Found better life through real estate
Growing up in rural Mississippi the son of tenant farmers, Roy Fair had one goal: to make a better life for himself.
Consequently, at the age of 17, he hitchhiked his way north, hoping to make it all the way to Detroit, where he knew he could find work. However, his driver made it as far as Aurora, and that's where Mr. Fair got out.
He never left, and within his lifetime, Mr. Fair would become one of the most successful real estate agents in the area, impacting the industry on a national level.
Mr. Fair, of Sugar Grove, died Sunday at age 72.
Family members reflected that Mr. Fair had worked in the real estate business as far back as 1959, including starting his own firm, Fair & Co., in 1963 at age 28.
"He was always very hard working," says his wife, Sue Wiskowski-Fair. "When he started out, he walked the streets, going door to door asking if he could help families find a new house."
His motivated work ethic led him to sell 99 houses during his first year, his wife adds. His goal was to sell five a week.
It wasn't long before Fair & Co. achieved a 60 percent market share in the Aurora market, and the company soon grew to have offices in Yorkville, Geneva, Montgomery and Naperville.
Mr. Fair didn't stop there. He sought to become more involved at the industry level, serving on the Aurora Board of Realtors, including as president in 1968. That led to his role with the Illinois Association of Realtors, ultimately as its president, in 1980.
"Association work gave him a chance to lead, to share his ideas and promote education within the industry," his wife says.
Fair & Co. was one of the first in the area to establish a training program for its new agents, and Mr. Fair promoted that standard at the local and state level. He himself trained hundreds of agents in the Aurora market.
At the national level, Mr. Fair served 22 years as a director of the National Association of Realtors, including a term as chairman of its national legislative committee.
It was in this capacity that he successfully lobbied before Democrat Texas Rep. Henry Gonzalez, chairman of the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Development, to secure legislation to allow FHA interest rates to float with the market, thereby removing the need for the seller to pay points on behalf of a buyer wanting to secure an FHA loan.
"That opened up the market for thousands of buyers," Sue Wiskowski-Fair says.
In 1989, Mr. Fair purchased a sub-franchise from Realty Executives International, that covered a four-county area. A year later, he purchased the remainder of the franchise territory, which essentially covered the Chicago metropolitan market, and he served as chairman of the company.
When Mr. Fair sold the franchise in 2004, it included more than 40 offices and 600 agents operating under the Realty Executives brand in the Chicago area.
Besides his wife, Mr. Fair is survived by his sons, Mike (Laurie) and Terry (Cindy), both of Aurora, and David (Debbie) of Oswego, as well as 12 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
Visitation for Mr. Fair will take place from 2 to 8 p.m. Thursday at The Healy Chapel, 370 Division Drive in Sugar Grove, before a 2 p.m. funeral Friday at Village Bible Church, 847 N. State Rte. 47 in Sugar Grove.