know who the Butcher Brothers are?” Never heard of them. I mean, they don’t know the history of Knoxville or why that’s important. Because without these people and this situational happenstance of meeting all these family names, that back then, they were probably just starting their business off like everybody else. But in today’s, if you go to the University of Tennessee campus and look at the names on the buildings, those are the people. These are the people that built Knoxville, and you build that with him. And I don’t think enough people talk about it.
And our history one day is just going to be gone. It’s going to be a whole bunch of 30-somethings going, I just think that’s, “We should remodel that entire building. I don’t know why we would preserve that or why does that matter.” Because understanding how it grows is a way to keep it growing properly. And since you had that much real estate experience and knowing how that make those relationships last, how to build those relationships out, how to bring businesses in correlation with residential and manufacturing at the same time. These are all things you’ve done. And I think it’s important that people understand that those things come with years of experience and relationships and how to maintain those and how to build on that.
Bear: That’s true. It takes a lot of people working together. And I know one of the things that I really was impressed with is when a number of people got together and had the slogan, “Nine counties, one vision.”
Julia: Yeah.
Bear: It was Knoxville and the eight surrounding counties that had joined Knox County that have a common border with Knox County. There’s nine counties: Knoxville and eight others. And, “Nine counties one vision,” because a plant that locates in Anderson County, it is good for the surrounding counties because Anderson County’s—the industrial parks here in Clinton, Campbell County’s largest employer is Clinton.
Julia: Really?
Bear: More people in Campbell County drive to Clinton down the interstate to work at these factories, at [Isom 00:38:27], and 3M is located in the old Food Lion, they bought the whole Food Lion distribution center here, and then they just have received a tax abatement for an expansion, it’s gonna employ 500 additional people.
Julia: That’s amazing.
Bear: But as these companies around in these nine counties, as they locate and companies are also coming here because we don’t have a state income tax. And also what a lot of people don’t realize, East Tennessee is within a day’s drive of about 60% of the population of this country. And when we got the interstate system completed, that made East Tennessee accessible to the outside world. Prior to 1970, you could hardly get East Tennessee because we had 25W, north and south, we had highway 70 from Nashville coming through Knoxville, Kingston Pike, little old two-lane crooked road, but the interstate system made East Tennessee accessible to the outside world, and they are coming.
Julia: Yeah.
Bear: There’s an old expression. I’ve heard it all my life but there’s an old expression. The South’s going to rise again.
Julia: [laugh].
Bear: Have you ever heard that expression?
Julia: Where are they rising to? The flower store?
Bear: Have you ever heard that expression?
Julia: I have. Well, they’ve been trying for a long time.
Bear: Okay, well, I guess it came after the Civil War when the Union Army and Sherman marched through the South, just whatever wasn’t already burned or torn down, he marched through from the Mississippi River all the way to Charleston, I think it was, and just—and finally, the southerners were left said, “South’s going to rise again.” Do you know how we’re rising? It’s all of the people moving here from all over the country. People coming from the north, but people come in from Florida, moving—the halfbacks, as we call them.
Julia: If y’all don’t know what a halfback is, let me help you. There’s a hatchback club—just in case you are one and you don’t know where to go, you let one of us know and we’ll connect you to the president of the halfback club. It’s people who are from up North and they get too cold. They move to Florida; they get way too hot. Tennessee’s climate is perfect. It’s right in between. So, it’s halfway back home. So, if you a member of the halfback club and you need connections, we’ll help you.
Bear: Yeah, there’s a—I’ve made a lot of people—I’ve made a lot of money off of people moving from up north and people moving from Florida halfway back to, but—
Julia: You sold two houses [laugh].
Bear: People do different things for different reasons.
Julia: All right. I’m going to ask you some weird questions, so here we go.
Bear: Okay.
Julia: In all the places that you’ve ever been, why did you choose to stay here? You traveled everywhere. You could be anywhere you wanted to be, start a business anywhere, make money doing anything. Why choose to stay here?
Bear: It was because of the familiarity that I had with Anderson County having grown up here and having gotten acquainted with so many of the people here, the good friends and relationships, I decided that Clinton and Anderson County would be where I would call home. But I’ve been fortunate in that I have had an opportunity to do a lot of traveling. And every year—I’ve been in 49 states thus far—
Julia: What are you missing?
Bear: Hawaii. Always said I was going to Hawaii on my honeymoon.
Julia: [laugh]. For anybody that doesn’t know Bear, how old are you?
Bear: I’m too old—I’m old enough to know better and too young to care.
Julia: Never been married. Never getting married. Dying on that hill. So, I guess you’re never going to Hawaii.
Bear: I will go to Hawaii one of these days. Perhaps. I’m going to forget about the vow I made to myself. And I was saving Hawaii for my honeymoon. I’m probably—by the time I I’m 80, I’ll probably just say, “Heck, I want all 50 states under my belt.”
Julia: You’re just going to go?
Bear: I’m just going to go—
Julia: All right.
Bear: —for the heck of it.
Julia: It’s only a six-hour time difference. You can do it.
Bear: Yeah, I know it.
Julia: You can do it.
Bear: I know I could.
Julia: You’re so funny. That’s—okay. All right. Favorite restaurant. In this area. It doesn’t have to be just Anderson County, but favorite restaurant.
Bear: It’s a cross between the Copper Cellar, down on Cumberland, down in the basement, or Litton’s.
Julia: Oh, Litton’s? Strawberry cake.
Bear: Yep. I used to—when I was—when I left banking, I was at Fountain City, the Fountain City branch, about half a mile from Litton’s, and had an apartment over on Cedar Lane. But Litton’s has been near and dear to me for many, many years. Good restaurant.
Julia: Very good restaurant. And for Thanksgiving if you order at least six weeks in advance, they’ll make you an Italian cream cake, like, a whole one, and it’s about this big and this tall. And it’s the best Italian cream cake I’ve ever had. It’s fantastic.
Bear: Oh yeah, they’re—
Julia: That place is ridiculously good.
Bear: They have good chefs—
Julia: They do.
Bear: —in both places.
Julia: They do. I hardly ever make it to Copper Cellar, though.
Bear: And Chesapeake’s. I love seafood—
Julia: Oh, I love it at Chesapeake’s.
Bear: —I love seafood and I love Chesapeake’s. But there was a lot of nice restaurants in Knoxville.
Julia: Yeah, Knoxville is a foodie town.
Bear: Yes, it is.
Julia: For sure. And then of course I came over this way, even though we could have done this podcast on your cell phone in my house and we could have both been in our offices and just done online, but I always want to eat at Hoskins. So, any excuse I have to visit Clanton, Tennessee, so I can eat at Hoskins [laugh].
Bear: Hoskins Drug Store started in 1933 by RC Hoskins, who incidentally, was the fellow who was instrumental in establishing the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce 90 years ago.
