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Real Estate Emeritus Award Recipient Terry Marshall Celebrates Retirement


Article audio is made possible by CAST11 Prescott Podcast Network. A Talking Glass Media production.

Recently, family, friends, colleagues, and coworkers all gathered to celebrate the retirement of a local real estate legend, Terry Marshall. An employee of Fain Signature Group, Terry spent the last 11 years in his long, storied history of real estate selling and leasing properties and land for the Fains of Prescott Valley, AZ.

His time at Fain was just a small part and this man who is well-known and loved by many is recognized by so many in the community. At the retirement party, Ron Fain, Owner/Director of Sales and Marketing shared a story where he and Terry were at a conference in Las Vegas and learned quickly that he was a very loved, respected, and knowledgeable individual. Every time Ron would turn around, Terry had disappeared and was in a hallway meeting with an individual.

Brad Fain, CEO of Fain Signature Group, shared a favorite Terry quote of “You need a checker to check the checker,” in reference to editing documents. There were so many words of wisdom Terry shared with others over the years, and so much advice he would give. He was a patient teacher to others, a dedicated student to others, and left his mark wherever he went.

A Long History of Success

Terry graduated from Washburn University and currently serves on the Foundation Board of the University and in 2007 he was named Alumni of the Year. Terry jokes that he is surprised that he was given this honor as he was an ornery student and at one point had even been kicked out of school.

In 1972, Terry and his family moved to Arizona from Topeka, KS for their two-year-old son who had asthma and needed to live in a drier climate and has lived in Arizona ever since.

At the time he was a company pilot for Payless Shoes out of Topeka and says he learned the real estate business from the left seat of an airplane when he was flying the president of Payless around the United States to the store locations in 36 different states. “I got quite an education flying around the country,” Terry said with a laugh.

Terry landed a non-flying job working for a company called Valley Distributing and immediately wanted to get his real estate license which he achieved in 1973. In 1976, he got his broker’s license and has never looked back.

Once he had his broker’s license, Terry started his own company with two other men who were already in real estate. At the same time, he started and ran a small management company with his wife and they managed and built three small strip centers.

For a period of time, Terry also worked for Checker Auto and Yellow Front stores doing real estate site acquisition work then moved on. He worked as an Independent Broker for Westcor down in Phoenix as a shopping center developer. While he was doing this job, Terry was noticed by president and founder of Fry’s Food Stores. Mr. Fry asked him to join their company in 1979 as director of real estate and a year after starting with Fry’s, Terry was promoted to Vice President of Real Estate, Construction, and Facility Service. He held this position until he retired from Fry’s in 2001. During his time with Fry’s Terry oversaw the build of 60 stores in Arizona and remodeling of 35 stores.

Around the same time that he retired from Fry’s, Terry and his wife decided to sell their three small strip centers and was able to invest that money.

After he retired, Terry stayed active in real estate and joined brokerage firm, De Rito Partners, acting as their acquisition and development guy for shopping center development. He did that for nine years and during that time, he was able to purchase a lot and build a home up here in Prescott.

One day, Terry ran into Ron Fain of Fain Signature Group and asked Ron if he had some idea of where he could hang his license because he didn’t want to just let it go. Ron responded “Why would we send you someplace else? We want you to come work for us.” Today, Terry has been with Fain Signature Group for ten years in April.

As of December 2019, Terry had worked in commercial real estate for 46 years and was recognized by the Prescott Area Association OF RELATORS® for his years of continuous years of membership in the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION of REALTORS®.

Now, as Terry wraps up his years of work in real estate, he is slowly making his way to a bright future of fun with his kids and grandchildren and is looking forward to spending time with his wife. Terry has been an asset to Fain Signature Group for the past eleven years. His stories, smiles, and infectious laugher will be missed every day, but he is always welcome to visit!


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