HISTORY:

            Established by W. Paul Brewer in Scottsboro, Alabama in October 1947, Brewer Agency was a general insurance agency providing all lines of property, casualty, health, and life insurance.  Upon his death in 1953, Mary B. Brewer continued the multi-line insurance agency and expanded the company's market area and services rendered to include limited real estate activities. 

            Jim Brewer's formal participation in the company began on a part-time basis in 1961.  In 1963, most insurance companies initiated a policy requiring completion of a cost approach to value on all properties being insured.  At the age of 16, Jim traveled a four-county area completing a one-page cost estimate on residential, commercial, office, institutional, and industrial properties.  His fee was $5 per property, regardless of the size and his major expense at the time was $1 for two Polaroid photographs per property.

            In 1965, Brewer Agency initiated a program of organizational growth from insurance and limited real estate activities toward a future based on consultations for real estate sales, acquisition, and development.  Licensed as an Alabama Real Estate Broker in 1971, Mr. Brewer focused the company's growth toward residential real estate sales and the real estate staff grew from one person to fifteen.  In 1976, Mr. Brewer led the State of Alabama in residential real estate sales.  The company's effective client assessment methods, interview skills, and qualifying strategies enabled the company to maintain a 60% market share (more than three times typical).

            In 1986, after nearly seven years of tumultuous fluctuations in Scottsboro's economy, which resulted in the 15,000 person community witnessing a loss of almost 5,000 jobs, Mr. Brewer decided to move the company to Atlanta to focus on commercial real estate.  In order to acquire the technical skills essential to sophisticated commercial real estate consulting, Mr. Brewer worked on a full-time basis for the two largest commercial real estate appraisal firms in Atlanta.  Although Brewer Agency's activities were relegated to part-time status during this period, Mr. Brewer attained an excellent education and valuable experience.  In August 1994, Mr. Brewer re-established the company's participation as a full-time company concentrating on real estate consultations.  In January 2000, Mr. Brewer was one of only 311 people, holding both a CCIM and a MAI designation.