Julia: Really?
Bear: He and seven or eight other business people here in town—
Julia: Interesting.
Bear: They started the chamber. But if you want a good restaurant, good lunch, breakfast, come over to Clinton and go to Hoskins drugstore which is right across the street—on Main Street—from the Anderson County Courthouse. Directly across the street.
Julia: You don’t want to go in there. The courthouse.
Bear: No.
Julia: [laugh]. But Hoskins is safe space. Favorite gas station?
Bear: Favorite gas station. I’ve got to say the Git’N Go.
Julia: I was going to say, if you don’t say Git’N Go, Joe Hollingsworth’s going to lose it.
Bear: I was going to say—
Julia: Your building is going to be—
Bear: —if Joe Hollingsworth ever [laugh] sees this and I didn’t say Git’N Go, I wouldn’t have a friend anymore.
Julia: I want to say the Git’N Go does have amazing hamburgers.
Bear: Oh, they do.
Julia: Just a P.S. Anybody driving through Clinton, stop at a Git’N Go and grab a hamburger. Get it and go. It’s good.
Bear: Yeah, there’s—Joe has establish—Joe is a very astute businessman, but he has cornered all four of the main arteries in and out of Clinton. He has four Git’N Gos. He’s got—and I remember when he built the first one. I was building houses over in Lower Mountain Subdivision shortly after I left the bank. But like I say, Joe, because of—but he gives back so much to this community and—
Julia: Yes.
Bear: —all over East Tennessee.
Julia: Can you name and remember all the organizations you’ve been a member of and been on boards of? Because I know you’re on, what, six or seven boards now, but in a time that be—know the time that you’ve been here, what all have you been involved in?
Bear: The thing that I got involved in right after going to auction school, I started—I decided, as an auctioneer if you’re going to become proficient with developing an auction chant, you have got to have practice. So, I started developing charity auctions. And I know when I came back from auction school in 1983, I did one charity auction for the Oak Ridge Christian Women’s Club. It was a luncheon. And from that, it evolved to where I was doing… before the pandemic hit, I was doing between 45 and 55 nonprofit charity auctions every year.
Julia: That’s amazing.
Bear: I have never charged anybody anything. It’s just my way of giving back to this community and all over East Tennessee. But my high watermark, in 1998, I did 76 charity auctions.
Julia: Wow.
Bear: And like I say, I never charged—
Julia: Maybe that’s why the Vols won the national championship, that he just gave so much of yourself, they had to give it back.
Bear: But—I don’t know about that. But I have gone to a lot of nice events. I mean, there’s one that I’ve done for the last 20 years—there’s two that I’ve done for the last 20 years. The Knoxville Museum of Art is a four-course dinner catered by Blackberry Farm. And I mean, they do comp me two tickets to come to the event to do the auction. And I have to work for my food [laugh].
Julia: Well, [laugh]. I could be a spotter. “That guy said he’d donate a million dollars over there.”
Bear: And the other one that I really enjoy doing each year—there’s three my top, top three I guess, if there’s anybody that’s involved with another organization, I like them all, but there’s some that I just have more fun with, I guess, foods a little better—
Julia: [laugh].
Bear: —but the UT Gardens that I’ve been doing that for 11 or 12 years—
Julia: We’re in it for the free meals.
Bear: The free meals. My sign says—
Julia: We’re realtors. We’re broke.
Bear: —and I apologize to all my Baptist friends out there, but my sign says will, “Auction for wine and food.”
Julia: Good wine and food.
Bear: Good wine and food. But the other one is the Evergreen Ball, which is a fundraiser for the—they’ve had it for 20 years—fundraiser for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This year it’s going to be at the Cherokee Country Club. And Gary Wade, Judge Gary Wade up at Sevierville, he was the one that was—he and a few other folks got together and started Friends of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. But it is a super organization, does a lot of good things for the Smokies.
But there’s a lot of auctions that I really do enjoy doing, charity auctions. And I met so many neat people doing these charity.
Julia: I’ll bet.
Bear: Plus it gave me an opportunity to develop an auction chant. [auction chant] and I’ve sold them for 35 dollars.
Julia: What are you saying in between all that? What are you saying in there?
Bear: I don’t know.
Julia: [laugh]. How do you develop an auct—? You stand in the mirror and just chant?
Bear: You drive down the highway, after coming back from auction school, for about four years—
Julia: Alright, let’s do it.
Bear: It was almost daily practice. I would sell telephone poles. I’d—
Julia: To yourself? In the car?
Bear: Yeah driving down the highway, selling telephone poles.
Julia: How do you sell a telephone pole? Do it slow.
Bear: Starting ‘um along—start—I can’t do it slow.
Julia: Okay.
Bear: Start ‘um along—
Julia: Start ‘um along—
Bear: —what is my bid now? Would you give me ten?
Julia: What’s a bid down?
Bear: Now. It doesn’t matter what you—
Julia: Start ‘um along, what do—
Bear: What am I bid now?
Julia: What am I bid now?
Bear: Start ‘um along, what am I bid now? [auction chant]
Julia: Oh, see, like asking, but really fast.
Bear: Yeah. It’s just real fa—but the main thing about doing an auction, you’ve got to very distinctly say the numbers. 85 [auction chant] 90 [auction chant] 90 [auction chant] 90 [auction chant] 90 [auction chant] 85 [auction chant] 90, 90 [auction chant] 90 [auction chant] 85 I have, [auction chant] 90—90 now, 95 [auction chant] 95, 95. You do this like—in the auction world knows what I’m saying, “What you give,” “What you bid,” “What you go,” those—
Julia: They’re just fillers?
Bear: They’re what they call filler words.
Julia: Interesting.
Bear: It’s just filler words. You’re just filling up—what you’re doing is just filling up time to give somebody else an opportunity and a chance to beat it.
Julia: Well, let me tell you this one thing down pat.
Bear: What was that?
Julia: [hup noise].
Bear: [laugh]. [whoop noise].
Julia: That’s all I got. [whoop noise]. That’s all I got. Anytime anybody ever— anytime I’ve ever volunteered for an auction, I point at the person that gives the money I go, [whoop noise]. That person just gave money [laugh].
Bear: Yep. Yep.
Julia: That’s my contribution to the auction community. You are welcome.
Bear: I might have to get you to come help me with an auction sometime.
Julia: I’d be happy to. Everybody, this has been one of my best episodes. So much laughter, so much to learn, so much to give. Bear Stephenson, owner and founder of Stephenson Auction and Realty Company in Clinton, Tennessee. One of the best auctioneers that Tennessee has ever had. And if you—
Bear: Oh—
Julia: —that’s true and you know it. And—you know it. Don’t you be humble right now. If you have a charity auction that you need, it’s one of his favorite ways to give back, let us know. Thank you so much for joining us and learning how to Connect the Knox. Have a great day.
