Realtor Sandy Garner, founder of Harcourts The Garner Group, never thought about giving up.

Garner, 76, overcame cancer. About the same time, her second husband died.

Her doggedness kept going during a 45-year career in real estate. In February, Garner stepped away from the business and handed it to the next generation.

Through the decades of helping home buyers and sellers, Garner never considered she might fail.

“Really, everything happened because I was trying to figure out how to make more money,” Garner said. “Basically I wanted to make a living. I had two young daughters. Everyone was struggling then. It was 1979, and I was blind to the fact that it was a tough real estate market.”

She started in the late 1970s. When interest rates climbed into the double digits, Garner tried to carve out a niche where she could succeed. At the time she was with Coldwell Banker Morris Real Estate in Bend. But something in her made her realized she needed a niche. She hitched her future to new construction and was the real estate agent on many developments around town, including NorthWest Crossing.

Bend is what it is because of the development of Black Butte Ranch and Sunriver, she said.

“People were coming to vacation here,” Garner said. “As the years progressed and people recognized Bend, it helped put Central Oregon on the map.”

Her first subdivision where she sold homes was Tanglewood, the custom home development in southeast Bend.

Developers pick up Bend proposal

Developers pick up Bend proposal

Garner, who grew up in Redmond, remembered there was a time when there were very few new housing developments. Everything on the market looked old and worn. Then she hit upon the idea of partnering with local developers to sell the new construction projects.

“In the beginning, it was good to be a local because I knew a lot of people,” Garner said. “I really had a lot of success in the beginning. I think I was successful because I needed to support my girls and myself. I had to do it. There was no room for failure.

“Hardships make or break you.”

Starting in hard times forces sales people to get creative, Garner said. Her method of getting her name out was to offer to host open houses for other agents.

Janis Grout, a broker at Harcourts The Garner Group, worked with Garner for more than two decades. She remembers hosting 27 days of open houses with Garner during that time.

“She was a hard worker,” Grout said. “I learned by example. She was always in the office, or working in the field with builders, or showing homes. She burned the midnight oil, too. And she expected the same from all of us, too. And we were successful.”

One way that Garner was successful: she listened to buyers. Then she’d take what she learned to developers so they could incorporate the wants and needs of buyers into their designs.

“At the time, older ranch-style homes were the only thing on the market, with harvest gold and avocado green appliances,” Garner said. “That wasn’t what buyers wanted.”

Real estate company Garner Group announced opening of new Redmond location

Real estate company Garner Group announced opening of new Redmond location

Garner launched her own company in 2001. In 2008, when the company was hired to sell NorthWest Crossing, Garner would have to remind herself again about hard times. Through another economic downturn, where she’d lose 25 deals in a month, she’d remind herself that success comes to those who show up and not lose their courage.

In 2016, she sold the agency to her daughters, Erica Davis and Shelley Griffin, and her niece Sara LaFaver.

“Regardless of the market. Regardless of a pandemic, we always circle the wagons and get done what we need to get done,” Davis said in a statement. “We are always here for our agents, and this is what Garner taught us — even in periods of time that are the most critically unknown, we cheer our team on. We are like a family.”

Griffin said that when she’s talking to clients she often hears her mother’s words. “She’s a legend as a Realtor,” Griffin said. “I learned so much from her. Almost everything I know I can attribute to her.”

Garner’s ability to make clients feel heard is one of her great gifts, Griffin said.

“In life and in business, it’s all about relationships,” Garner said. “I was lucky to work with so many people that Bend was their home. The neighborhoods I worked in didn’t look cookie-cutter. Those developers I worked with cared about what they were building and what they contributed to Bend.”