Century 21 Larry Miller Realty is changing its name to Century 21 Magnolia, changing its office from one on Washington Road to one on South Belair Road and changing ownership from its 77-year-old founder Larry Miller to 25-year-old Noah McBride.
“I wouldn’t have entrusted 37 years of my work to anyone else,” Miller said.
San Diego native Miller started his ambitious career by joining the military in 1966 after two years of study at East Tennessee State University. He became a captain while assigned to Fort Gordon.
But he was an entrepreneur at heart. He owned a business school that taught computer programming and medical courses for six years and an ice cream shop in Columbia Square Shopping Center, Scoopies, for a few years before going into real estate at age 33.
“Real estate is not usually the first career choice for most people, but I had been cleaning and remodeling rental homes for several years,” Miller said.
The young realtor started out working with VIP Realty and immediately took a liking to the 24-hour nature of the business. In 1985, he opened Larry Miller Realty, which later became affiliated with Century 21 in 1986.
“I enjoyed the freedom of it and being able to work harder and make more money,” he said. “If you provide a good service to the public, good things happen for you.”
The company became the first and only real estate company to have an office on a military installation, at Fort Gordon in Augusta and Fort Clayton in the former Panama Canal Zone.
The office at Fort Gordon gave a portion of each commission back to the army installation. By the end, Fort Gordon received about $500,000 and used the money to enhance the family social aspects at the fort, such as buying pool tables, bowling shoes and oats for the horses.
Miller’s career also spanned several crazes in the housing market, including when interest rates went up to 18% in the early 1980s and last year when interest rates dipped to 2.5%, resulting in as many as 39 offers the first day a house was on the market in Augusta, he said.
“I guess you could say I’ve seen both ends of the pendulum swing,” he said.
But Miller said the best part of the job has been training new people.
“The biggest thrill is taking a brand new agent who doesn’t have a clue and teaching them to make a living and enjoy life and help the public with a service,” Miller said.
The real estate veteran saw the same passion and work ethic in the young McBride, who started in real estate three years ago by working for Miller.
“He’s a 50-year-old guy in a 25-year-old body,” he said. “He works around the clock and is very innovative and detailed. He has everything it takes to be successful in the business.”
Miller said he decided to sell the business last year because he recognized the need for a younger face to recruit young agents. Miller remains licensed as an associate broker at the company, now Century 21 Magnolia.
“He brought a breath of fresh air to the company and has done marvelous things with recruiting and training,” Miler said.
McBride took over the reins on Jan. 1 of this year and has taken the company from around 18 agents to about 45 agents and changed its name to something more modern, he said.
McBride graduated from Augusta University with a degree in business administration in 2020 and, after working as a catering director, realized he enjoyed having a people-focused career. He went to an interview with Miller and said he immediately felt at home.
“After talking to him, I canceled all the other interviews I had around town,” he said.
McBride hit the ground running after starting full-time amid the housing boom in January 2020. In his first year, he helped 25 to 30 families find a home. Now, three years later, he said it’s humbling that Miller would entrust his company to him.
“It felt good to have his confidence in me,” McBride said. “I also felt I had earned the opportunity. I wasn’t entitled to it in any way, but I worked really hard.”
Besides the name change and dramatic growth in agents, McBride is also moving the company into a new office at 432 South Belair Road, which he picked for its high visibility, he said. There will be a ribbon-cutting event on Sept. 1 at 11 a.m.
The young businessman’s long-term goals include continued growth and becoming the number one place to work in Augusta over the next decade, he said.
When looking back on why Miller was so successful, McBride said it came down to doing the right thing, working extremely hard, focusing on what benefits everyone around him and taking care of the people who help run the company.
“Larry always plans for what’s next and has five answers for every scenario. And I’d say that has panned out quite well for him,” he said.