Bear: Thank you for tuning into the show. Make sure to like and subscribe, leave a five star review on your podcast player of choice, and if you would like information on moving to Knoxville, send me a private message. As always, this is Julia Hurley, connecting Knoxville to the nation.
Julia: Welcome back to another episode of Connect the Knox. I’m Julia Hurley, your hostess connecting Knoxville to the nation. Today’s guest is Bear Stephenson. Bear owns one of the most prestigious auction companies in the East Tennessee market. We’re in the same industry and I’m going to tell you right now friends, we’re going to—we are in for a treat on learning all about how East Tennessee real estate came to be and how he has helped that come to be. He’s going to pretend like that’s not who he is, but we’re going to get it out of him today. Bear, thank you for coming on our show today.
Bear: Well, thank you for the invitation. I’ve been looking forward to it.
Julia: We have been trying to schedule this for a month, so we’re super excited that we made it to Clinton, Tennessee, today. Tell us basically how you came to be. How did Stephenson Auction get here and what changes have you seen and contributed to in the time that you’ve been here? And you are one of the top auction companies, pretty much from Nashville to Kingsport. So, tell us how that whole story came about.
Bear: It’s a very interesting story, but if I can go back to an earlier time in my life, I was into service. I went to Tennessee Tech and got a business degree and shortly after I graduated, I got commissioned a second lieutenant in combat engineers and Uncle Sam’s Army and wound up having a tour in Vietnam. I came back from Vietnam in March of 1972. And I’d been back about a month and I met a fella by the name of Jake Butcher who was in the banking business here in East Tennessee. But Jake, a lot of people don’t realize it, but Jake, when he graduated Union County High School, he went into the Marine Corps for four years, and he was partial to veterans.
And by having just come back from Vietnam, exiting out of the army, he hired me to go to work in his banks. And while I was working for him, one of the banks that I worked at was in Campbell County up in LaFollette. This was 1973. I opened a new bank in LaFollette, [CNC 00:02:25] bank of Campbell County. But while I was up there, Hack Ayers, Haskel ‘Hack’ Ayers, who had a real estate and auction company became a customer of the bank.
And he and I got to be real good friends. And one day after I had left the bank, he and I were talking—I left the bank in 1976. My father passed away very suddenly with a massive heart attack in 1976 and I moved back to Clinton from Knoxville and got into the real estate business. But about two, three years or so after I had gotten out of the banking business and in the real estate business here in Clinton, Anderson County, I ran in a Hack one day and he said, “Bear,” he said, “You know, for years, I’ve been wanting to align myself with an Anderson County realtor and develop the auction business in Anderson County, and I just never have done it.” And I said, “Well Hack, if you’ll hold off for a few months,” I said, “I plan on going back and getting my broker’s license and opening my own company.” And I said, “When I do,” I said, “Let’s go in together. You be the auctioneer, I’ll be the broker and we’ll go into business together.”
Which we did. And in 19—I went to auction school six months after I opened Stephenson Realty and Auction Company 40 years ago in 1982, but after having three or four options here in Anderson County, all of which people here in Anderson County called Hack Ayers in Campbell County, the adjacent county to Anderson, called him about doing an estate auction. And I was involved with them. And after a while, I thought, “I think I’m going to go to auction school. I think I can do this myself.” So, I go to Nashville Auction School for two weeks, February of 1983, come back, serve my two-year apprenticeship with Hack, and then I went out on my own.
Julia: It’s required? Is it still required?
Bear: No. The laws have changed since then, but this was 40 years ago, 39 years ago. But at that time, they wanted to make sure that before a new auctioneer went out and started doing auctions on their own, that they knew what they were doing.
Julia: Sure.
Bear: They didn’t want to turn a green auctioneer loose, trying to help liquidate Granddaddy's farm for the—his siblings and not be able to maximize the value and get all that they could for the heirs. They just wanted to know that auctioneers, young auctioneers going out on their own had the experience to do it, and it required a two-year apprenticeship. And then they a number of years ago, they changed it to just a one-year apprenticeship. And that’s what it is now. But the fact that young auctioneers working under a master auctioneer to gain experience and learn what to do and how to serve the public, we as auctioneers, and as real estate agents as well, our job is to help people.
And for that help, we’re paid a fee, so we can stay in business to help somebody else five years from now. But that’s the attitude that I’ve always had about what I do is I’m in business to help people. And every situation is different and every estate needs a different kind of help. But it’s very gratifying being able to help people.
Julia: So, let’s recap that because there’s a lot of that conversation right there. You went to work right out of being drafted. You got back home safely—so thank you for that. Thanks for coming back home. We appreciate that—to go work for the Butcher brothers… ba—
Bear: Yeah, I worked for—I worked for them for three-and-a-half years.
Julia: So, people that don’t really know, so the whole point of the podcast is to understand nationally why Knoxville Tennessee is such an attractive place. Because it has become one of the more attractive places over the years. But in 1982, that’s when the World’s Fair was brought to Knoxville by—
Bear: Jake—
Julia: —reallly and truly, the Butcher brothers.
Bear: Yes.
Julia: They really were. They were the reason that the World’s Fair came to the Knoxville Tennessee market. Shortly thereafter… what happened?
Bear: Shortly thereafter…
Julia: [laugh].
Bear: There were some people that think that—thought that the Butcher brothers had, had—
Julia: They’ve had their share.
Bear: They had engaged in some things they shouldn’t have been engaging in, and as a result, the banks that they had were closed by the FDIC. And they had to serve some time for what they were convicted for.
Julia: Right. But at the time, the Butcher brothers built Knoxville.
Bear: They—yes, they built—
Julia: —they built Knoxville. So, you had the opportunity to be involved with people who understood a very serious business and understood how to grow Alcoa Aluminum, brought the World’s Fair, brought the airport, people who understood. And they were here—from here locally, to have that knowledge and expertise that is rare to find in anybody’s businesses in this day and age. And then to move on to the Ayers family.
Bear: And one of the things that the Butcher brothers were very good at, they were able to surround themselves with people who were very knowledgeable in the world of finance and banking who helped them along the way and gave them good guidance. But when interest rates went to 21%, they were involved with growing the banks that they were acquiring, they were doing it on borrowed money and they were so heavily leveraged that when interest rates went to 21%, they were having to pay interest on loans that they had procured to pledge the stock of the banks that they were buying. And it just got out of hand and they were almost forced to create —
Julia: It was ’08 before ’08.
Bear: Yes.
Julia: But regardless, during a time—and to make it a comparison, during 2005 to 2008, anybody who had just gotten into real estate would learn from developers like you had the opportunity to learn from the Butchers. I mean, it’s one of those very rare opportunities you get a chance to surround yourself with that kind of knowledge at that young of an age. So, that’s unbelievable. And then the Ayers family, you went into business with the—it—was it the Ayers family, correct?
