This time he's going ... going ... gone! Jim Clinard announces his retirement effective December 31

With a wistful look in his eyes, Jim Clinard prepares to close the door on a long and happy career.

He left once before - in 1968 - but he came back for another 21 years! This time, however, he says he's gone for good.

Citing plans to spend more time with his family (his wife he fondly calls "Miss Minnie," and their five children and two grandchildren) and to do some farming and fishing, James K. Clinard announced his retirement after 37 years with the state.

"I started in 1951, right out of high school, as a radio dispatcher with the highway patrol," Jim reminisced. In 1956, he became a highway patrolman, a "state trooper," in today's terms.

Jim's long and happy career with the Real Estate Commission began in 1962, when this agency was known as the North Carolina Real Estate Licensing Board. Except for four years when he went to Winston-Salem to work in the retail business, he's been here ever since!

"Back then, we had an Executive Director. That was Joe Schweidler," Jim explained, "and one clerical secretary.

"I was the first field representative," Jim reported. But his title was "Administrative Assistant" because, according to Jim, "the statute said they could hire one and they were following the letter of the law. They just gave me a copy of the law and put me out in the field and I went to work.

"I started at the Virginia line, at the coast; Sunset Beach was the last beach before the South Carolina line. I worked eastern North Carolina in the winter and western North Carolina in the summer, and everything between Manteo to Murphy."

His main function was checking people who were not licensed. "People would go to the Revenue Office and buy a [privilege] license and hang out their shingle. They didn't know they had to be licensed," Jim explained in their defense.

"I went to every county and visited every real estate office at least once a year and got to know most of them.

Most licensees never saw anyone else from the Commission; he was their only contact. He represented the Commission, and he represented it well.

"I checked to be sure their licenses were renewed. Most were issued under the Grandfather Clause and some of them just never renewed." Jim said that there were approximately 51000 licensees, with about half of them being active in the business. "And there were very few women in business at that time," he stated.

He said that most offices had one or two agents. "Five or six people was a big office," he said with a chuckle, a characteristic laugh that's familiar to licensees across the state.

"In the early days, there was very little training - schools. You simply got it by hard knocks - by experience. Things were simple. The law was simple. For example," he continued, "there was no escrow requirement except that the earnest money had to be segregated from personal funds." He explained that escrow funds didn't even have to be in a bank!

The only time Jim was in the office was for Commission meetings. At that time, the Commission office was in the First Citizens Bank Building, on the seventh floor. There were only five Commission members - three in real estate and two public members.

"It was a lot of P.R. work more so than investigative work. There were very few consumer complaints. That didn't start till," he hesitated as he thought, then said, "the '70's."

Jim was ready and willing to answer the call for help from consumers throughout the state. He points with pride to two cases in particular. "I've investigated cases that are used by the courts today," he stated, "when they refer to the disposition of other cases in the courts of appeals. These are all favorable opinions [in upholding the Commission's rulings] that the courts of appeals have taken."

Yes, Jim had the experience, and the training. He, Ted Gayle - now the Commission's Director of Audits and Investigations - and former investigators Rodolph Hill and Everette Jenkins were among the first in the nation to be designated Certified Real Estate Investigators by the [National] Association of Real Estate License Law Officials (ARELLO).

When asked about his worst experience in the field, Jim replied, "Well, I was in a real estate office in Charlotte doing an inspection and two guys barged in with a .38 and a sawed off shotgun. They had stockings over their face." Jim reported that they robbed the office, "cleaned out the safe, locked everyone in the bathroom, and left!"

And his best experience? "The best time in my life was in 1992 when I was honored by NARELLO for my outstanding investigative work," Jim said proudly, referring to having been named a finalist for Investigator of the Year. "That's an honor I cherish," he said.

The Real Estate Commission is also proud of Jim's honors. The Commission and staff extend congratulations to him on his retirement.

"I basically grew up with the real estate industry. I've enjoyed every minute of it. I've devoted my entire life to the Real Estate Commission and I feel I'll always be a part of it."