| Ebby Halliday | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 9, 1911 United States |
| Occupation | Founder of Ebby Halliday Realtors |
Ebby Halliday (born March 9, 1911) is an American realtor and businesswoman who founded Ebby Halliday Realtors, which now sells more homes than any other broker in Texas, was the 11th-biggest in the country in 2007, according to a new report from RealTrends Inc.
She is one of the first successful female entrepreneurs in Dallas. Halliday, as a centenarian, still drives herself to work every day. As chairman of the board of her company, she continues to be active in its management.
Halliday graduated from high school in Abilene, Kansas in 1929. Even though the Great Depression was burying the financial well-being of millions, she got a $10-a-week job selling women’s hats at The Jones Store in Kansas City. In less than a year, she was the top salesperson. In 1938, she was asked to take over the millinery department at Dallas’ W.A. Green Store. Soon she had her own Dallas boutique, Ebby’s Hats.
One day in 1945, Clint Murchison Sr. stopped by her store to see her. “Ebby, I’ve built a bunch of houses out of concrete. Everyone says they’re ugly. Must be, I haven’t sold a one. I figure if you can sell my wife some of those awful hats she comes home with, selling my concrete houses will be a piece of cake for you.”
Ebby took the challenge, improved them with carpet, curtains and cottage furniture, and sold all of them within a year – the two-bedrooms for $7,000 and the three-bedrooms for $9,500. She was inspired by this experience to enter the real estate business full time.
She married former FBI agent, Maurice Acers, while she built Ebby Halliday, Realtors, into a company of more than thirty-one offices, fifteen hundred agents, and the company that in 2005 participated in $3.8 billion of sales for 17,500 Dallas area families. In 2009, Real Trends magazine ranked Ebby Halliday, Realtors as the 10th largest real estate brokerage in the United States. She turned 100 in March 2011.[1]