Bear: Yeah, from LaFollette, it was Hack Ayers, Ayers Real Estate Auction Company. But that was in 1982. And then he and I were affiliated for about three years. And then I went out on my own in 1985, started doing auctions of my sales. But in 1989, something happened and I’ll never forget. 1989, I was chairman of the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce here in Clinton and I found out that at the Greater Knoxville Chamber of Commerce annual meeting at the Holiday Inn World’s Fair site, that Walter Cronkite was going to be the speaker.
Julia: At the Knoxville Chamber event?
Bear: Yes.
Julia: Interesting.
Bear: And I thought—I said, “I would love to hear Walter Cronkite speak.” So, rounded up nine other people and we go over there and buy a table of ten, the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce bought a table of ten, and during Cronkite’s presentation, he said, “I have traveled literally all over this world.” I said—he said, “I’ve traveled very extensively within the United States.” And he said, “In my opinion, what you have right here in East Tennessee, you have the last unspoiled region for development in this nation.” And when he started talking about this, I perked up. I remember it if it was from yesterday and it’s been 33 years ago.
But he said, “There’s two things you need to concern yourselves with. Number one is the kind of growth you don’t pollute your environment, and number two is the kind of growth you don’t spoil the quality of life you have here. You got these mountains, you got these lakes, you got these rivers, you’ve got these four seasons.” He said, “You’ve just got something special and unique. And people are moving here from all over the country.”
And this pandemic has caused an additional influx of people moving to East Tennessee because they’re wanting to get out of the big cities and move to less populated parts of the country, and people are moving here literally from California, from Colorado, from Chicago, from New York, all over the country, and moving here from Florida. But we have something special and unique right here in East Tennessee. And also the fact that Tennessee does not have a state income tax that is attractive to a lot of people who are wanting to make their new home here in East Tennessee. And I think it’s going to continue to grow. We just got to make sure that it’s good growth, like Walter Cronkite said, it’s kind of growth we don’t pollute our environment, we don’t swallow quality of life that we have here in East Tennessee.
Julia: I agree with that. So, between 1985, when you went out on your own and 1989 when you really started to see national figures visit Knoxville, and conversations about growing in Knoxville, what did you do in that five years to establish, kind of, your own entity? Because at that time, there weren’t very many other real estate firms, but you’ve a—I mean, your name is synonymous with real estate and auctioning. So, how did you establish that aside from maybe just being involved in the chamber?
Bear: I [laugh] was involved in the chamber, I was involved in the Rotary Club here in Clinton, and when I finished my apprenticeship and went out on my own in 1985, I did five real estate auctions that year. In 1986, I did 9. In 1987, I did 15. In 1988, I did 23. In 18—I mean, in 1989, I did 33.
Julia: Wow.
Bear: And in 1990, I did 39.
Julia: It’s a big jump.
Bear: You could have laid a pencil on a graph, it how my business had grown. But you have to serve your apprenticeship, literally. I had already started my two year apprenticeship with Hack Ayers, but you have to pay your dues because you go out and talk to an executor of their grandfather’s estate and they look at you and they say, “Now sonny, how many auctions have you done?” I said, “Well, I’ve done two.” They say, “I think we need somebody with more experience.”
But when I opened Stephenson Realty and Auction, there had never been a real estate auctioneer company in Anderson County. I just found a niche no one was filling, because auctioneers from Knoxville, Roane County, Campbell County, came into Anderson County, and serviced this market and did the auctions. But I just found something that no one else was doing here in the county. But it took a while for me to get established and to prove myself, but it’s been an interesting journey. And it’s—I was determined to make it work [laugh]. I had no choice. Nobody’d hire me.
Julia: Nope. Nobody else would do it [laugh].
Bear: I’m not going back to work in a bank again. I’m going to do something on my own. But I knew when I—the time I spent in the army and the time that I spent working in banking for the Butchers, which was a very, very good experience, I just am so independent. I just realized I was going to have my own business. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew that I was not going to work for somebody else. And that’s what I’ve done for the last 46 years. I’ve worked for myself.
Julia: That’s what it takes, I guess.
Bear: [crosstalk 00:14:41].
Julia: That’s what it takes to get it out there.
Bear: Yeah, nobody would hire me so I had to [laugh] go to work for myself.
Julia: So, you have seen… you saw gas shortages, you saw interest rates increase exponentially, we’re in a high-interest rate market at the moment, but nothing like it was.
Bear: Oh, no nothing—
Julia: Nothing like it was. So, you’ve went through so many business cycles. What has been the ups and downs, what are the best lessons and the hardest lessons, and sometimes those might have been the same, that you’ve experienced throughout your time in real estate?
Bear: The thing that I’ve learned early on, you better have your nest egg saved back because it’s just like life itself. I learned this long time ago, I don’t know how many years ago I first heard this, but the tide goes out, and the tide comes in. It’s the same in our personal lives. Where things are going good, you better enjoy it, you better appreciate it because it ain’t going to last, as we say, here in Clinton. But you just have to salt some money back, have your little nest egg because—to weather the storm and the downturns because lean times are coming.
But I don’t think anybody has repealed the economic cycle. We’re going to continue to have economic cycles, we’re going to have excesses which caused the dotcom bust of the 1999-2000 era, when we went into recession in 2001 2002, came out of that and—
Julia: Went right back into a crash in ’08.
Bear: Went right back. Real estate was booming, it was going great, and then all of a sudden, bottom fell out in spring of ’08. And then, I’ll just give you an example, from 2007 to 2011, over that four-year period, my income declined 74%. That’s how much real estate went down in sales, my revenue for the company. But like I say, I had… just like a little squirrel gathering up nuts in the winter when times get lean, he’s going to be okay.
And it’s the same way in business. You just have to make sure that you don’t spend all your money and then bad times come and you broke. We had to file bankruptcy because there were so many people having to file bankruptcy in ’09, especially in the construction and real estate business because they had houses that they had built and borrowed money on, and they couldn’t sell them because they were such a decline in real estate values, that I didn’t want to ever get myself in a position that I would have to do that. So, I’ve just been very conservative in my real estate ventures.
Julia: It is a trying situation when you’re in development in real estate on a regular basis because when it’s up, it’s really up. And I think that that’s a long lesson in cyclical business that people forget to remember. They forget to remember. And what is it that you carry in your wallet?
Bear: [laugh]. I found it about two months ago. I was going through some things at my house and I found a payment schedule for Y-12 Credit Union in 1987. Now, I’ve got it here in my pocket. But it is a little card that has Y-12 credit union.
Julia: All right. Check that out. From 1987, from the Y-12 Credit Union’s calendar. That’s sweet. When was my birthday that year? It was on a Monday. No one wants to Monday birthday. And this is 15%. 15% annual percentage rate and what your payments would be in 1987. And you survived that—
Bear: Oh yeah.
