Professional Profile: Herb Pearce 1973

Name: Herb Pearce - 1973

Title: Founder/principal

Company: H. Pearce Co.

Location: North Haven, CT

Birthplace: -

In a short span of just 15 years, Herb Pearce has seen his firm, the H. Pearce Co., North Haven, develop from a one-man operation into one of the largest real estate firms in Conn., whose staff of 22 sales associates recently set a company record of $9 million in sales during the first six months of 1973. Although the H. Pearce Co. is recognized throughout south central Conn. as a leader in residential, commercial, and industrial sales and for the development of investment programs involving real estate, Herb Pearce is equally well known civic leader. It was his professional activity as well as his civic contributions that resulted in Pearce being named 1973 Realtor of the Year by the New Haven Board of Realtors. When Pearce opened his real estate office in 1958, he had no real estate experience, but the executive experience he gained with the former A.C. Gilbert Co. of New Haven enabled him to develop a well-rounded professional team which includes attorneys, engineers, accountants and business executives, who along with the all-woman residential sales staff, are able o meet the demands of any client. Pearce also is an innovator who has set the pace throughout Conn. for other real estate firms to follow. For instance, in conjunctions with the New Haven Savings Bank, the H. Pearce Co. sponsored the first public real estate investment seminar which attracted more than 1000 persons from Conn., Mass. and N.Y. to hear nationally known experts discuss the advantages of investing in real estate. Likewise, Pearce was the first real estate firm in the state to sponsor a bus tour to promote industrial and commercial properties to bankers, out-of-state brokers and local and state development officials and real estate investors. Pearce was the first Realtor to arrange helicopter tours to provide busy executives with a birds-eye view of industrial and commercial properties and he has distributed booklets on industrial and commercial properties to assist potential clients. The H. Pearce Co. has initiated many other programs, including trade-in plans which take the risk out of home buying by splitting the profit and not the loss with the homeowner. The firm was also one of the first Conn. to offer computerized real estate investment analysis. Similarly, the H. Pearce Co. has been an innovator in the use of automated equipment such as telecopier services through the national Homes for Living Network through which any document or picture may be transmitted across country in four to six minutes. The H. Pearco Co. also added the international flavor through its affiliation with Panorama Ltd. for the sale of properties on Spain’s historic Costa del Sol. In 1971, Governor Thomas Meskill named Pearce to the State Development Commission, a post he still holds. The same year, he led a task force of Commission experts to California to bring back sub-contract business from aero-space program prime contractors. Pearce presently serves a director of the Univ. of New Haven and the New Haven YMCA. He has served as chairman of the South Central Conn. Chapter, National Conference of Christians and Jews, is a past president of the United Fund of New Haven and is most proud of his presidency of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, which in 1970 named him recipient of its community leadership award, an honor which has been bestowed on less than one dozen community leaders. Heart Fund or Red Cross, Boy Scouts or arts festival, fund-raising or other worthy projects, Pearce has lived up to his code of community involvement. Despite his busy schedule, he has never been too busy to help others within the community, which has been good to him.