With over 30 years in the sector, Wade Shealy is one of America’s top leaders in resort real estate development, marketing and sales. In 1986, after having been one of the top Real Estate Agents on Hilton Head, he co-founded one of the largest and most successful real estate firms in South Carolina. Wade kept noticing that no matter how excited clients initially were about their second home purchase, almost all of them were back in his office within 5 years wanting to sell. Why? It was always the same answer: “As much as we’ve loved having a place on Hilton Head, we feel we’ve seen and done everything there is to do. We’d like to look at buying somewhere else, so we can experience new things on our trips.”
In response to a market need to help second homeowners realize more value in their ownership and daring to do things differently, Wade founded THIRDHOME in 2010, with a few friends and clients being the first to sign up.
Today, with 11,000 properties in 95 countries, THIRDHOME has become a trusted way for owners around the globe to leverage time in their second home to travel the world without the expense of renting.
And because visionaries don’t stop thinking and doing, in 2018 THIRDHOME Rentals and Adventures was introduced to inspire members at all levels to explore the world like never before, in elevated style.
Prior to THIRDHOME
Wade graduated from the University of Georgia equipped for his future with far more than an Honors degree. Working for straight commission, 80 hours a week with the Southwestern Company selling bibles and educational books door-to-door, prepared him early on for many years ahead of entrepreneurial leadership.
Wade rose through the ranks to become one of the organization’s top salespeople, along the way recruiting both the largest student team and the team selling the most volume, in Southwestern’s 155-year history. As a District Sales Manager, he was named “District Sales Manager of the Year” for each of his four consecutive years in that role.
In 1984, Wade began working in resort real estate, co-founding The Pinnacle Group in 1986 and growing it into one of the largest and most successful real estate companies on Hilton Head Island and the state of South Carolina.
As Vice President of Intrawest, a premier North American mountain resort and adventure company, Wade directed sales and marketing for 12 different resorts with locations from New England to the Caribbean, successfully closing over $500 million in sales, annually. During his years in resort real estate, he developed and sold more than $3 billion in real estate.
Wade was instrumental in the creation of the Land Conservation Program for the State of Georgia and subsequently appointed by the Governor of Georgia, to the State Board of Land Conservation, serving for five years. Under Wade’s direction, tens of thousands of acres of pristine land were protected. He was also appointed to the state’s Marshland and Wetlands Protection Committee and voted the “Tree Friendly Developer” for the state of Georgia.
In 2003, Wade was the visionary and developer for Hampton Island Georgia. This 4,000 acre sustainable development was home to people like Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez but was best recognized for being a low impact and sustainable development. It was also recognized by the industry as one of the top three private resorts in America.
Wade lives on a horse farm outside Nashville in Franklin, Tennessee. Inspired by his early background in nature preservation, he designed and built a natural swimming pond on his farm, one of the first of its kind in the U.S. Recently, the DIY TV show Barnwood Builders came to his farm to record an episode as they reconstructed an 1840’s log cabin that will become part of home. When he is not traveling around the world, Wade can be found enjoying the farm life which includes riding his horses, tending to his chickens, and bees and harvesting organic vegetables from his raised gardens. Wade has three children, his youngest attends Brentwood Academy in Nashville, his daughter lives in Greenville SC , and his oldest son is a Professor of Environmental and Sustainable Civil Engineering at Virginia Tech.
You can read Wade’s interview here