Julia: —in business.
Bear: I remember [laugh] I remember, friend of mine and I bought a 275-acre farm right outside of Clinton up on the Clinch River in 1987. And then we developed it and was selling lots. But we had large acreage tracts; we had lots. Smallest lot we had was about two-and-a-half acres. But they were like two-and-a-half to five acres each.
And even though interest rates went so high, people still wanted a little farm close to town, out in the country, and we had that product and we were selling our lots even though half-acre lots in Clinton in a subdivision, you couldn’t give them away. But we were selling our lots and things were going well. But we built two houses to kick this subdivision off. We sold one of them and then we had another one that we had a construction loan on at First American Bank here in Clinton. But I told David, my partner, one day, I said, “David, let’s drop the price of this house. Let’s just figure it out about what we’ve got in it and let’s drop the price and let’s sell this house and get rid of it and stop paying the interest on this blame construction loan every month.”
So, we did that and we sold it about two weeks later to a couple from Michigan who had transferred into one of the plants here in the industrial market in Clinton. And I told them at the closing statement—as the closing table, I said, “I’ll be honest with you two.” I said, “We’re not making any money on this house, you’re getting this house just about what we’ve got in.” But I said, “You know when I’m going to make money on his house?” The husband said, “No.” I said, “Next month,” because I’m not going to have a $700 interest payment.
Julia: No doubt.
Bear: That’s what I’m going to make money is next month, on this house [laugh]. But you just have to be willing to cut your losses and going down on the road. That’s what we did.
Julia: That’s one of the biggest things at the end of every year, as a real estate agent—and I’m still—I’m a newbie, eight years in. I mean, I still have—you’ve forgotten more than I have learned so far, honest to goodness. I have so much more to learn. But I will say one of the things that I learned quickly was basically it’s the same as car dealerships in July. Come December first, every builder and developer out there wants their debt off their books and to pay that bank.
And when the interest rates go up, buyers say, “Oh, wait till they go down.” And I say, “Buy now because a builder is going to cut their losses. They don’t want that bank note.” And every year, around about December 1, we sell more homes in December to closing January than we usually do in four or five months combined in the total year before. Every year. It never fails. Cut your losses and go. And a lot of builders will do that if you just have the conversation with them. That fascinates me.
Bear: That is true. You've talked about you having your license se—
Julia: Eight years.
Bear: Eight years. Yeah. I’ve had mine—
Julia: [laugh]
Bear: I’ve had mine—
Julia: I get headaches every day over it [laugh].
Bear: I’ve had mine 46 years. When I got—
Julia: That’s amazing, though.
Bear: About six months before I left the bank in 19, I was with the United American Bank over Knoxville. But about six months before I left the bank, I went over to UT and took a real estate—principles of real estate class at night school over there at UT, and got my real estate license about six months before I left the bank because I had an inkling that I was going to get out of banking anyway. And so, when I made the decision to leave and come back to Clinton and get in the real estate business, I already had my license, so I was a little bit ahead of the game at that time, didn’t have to wait to get my license. But I’ve had my license for 46 years.
And it’s been a heck of a ride. It’s been a heck of a journey. It’s been a very interesting journey being in real estate, just like we talked about a minute ago, the ups and downs and economic cycle. When I was—I went to several banking schools when I was first went to work for the Butchers, and one of the things that I remember that they were talking about, the average life of a builder is about seven years.
Julia: Interesting.
Bear: Because people—I mean that was 45 years ago.
Julia: Because they have to be able to keep and maintain lending as well? Or is that just because they get tired of it?
Bear: No. It’s the economic cycle gets them.
Julia: Interesting.
Bear: Just think about how many people went out of business, went bankrupt, how many builders who were not capitalized well enough to weather the storm that went out of business, took bankruptcy because of the downturn in real estate market that we experienced in—
Julia: So, so far—
Bear: —2008.
Julia: —what I can remember, 2005, and back then I had just started—when I say sic—when I say business cycles, I’m referring to my adult life because I experienced the ’80s with my parents, having 15, 16% interest, but I didn’t have to pay it. I didn’t understand money. So, I’m going to say my business cycles—or my adult life, so I witnessed, 2005, a whole bunch of people getting real rich real quick, and me going, “I’m not so sure that’s going to last. I think this is interesting.” ’08 crash happened, 95% of those people I’ve never seen since.
But I’ve seen their properties just absolutely go for pennies on the dollar. And then in 2011-12 I saw the roofing industry have a peak because we had all the hail damage here. So, we had people overnight millionaires who then packed up and left. So, the builders left us in a way, the roofers left us in 2012, started coming out in 2014, out of the foreclosure system, which is when I got my real estate license, and I was still having to go make 5, 600 phone calls to beg buyers to beg houses because—to buy houses because nobody wanted them because you still couldn’t get decent housing because the builders had let them fall apart. It was very interesting.
And then we had the 2019 pandemic, where you literally sat there and you were just a contract writer. All you had to do was take a phone call, write a contract. You wrote—I wrote 135 contracts in 2020 by myself. And now we’re starting to see interest rates creep back up. Now, we’re starting to see people taking a nosedive a little bit because they overleveraged [either 00:25:25] they bought too many rental properties or they started building back too fast, developing too fast, and in a way was doing the lending, and now I think it’s due more to lack of maybe poor financial planning.
But we’re starting to see a lot of ups and downs come in my adult lifetime, so much shorter than the ten-year cycle. So, what are your predictions for that future coming forth because what I’m experiencing is a lot of ups and downs within four-year spurts instead of ten. Like, it used to be you could almost count on a ten-year cycle.
Julia: We all know that real estate is location, location, location. Our team at Just Homes Group has the true expertise, pairing buyers and sellers with the right opportunities. Whether you’re looking to buy or sell a home right here in Knoxville, Lenoir City, Clinton, or Farragut, we have the expertise throughout every Knoxville surrounding area. Call just Homes Group today.
Bear: One of the things that has happened, you mentioned, alluded to the pandemic. When things shut down the second week in March of 2020, almost three years ago, we didn’t know—last time we’d had anything like this that happened was the 1918-1919, what is referred to as the flu pandemic, which was really a virus that first place they had any indication that something was going on was at an army base in Kansas. And GIs were getting sick, some are dying, and then they shipped off and went to World War II, went to Europe, and they spread it worldwide.
Julia: Oh, wow.
Bear: But anyway, we hadn’t had anything like that since… you know, a hundred years ago. But the Fed drove interest rates. The Federal Reserve Board is what controls the economy in this country, and Congress passes a few laws that can affect it in small ways, but the Federal Reserve is what really controls interest rates and the economy in this country. But the Fed drove interest rates down to unprecedented historical lows just to keep our economy from falling off a cliff. And it caused excesses in our economy, and then the supply chains got disrupted, and it couldn’t get parts and it’s just a whole combination of a lot of things, and inflation took off. And then they said, “Oops, we will have to stall the economy to get inflation down.”
