Thibauts prepare for another real estate Market Trends, next generation

COURTESY PHOTO

Some people learn to organize, analyze and look forward while earning college degrees, muscling up their book-learning later in challenging market environments far from school. And a few people still learn it on the family farm — done right, one of the most complex and data-dependent environments from dirt to market in America.

Neither of those histories has much value in practice, however, especially in a family business, without the simple willingness of people to work like hell, in this case for years, together.

That’s why the Thibaut team — Randy and son Justin, owners of LSI Companies — will present not one but two sophisticated models or maps, if you will, laying out the months and years going forward at their spring Market Trends real estate event.

“The Thrill of the Chase,” as they’ve titled it, goes live on Wednesday, March 16, from 4 pm to 7:30 pm at the Caloosa Sound Convention Center in downtown Fort Myers.

One map of the market terrain ahead is professional, the public one on display March 16.

ING

But the other, illuminating everything they do each day, is personal, a father-son success story. That’s never happened before at Market Trends, and it’s unlikely ever to happen again.

The company Randy founded more than two decades ago is now safely in the hands of Justin, in a transition as carefully planned as a moon mission, but perhaps a lot smoother. They will continue to work together, but now with Randy as senior broker and Justin as president and CEO of LSI Companies.

“With booming demand and fierce competition, 2022 will be all about the chase for inventory across Southwest Florida,” they have announced of the event, describing both commercial and residential realities in play now across the region and the state. That’s what they’ll focus on as Randy talks about land sales development and the new home market while Justin analyzes the commercial market. Randy Thibaut (left) and son Justin preparing for the future in Idaho’s Rocky Mountains.

As he has before, longtime residential expert Denny Grimes, founder and president of Denny Grimes & Co., will join the Thibauts to present the residential real estate analysis of the coming year.

Market Trends traditionally shares the data-driven insights and predictions created by LSI’s team of veteran analysts with more than 1,000 professionals who participate, joined by the Building Industry Associations in Collier, Lee, Charlotte and Desoto counties.

It’s a one-of-a-kind, bi-annual presentation of solid information with consequences that probably can’t be measured over time. The company’s savvy, for example, has likely saved businesses and even livelihoods for many, on occasion — homebuilders, developers, landowners and investors — people who have taken advantage of hard data translated to usable tools as they buy, sell or lease commercial property through good times or even the difficult down times that periodically hit the market.

But the transition from father to son of titles, responsibilities and the reins of LSI Companies, founded by Randy more than two decades ago, is textbook, a classic example of how to do it right if you don’t want problems down the road, says Denise Federer.

A business coach who heads the Federer Performance Management Group, based in Tampa, she holds a doctorate in cognitive-behavioral psychology and decades of expertise in what she calls, “the unique dynamics of closely held and family businesses.”

Randy read about her and went to her to talk about transition years ago, she says, when he began to encourage his son.

“Randy should be given huge credit — he had to be the one to set the stage,” she recalls. “A lot of people think they can do it on their own. But there are so many conversations that are not easy to do.

“And Justin had to be patient. He deserves huge credit, too.”

Longtime business partner and family friend Ron Inge, who once served as president of LSI and has known Randy since he was starting out and Justin since he was a teenager — Justin is 37, now, with a wife and daughter — offers “the 30,000- foot big picture, as I see it.” He founded and still heads a consultant group, Inge and Associates, that works with LSI and others in the region.

“They’re very different in temperament but they also have some similarities — they’re both ‘Make It Happen’ people, not ‘How Do I keep This From Happening’ people,” he says of the Thibauts.

“Justin went to the University of Florida and graduated from their construction management school, then went off to work for the nuclear power and petroleum industries.”

As Ms. Federer puts it, “Justin didn’t have to do this, it wasn’t his only option.”

Then at some point in the middle of the last decade, Mr. Inge says, “Randy and I talked about, what are our next steps? How do we make this company go on, who should be a successor? Justin wasn’t in the picture, but his name came up and it was like a light bulb suddenly going on.”

That was fine for the old men, but Justin had his own mind and direction.

“It may have taken some coaching or coercion to get him to think about this,” Mr. Inge adds wryly.

So Justin, having grown up around the business, came back and stepped into it, just to see if he’d like it.

“A lot of times the next generation in a family business is not looked at very kindly — people think, ‘You’re just getting this because you’re the owner’s kid,’” notes Mr. Inge.

But in this case nothing could be farther from the truth, he adds.

“Justin did and does work his tail off. One difference I do see in them: Randy is bit more of a risk taker. Justin will take a risk, too, but he’s more risk averse than his dad. And I see that as strengths, notes weaknesses, in both of them.”

For Justin, jumping in and doing the first big deal in 2016 was the litmus test.

“I did my first real estate deal on a complicated rezoning-contingent land deal, still one of the more complicated I’ve been involved in. It could have fallen apart multiple times throughout the process. When we got to the finish line, the thrill I experienced solidified it.”

He realized: “This is what I was supposed to be doing.” And now, asked what his 18-year-old self might say to his current self, he doesn’t hesitate. “What took you so long?”

The process wasn’t quick or particularly easy for Randy, either.

“The hardest part about this transition for me happened over two years ago in making the final decision to take the next steps — to let go of the company I have created, which became a large part of my identity.”

LSI companies, the parent company to LSI Solutions, LSI Commercial and Development Solutions, kicked off in 2000. Randy had two employees and an office roughly the size of a big tractor cab. Justin was a 15-year-old high school kid.

It’s an appropriate analogy, the tractor cab, since Randy grew up on a big hog and dairy farm in Ohio, and once did “seriously consider farming as a vocation — and I still always have that in my heart.”

Now, LSI Companies has 25 employees and a 10,000-square-foot headquarters in South Fort Myers. And like any good farmer in almost any American farm community, Randy has contributed significantly to people around him, to his community, an approach to living adopted by his son, too.

He co-founded Builder’s Care, a nonprofit arm of the Lee BIA that provides no-cost emergency construction help to needy and deserving elderly or disabled homeowners and families who can’t pay for it. Builder’s care is more than just a polite nod. They’ve used donations, grants and donated work and material to put almost $5 million into the do-good effort over time, an LSI spokeswoman says. Justin is now vice president of Builder’s Care.

Randy learned the buying and selling of land from his grandfather, he explains — land brokerage, entitlements and development — and has watched his son expand operations in recent years into commercial real estate, including appraisal and market research.

That’s four generations of Thibauts.

Randy’s grandfather and father have gone now, but the old man put things in perspective for Randy: “My dad always said, the only difference between you now and when you were working on the farm was, instead of pitching hog shit, you’re pitching bullshit.”

It’s funny, but it isn’t true. Not unless “bullshit” is the ability to study the road ahead, analyze it, pick a goal and take the most reasonable steps to get there, both for yourself and your clients. ¦

source https://www.bisayanews.com/2022/03/02/thibauts-prepare-for-another-real-estate-market-trends-next-generation/