John Edward Cain III. founder of C&S Builders and later Fox Ridge Homes
-- Photograph ProvidedJohn Edward Cain III is dead. It is difficult for my fingers to hit the keyboard and write that sentence as I felt he was immortal. Known by friends as John Eddie and by me as Mr. Cain, his business acumen and ability to adapt were traits few have.
I moved to Nashville in 1978 to work at Nashville City Bank and, like Elvis, I had no place to dwell and was headed to the end of Lonely Street, except for the kindness and generosity of my childhood friend Lee Williams, who offered me shelter in his new home built by his employer, C&S Builders. The “C” stood for Cain, as in John Eddie. The “S” had left the building. Therefore, it was Mr. Cain’s show.
Lee went to work every day almost 365 days each year having Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year’s Day, Easter and July 4th as holidays. There were no vacation days, but he did not have to be at work in his model home until 10 a.m. That alone was appealing to my 24-year-old self.
The subdivisions that C&S invaded were in Fairview, Smyrna, Gallatin, White House and Bellevue, with all the houses funded by FHA 265 or Farmer’s Home Administration, with the exception of the Bellevue homes that were more mainstream.
The FHA and Farmer’s Home Administration homes were subsidized by the federal government, which allowed buyers to purchase a new $30,000 house (not a typo) with 1,050 square feet and have payments that were less than $200 per month.
In the case of the Farmer’ Home houses, they were 1,000 square feet with three bedrooms and a full bathroom with payments of closer to $100 per month.
The houses were equipped with appliances, wall-to-wall carpet with vinyl in the kitchen and bathrooms, and the buyers were able to choose their own flooring. In some cases, the lots allowed for basements (B1050) or attached garages (AG1050), but most were ranch-style with crawl spaces (C1050).
If the buyers lacked the funds to close, they were allowed to perform sweat equity and paint the houses, seed and straw the yard and plant the sole tree and the eight shrubs that adorned the yards. This practice infuriated the on-site superintendents, as the quality of their houses suffered. And even though they built 60-70 houses each year, most of the same design, they were proud of each house.
As angry as they were, they dared not complain to No. 3, as they referred to Mr. Cain, lest they incur his wrath.
Mr. Cain would later be appointed by Gov. Ned Ray McWherter to chair and salvage the Tennessee Housing Development Agency, which he ran from 1988 through 1994.
He was a champion of affordable housing when it was not cool. As a matter of fact, it was almost a stigma, but he was allowing home ownership to those that no other builders would touch.
And he did it with four sales people, four superintendents, a cost-analysis person, a finance officer who bought the “funny money” the buyers utilized to purchase the homes, a construction officer and a person who rode herd over the superintendent.
He hired a schoolteacher and day camp operator to become his sales manager. That person was Al Davis of Davis-Gorham camp. Davis came on board to help sell houses and, after selling 100 homes singlehandedly in one year, Mr. Cain brought him on board.
Lee Williams had dated/was dating Mr. Davis’s daughter and had quite the work ethic, so he was hired.
The sales people were paid $200 per week and $100 for each house they sold. As the company grew, each person was expected to sell 65 houses annually. A quick check of the math reveals that they were making at least $16,900 per year.
Meanwhile back at the bank, I was making $10,600 after my first raise and had to wear a three-piece suit and wingtip shoes to work and pay to park. The dress at C&S was casual, and a meal at the meat-and-three diners in the small towns was half the price of the downtown restaurants.
Lee convinced Mr. Davis to bring me on board, and the former teacher had a soft spot for former teachers, which I was.
Next stop and the only stop that mattered was meeting Mr. Cain, and it was arranged for me to stop by his house for dinner. I wore a coat and tie, and Lee had me remove them in the driveway before entering.
The meal was festive and cooked on a grill with the exception of something that was fried and unidentifiable. Mr. Cain owned a cattle farm in Kentucky, and I was made aware that the delicacy was imported from the farm. Based on my demeanor when devouring strange foods, I passed Mr. Cain’s muster.
I was hired March 9, 1979, and thus began my pilgrimage into the land of real estate. I stayed on board for three years and sold more than 200 houses, most of which I witnessed being constructed. That education alone was priceless.
When angered, and that was often with a staff of 20-somethings, Mr. Cain’s face would redden with a “V” appearing in the middle of his forehead. I was the cause of a few of his tantrums, the first of which was during my first month on the job. He always made his point and was never wrong, ever, and I never made the same mistake twice.
After the first dressing down, I received a call from Mr. Davis informing me that Mr. Cain had a door in his house that had shrunk and he needed the company’s door stretcher ASAP. He told me to ask the on-site superintendent, one James Travis – no relation to the Alamo colonel – to get the door stretcher to me so that I could deliver it to the Cain residence in Belle Meade before a big party planned for that night.
Travis, as he was known, handed me a “come along,” which is a device that has a chain and a lever type device to which Travis had added several other tools. He told me not to dare use it myself as it was tricky and I could pull the entire wall to the ground if I made the slightest mistake.
Having no construction experience at that point, it looked like a door stretcher to me. Upon arrival, Mrs. Cain greeted me at the door and informed me that “John Eddie was in the bedroom, and I was needed there immediately.”
I ran to the spot where I heard the distinctive voice, and there he was, the man who had sliced me to smithereens earlier that week, and he graciously thanked me for saving the day.
He then demanded that I stretch the door. I offered that Travis had warned me of the intricacy of the machine, and that I feared I would raze the wall. At that point, a cacophony of laughter erupted from the living room, and half the company poured into the bedroom. There is no such thing as a door stretcher. It was then I felt I was where I belonged as the sense of family of the small company bathed my being.
It was when interest rates hit 18% that C&S Builders ended my employment. The new administration ended the subsidy programs, which were the lifeblood of the company. The company reemerged as Fox Ridge Homes, complete with a new logo and total rebranding.
In addition to the new name, the company offered an entirely new product line with architecturally alluring styles and quality from top to bottom. Once again, they were affordable, as the Fox Ridge team adapted and arranged for creative financing in a trying market. The new company was one of the more successful companies in the country.
Fox Ridge did so well it caught the attention of a large company that purchased it for several million dollars in 1988, when a million dollars was an enormous sum.
Once again, proving his brilliance, Mr. Cain, some of the employees, and several investors bought the company back, supposedly for less than it had sold for originally. Then, in 1997, they sold it once more for a big, big number.
According to his obituary, Mr. Cain retired only to found Turnberry Homes, Saussy-Burbank, and developed the Providence community in Mt. Juliet. His practice of hiring and molding young people has spawned many a career.
Richard Courtney is a licensed real estate broker with Fridrich and Clark Realty, LLC, and can be reached at [email protected].