And that’s what we’re in the middle of right now. And interest rates are going to probably continue to go higher to get the economy slowed down and so we can get inflation back down to 2% or so, which historically is traditionally the level that they want inflation to be at. But we’re in another cycle, and—but I think that probably by the end of next year, a lot of economists that I listen to on CNBC every morning trying to keep up with it, what’s going on with our economy and interest rates, most of them—the consensus by the end of next year, we should have inflation down to a tolerable level and we’ll continue with the kind of growth that we’ve been experiencing last several years.
Julia: So, buckle in, kids [laugh].
Bear: Buckle in. Things are going—things are going to be a little slow come springtime.
Julia: Some money.
Bear: Save some money for your—
Julia: Save some money.
Bear: You got a closing? Salt some of it back.
Julia: Why do you say ‘salt some of it back?’ What is that?
Bear: Put it in a savings account and forget you got it because you might need it at some point in the future. That’s what I call salting it back. That’s an old—I grew up on a 40-acre farm about five miles from here, and that was an expression out in the country, to salt some back. And I guess it has something to do when you kill a hog, when salt the bacon and the hams down to cure it. I guess that’s what it refers to. I don’t know, but that’s the expression I grew up with.
Julia: Well, I’m going to steal it. I’m going to start using that. Let’s carry that on.
Bear: Just salt some back—
Julia: Just salt is back.
Bear: —for a rainy day. You might need one of these days.
Julia: You might need it to soak up that rain. What is your dream or your outlook for the Knoxville market? And Clinton, Tennessee, for as much as they have tried—God bless y’all, have tried—to keep everything inside of just Anderson County, that pandemic drove people here from all over the country, and now Anderson County for as quiet of a town as it has been is truly on par with the growth rate of one of the highest percentages counties we’ve seen. So, there’s some growth happening here. What is your future projection and wish for that growth over the next decade?
Bear: I think all of East Tennessee is going to continue to grow. I know right now, Loudon County is fastest-growing County in the East Tennessee. Knoxville is growing West, growing North, is growing in all the surrounding counties around Knoxville, and as a result, we’re going to have, I think, continued growth in the real estate market for a long time to come.
Julia: Yeah?
Bear: I don’t see anything that’s going to stop it because we have the amenities that people are looking for here in East Tennessee.
Julia: Okay, what would you want—if you could plan it out—I mean, y’all have good planning commission. Most counties have, you know, good planning commission lately, a lot of different—lot of things have been changing, a lot of rules have been changing. But if you can do it for the next generation, what would it look like?
Bear: The planning commission?
Julia: No, just planning Anderson County in general. What would it look like? If you had a magic wand and said, “I have limitless capability.” What would it look like?
Bear: You would continue the same as we have been doing for the last 45, 50 years or so. A mix of industrial, commercial, and residential properties, but have it growth in such a way that you don’t spoil this—like Walter Cronkite said 33 years ago—you don’t spoil the quality of life you have here, to make it enjoyable living for everybody that lives here and who is going to be moving here. And at Morgan County, they don’t have the kind of growth that we have, but one of the reasons over there, I know they don’t have a… zoning office over in Morgan County.
Julia: Really?
Bear: Yeah. And as a result, there’s a lot of Amish who have moved to Morgan County around the Deer Lodge area, and the reason that they’re moving down here—and they’re coming—a lot of them are coming from Punxsutawney—I think I’m saying that—
Julia: Punxsutawney?
Bear: Punxsutawney Phil, that groundhog, Punxsutawney is a little old town up in Pennsylvania, it’s the population of about 10,000 people and they’re moving up—moving down here because they got tired. When they would go out and build a house, they would have to get a footer inspection, they’d have to wait around until somebody came in and inspected the footer inspection, and they have to—then they could frame it up and ask for somebody come out and inspect the frame.
Julia: So, it’s like Knoxville city? [laugh].
Bear: —and then to have to get somebody to come out and inspect the electrical when they got it roughed in. And they just got tired of it, so they come to Morgan County—somebody found out in Morgan County, you pretty much do what you wanted to. So, over in Morgan County—
Julia: Interesting.
Bear: They just build a house and they’ll have it built in two weeks and they don’t have to worry about any inspections or anything. They just build the house.
Julia: So, they have a bunch of Amish shops up there?
Bear: Yeah. They don’t have many Amish shops; the community’s not at large yet, but they’ve got a lot of fruits that they grow and sell.
Julia: I just learned something new. I had no idea that Morgan County, Tennessee, is the new Amish hotspot because they know how to make things.
Bear: Yeah, just like Muddy Pond down in Cumberland County, if you want some good molasses, go down the Muddy Pond, you can get some.
Julia: Really?
Bear: Oh, yes.
Julia: How do I not know this stuff?
Bear: Well, you’re learning it now [laugh].
Julia: Do you know anybody that makes—what is that? It’s not. It’s not sweetgum? It’s not molasses either. It’s like it’s thicker than molasses. Maybe it is sweetgum. Do you know what I’m talking about?
Bear: I think you’re talking about—
Julia: Sorghum.
Bear: Well, Sorghum and molasses are basically the same thing. It’s just a different form of sugarcane. But it’s sugarcane, molasses is.
Julia: Let me tell ya, we could sit here for days and I would learn more, just sitting here talking to you.
Bear: [laugh].
Julia: Heck, there’s one recipe that I made that requires sorghum over anything else. I’ve never found it.
Bear: People, they substitute sorghum for molasses. It’s—I mean, you can’t hardly tell the difference in between. But the thing about it, Julia, you sit there and talk to me—
Julia: [laugh]. I’m going to sit here until you tell me all the good stuff. That’s what’s going to happen.
Bear: Ninety—I’ve been saying for years that probably 90% of what I know, will never do me a bit good. I just know it. When I—
Julia: Well, I disagree. I think that you know so many amazing things that I think that you should tell the whole world about all the things that you know, and we can make just an entire talk of just, this is the Bear Stephenson show.
Bear: But on the other hand, who cares?
Julia: I care. I think it’s fascinating. I think it’s fascinating. I think that the more people in Knoxville area that move here, that every day goes by that we miss an opportunity to know and talk with the people that watched it grow, help it grow, and know the stories of the people that got it here because nobody talks about it. I have found that to be so unbelievably true that when I talk with young people that move here, I ask them, “Do you know how the World’s Fair got here?” They didn’t even know it was here.
“Do you know who the Butcher Brothers are?” Never heard of them. I mean, they don’t know the history of Knoxville or why that’s important. Because without these people and this situational happenstance of meeting all these family names, that back then, they were probably just starting their business off like everybody else. But in today’s, if you go to the University of Tennessee campus and look at the names on the buildings, those are the people. These are the people that built Knoxville, and you build that with him. And I don’t think enough people talk about it.
