Oh, You Mean The Twins

Mention Rebena Graham and Shervena Grubbs to just about any Realtor in Hot Springs and the response that will likely be received is, “Oh, you mean the twins.”

Unique as only twins can be, the sisters often finish each others sentences and still dress alike. And while they don’t live together, they live next door to each other, own what used to be know as “The Peony Farm” on the corner of Summer and Wheatley streets, and both are Realtors for Crye-Leike Realtors.

“I came here in 1990 from Chattanooga and got my license in Arkansas,” Rebena said.

“I lived with Shervena for a year and then my husband and I bought a house on Oakwood St., because we were going to move back here,” she said.

“But in 1991, I sold a house, but the deal fell through, and the lady wanted to live in that area. I told her I thought my sister was going to back to Chattanooga, so I showed her Rebena’s house and she fell madly in love with the house,” Shervena said.

Shervena, who’s been in the business about three years longer than Rebena, said she became a Realtor in 1987, but left the business for “a little while to take care of my mother-in-law.”

“I was with Century 21 when I started … we both started with Century 21, and then Rebena came back. We were driving down this street (Wheatley) and Rebena said she and her husband wanted to buy this house if the owner ever died,” Shervena said.

After the owner died, Shervena said the listing was in her office and she showed it one day and thought it would be ideal for her sister.

“I called Rebena, and she came over and made an offer and that’s how we wound up (living) together,” she said.

Having known Harold Crye from when he bought out the agency she worked for in Tennessee, Rebena said he bought the former Shoney’s Restaurant location on Central Avenue and opened Crye-Leike Realtors and she and her sister both went to work for him.

“What I think is important about the real estate industry, and a lot of people don’t understand, is that nothing happens in this world until something sells. It

may be an island, a skyscraper, some lumber from a lumber yard, plumbing equipment, but that is what moves everything in the country — the real estate industry.

Rebena said she and her sister are interested in the city and would like to see it like it was when people came in from Europe to take the baths and vacation.

“People would come on stretchers, take the baths, and six weeks later, leave walking,” Shervena said.

“People would come in from all over the world. What they’d do was take the baths all day, and then go out and spend money all night. That’s what we need today. We need people with money to come in here,” Rebena added.

After the downturn in the real estate market in 2006 and 2007, Rebena said business is “picking up.”

Another important aspect of the real estate business that has changed over the last couple of decades is face-to-face selling.

“We don’t get to see people like we used to. They can go on the Internet now and find anything they want. Sometimes I think they cull out things that if we could sit across the table from them or take them and show them something, we could make a sale,” Shervena said.

“I used to go out and put a sign up and while I was doing that, someone would drive by and ask about the house, and I could write up an offer right then,” she said.

“I think a big secret in all of this kind of business is seeing the people, and if you can’t see the people, I think it hurts,” Rebena said.

Rebena said the real estate market in Hot Springs is still a buyer’s market.

“I tell people when I talk to them, and they haven’t bought a house and are paying high rent, ‘Don’t do that.’ When in doubt, buy, because if you rent,you’re not going to have anything,” Shervena said, noting that interest rates are still low and buyers can find what they want.

“Tell me what you want, and I can find it for you,” she said.

To contact the women, they said call Crye-Leike Realtors and ask for “the twin team.”