And our history one day is just going to be gone. It’s going to be a whole bunch of 30-somethings going, I just think that’s, “We should remodel that entire building. I don’t know why we would preserve that or why does that matter.” Because understanding how it grows is a way to keep it growing properly. And since you had that much real estate experience and knowing how that make those relationships last, how to build those relationships out, how to bring businesses in correlation with residential and manufacturing at the same time. These are all things you’ve done. And I think it’s important that people understand that those things come with years of experience and relationships and how to maintain those and how to build on that.
Bear: That’s true. It takes a lot of people working together. And I know one of the things that I really was impressed with is when a number of people got together and had the slogan, “Nine counties, one vision.”
Julia: Yeah.
Bear: It was Knoxville and the eight surrounding counties that had joined Knox County that have a common border with Knox County. There’s nine counties: Knoxville and eight others. And, “Nine counties one vision,” because a plant that locates in Anderson County, it is good for the surrounding counties because Anderson County’s—the industrial parks here in Clinton, Campbell County’s largest employer is Clinton.
Julia: Really?
Bear: More people in Campbell County drive to Clinton down the interstate to work at these factories, at [Isom 00:38:27], and 3M is located in the old Food Lion, they bought the whole Food Lion distribution center here, and then they just have received a tax abatement for an expansion, it’s gonna employ 500 additional people.
Julia: That’s amazing.
Bear: But as these companies around in these nine counties, as they locate and companies are also coming here because we don’t have a state income tax. And also what a lot of people don’t realize, East Tennessee is within a day’s drive of about 60% of the population of this country. And when we got the interstate system completed, that made East Tennessee accessible to the outside world. Prior to 1970, you could hardly get East Tennessee because we had 25W, north and south, we had highway 70 from Nashville coming through Knoxville, Kingston Pike, little old two-lane crooked road, but the interstate system made East Tennessee accessible to the outside world, and they are coming.
Julia: Yeah.
Bear: There’s an old expression. I’ve heard it all my life but there’s an old expression. The South’s going to rise again.
Julia: [laugh].
Bear: Have you ever heard that expression?
Julia: Where are they rising to? The flower store?
Bear: Have you ever heard that expression?
Julia: I have. Well, they’ve been trying for a long time.
Bear: Okay, well, I guess it came after the Civil War when the Union Army and Sherman marched through the South, just whatever wasn’t already burned or torn down, he marched through from the Mississippi River all the way to Charleston, I think it was, and just—and finally, the southerners were left said, “South’s going to rise again.” Do you know how we’re rising? It’s all of the people moving here from all over the country. People coming from the north, but people come in from Florida, moving—the halfbacks, as we call them.
Julia: If y’all don’t know what a halfback is, let me help you. There’s a hatchback club—just in case you are one and you don’t know where to go, you let one of us know and we’ll connect you to the president of the halfback club. It’s people who are from up North and they get too cold. They move to Florida; they get way too hot. Tennessee’s climate is perfect. It’s right in between. So, it’s halfway back home. So, if you a member of the halfback club and you need connections, we’ll help you.
Bear: Yeah, there’s a—I’ve made a lot of people—I’ve made a lot of money off of people moving from up north and people moving from Florida halfway back to, but—
Julia: You sold two houses [laugh].
Bear: People do different things for different reasons.
Julia: All right. I’m going to ask you some weird questions, so here we go.
Bear: Okay.
Julia: In all the places that you’ve ever been, why did you choose to stay here? You traveled everywhere. You could be anywhere you wanted to be, start a business anywhere, make money doing anything. Why choose to stay here?
Bear: It was because of the familiarity that I had with Anderson County having grown up here and having gotten acquainted with so many of the people here, the good friends and relationships, I decided that Clinton and Anderson County would be where I would call home. But I’ve been fortunate in that I have had an opportunity to do a lot of traveling. And every year—I’ve been in 49 states thus far—
Julia: What are you missing?
Bear: Hawaii. Always said I was going to Hawaii on my honeymoon.
Julia: [laugh]. For anybody that doesn’t know Bear, how old are you?
Bear: I’m too old—I’m old enough to know better and too young to care.
Julia: Never been married. Never getting married. Dying on that hill. So, I guess you’re never going to Hawaii.
Bear: I will go to Hawaii one of these days. Perhaps. I’m going to forget about the vow I made to myself. And I was saving Hawaii for my honeymoon. I’m probably—by the time I I’m 80, I’ll probably just say, “Heck, I want all 50 states under my belt.”
Julia: You’re just going to go?
Bear: I’m just going to go—
Julia: All right.
Bear: —for the heck of it.
Julia: It’s only a six-hour time difference. You can do it.
Bear: Yeah, I know it.
Julia: You can do it.
Bear: I know I could.
Julia: You’re so funny. That’s—okay. All right. Favorite restaurant. In this area. It doesn’t have to be just Anderson County, but favorite restaurant.
Bear: It’s a cross between the Copper Cellar, down on Cumberland, down in the basement, or Litton’s.
Julia: Oh, Litton’s? Strawberry cake.
Bear: Yep. I used to—when I was—when I left banking, I was at Fountain City, the Fountain City branch, about half a mile from Litton’s, and had an apartment over on Cedar Lane. But Litton’s has been near and dear to me for many, many years. Good restaurant.
Julia: Very good restaurant. And for Thanksgiving if you order at least six weeks in advance, they’ll make you an Italian cream cake, like, a whole one, and it’s about this big and this tall. And it’s the best Italian cream cake I’ve ever had. It’s fantastic.
Bear: Oh yeah, they’re—
Julia: That place is ridiculously good.
Bear: They have good chefs—
Julia: They do.
Bear: —in both places.
Julia: They do. I hardly ever make it to Copper Cellar, though.
Bear: And Chesapeake’s. I love seafood—
Julia: Oh, I love it at Chesapeake’s.
Bear: —I love seafood and I love Chesapeake’s. But there was a lot of nice restaurants in Knoxville.
Julia: Yeah, Knoxville is a foodie town.
Bear: Yes, it is.
Julia: For sure. And then of course I came over this way, even though we could have done this podcast on your cell phone in my house and we could have both been in our offices and just done online, but I always want to eat at Hoskins. So, any excuse I have to visit Clanton, Tennessee, so I can eat at Hoskins [laugh].
Bear: Hoskins Drug Store started in 1933 by RC Hoskins, who incidentally, was the fellow who was instrumental in establishing the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce 90 years ago.
Julia: Really?
Bear: He and seven or eight other business people here in town—
Julia: Interesting.
Bear: They started the chamber. But if you want a good restaurant, good lunch, breakfast, come over to Clinton and go to Hoskins drugstore which is right across the street—on Main Street—from the Anderson County Courthouse. Directly across the street.
Julia: You don’t want to go in there. The courthouse.
Bear: No.
Julia: [laugh]. But Hoskins is safe space. Favorite gas station?
Bear: Favorite gas station. I’ve got to say the Git’N Go.
Julia: I was going to say, if you don’t say Git’N Go, Joe Hollingsworth’s going to lose it.
Bear: I was going to say—
Julia: Your building is going to be—
Bear: —if Joe Hollingsworth ever [laugh] sees this and I didn’t say Git’N Go, I wouldn’t have a friend anymore.
Julia: I want to say the Git’N Go does have amazing hamburgers.
Bear: Oh, they do.
Julia: Just a P.S. Anybody driving through Clinton, stop at a Git’N Go and grab a hamburger. Get it and go. It’s good.
Bear: Yeah, there’s—Joe has establish—Joe is a very astute businessman, but he has cornered all four of the main arteries in and out of Clinton. He has four Git’N Gos. He’s got—and I remember when he built the first one. I was building houses over in Lower Mountain Subdivision shortly after I left the bank. But like I say, Joe, because of—but he gives back so much to this community and—
Julia: Yes.
Bear: —all over East Tennessee.
Julia: Can you name and remember all the organizations you’ve been a member of and been on boards of? Because I know you’re on, what, six or seven boards now, but in a time that be—know the time that you’ve been here, what all have you been involved in?
Bear: The thing that I got involved in right after going to auction school, I started—I decided, as an auctioneer if you’re going to become proficient with developing an auction chant, you have got to have practice. So, I started developing charity auctions. And I know when I came back from auction school in 1983, I did one charity auction for the Oak Ridge Christian Women’s Club. It was a luncheon. And from that, it evolved to where I was doing… before the pandemic hit, I was doing between 45 and 55 nonprofit charity auctions every year.
Julia: That’s amazing.
Bear: I have never charged anybody anything. It’s just my way of giving back to this community and all over East Tennessee. But my high watermark, in 1998, I did 76 charity auctions.
Julia: Wow.
Bear: And like I say, I never charged—
Julia: Maybe that’s why the Vols won the national championship, that he just gave so much of yourself, they had to give it back.
Bear: But—I don’t know about that. But I have gone to a lot of nice events. I mean, there’s one that I’ve done for the last 20 years—there’s two that I’ve done for the last 20 years. The Knoxville Museum of Art is a four-course dinner catered by Blackberry Farm. And I mean, they do comp me two tickets to come to the event to do the auction. And I have to work for my food [laugh].
Julia: Well, [laugh]. I could be a spotter. “That guy said he’d donate a million dollars over there.”
Bear: And the other one that I really enjoy doing each year—there’s three my top, top three I guess, if there’s anybody that’s involved with another organization, I like them all, but there’s some that I just have more fun with, I guess, foods a little better—
Julia: [laugh].
Bear: —but the UT Gardens that I’ve been doing that for 11 or 12 years—
Julia: We’re in it for the free meals.
Bear: The free meals. My sign says—
Julia: We’re realtors. We’re broke.
Bear: —and I apologize to all my Baptist friends out there, but my sign says will, “Auction for wine and food.”
Julia: Good wine and food.
Bear: Good wine and food. But the other one is the Evergreen Ball, which is a fundraiser for the—they’ve had it for 20 years—fundraiser for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This year it’s going to be at the Cherokee Country Club. And Gary Wade, Judge Gary Wade up at Sevierville, he was the one that was—he and a few other folks got together and started Friends of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. But it is a super organization, does a lot of good things for the Smokies.
But there’s a lot of auctions that I really do enjoy doing, charity auctions. And I met so many neat people doing these charity.
Julia: I’ll bet.
Bear: Plus it gave me an opportunity to develop an auction chant. [auction chant] and I’ve sold them for 35 dollars.
Julia: What are you saying in between all that? What are you saying in there?
Bear: I don’t know.
Julia: [laugh]. How do you develop an auct—? You stand in the mirror and just chant?
Bear: You drive down the highway, after coming back from auction school, for about four years—
Julia: Alright, let’s do it.
Bear: It was almost daily practice. I would sell telephone poles. I’d—
Julia: To yourself? In the car?
Bear: Yeah driving down the highway, selling telephone poles.
Julia: How do you sell a telephone pole? Do it slow.
Bear: Starting ‘um along—start—I can’t do it slow.
Julia: Okay.
Bear: Start ‘um along—
Julia: Start ‘um along—
Bear: —what is my bid now? Would you give me ten?
Julia: What’s a bid down?
Bear: Now. It doesn’t matter what you—
Julia: Start ‘um along, what do—
Bear: What am I bid now?
Julia: What am I bid now?
Bear: Start ‘um along, what am I bid now? [auction chant]
Julia: Oh, see, like asking, but really fast.
Bear: Yeah. It’s just real fa—but the main thing about doing an auction, you’ve got to very distinctly say the numbers. 85 [auction chant] 90 [auction chant] 90 [auction chant] 90 [auction chant] 90 [auction chant] 85 [auction chant] 90, 90 [auction chant] 90 [auction chant] 85 I have, [auction chant] 90—90 now, 95 [auction chant] 95, 95. You do this like—in the auction world knows what I’m saying, “What you give,” “What you bid,” “What you go,” those—
Julia: They’re just fillers?
Bear: They’re what they call filler words.
Julia: Interesting.
Bear: It’s just filler words. You’re just filling up—what you’re doing is just filling up time to give somebody else an opportunity and a chance to beat it.
Julia: Well, let me tell you this one thing down pat.
Bear: What was that?
Julia: [hup noise].
Bear: [laugh]. [whoop noise].
Julia: That’s all I got. [whoop noise]. That’s all I got. Anytime anybody ever— anytime I’ve ever volunteered for an auction, I point at the person that gives the money I go, [whoop noise]. That person just gave money [laugh].
Bear: Yep. Yep.
Julia: That’s my contribution to the auction community. You are welcome.
Bear: I might have to get you to come help me with an auction sometime.
Julia: I’d be happy to. Everybody, this has been one of my best episodes. So much laughter, so much to learn, so much to give. Bear Stephenson, owner and founder of Stephenson Auction and Realty Company in Clinton, Tennessee. One of the best auctioneers that Tennessee has ever had. And if you—
Bear: Oh—
Julia: —that’s true and you know it. And—you know it. Don’t you be humble right now. If you have a charity auction that you need, it’s one of his favorite ways to give back, let us know. Thank you so much for joining us and learning how to Connect the Knox. Have a great day.
Bear: Thank you for tuning into the show. Make sure to like and subscribe, leave a five star review on your podcast player of choice, and if you would like information on moving to Knoxville, send me a private message. As always, this is Julia Hurley, connecting Knoxville to the nation.
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