Making a Leader

Photo courtesy of NAR

Utah’s Kenny Parcell rises from humble beginnings to lead the National Association of Realtors®.

By Jared Lloyd | Daily Herald

When Kenny Parcell was a 7-year-old in the 1980s, his athletic ability earned him a spot on the All-Utah County baseball team.

While this was definitely an honor, it also presented logistical challenges.

Parcell lived in Orem and the practices took place at American Fork High School. Since his parents were both working in order to make ends meet, covering the 12 miles to be with the team was all up to Parcell.

For many, especially at that age, the obstacle would’ve been too much to overcome. But not for Parcell.

“I got on my BMX bike, put my glove on the handlebars and rode all the way on my own because I wanted to be on that team so badly,” Parcell said. “I had a specific route that I would come home so if my mom or dad got done with work, they would know where to find me to pick me up.”

He recalled how his mom told him that to be successful he needed to “work twice as hard, have twice the grit, be twice as polite and twice as good.” molded Parcell into a successful businessman and a leader in his field. Now living in Salem, Parcell is the broker/owner of Equity Real Estate Utah in Spanish Fork and has sold more than 3,200 homes in his 24-year career.

On Nov. 10, Parcell became just the third Utahn to be installed as the president of the National Association of Realtors®, the largest trade organization in the country with nearly 1.6 million members in the real estate industry.

“Realtors® are good, hard-working people,” Parcell said. “Nobody volunteers more or does more for the community than those in our profession. We are the first to go to work, the last to come home and the last to get paid. There have been a lot of good people who have believed in me and seen things in me that even I didn’t see at the time.”

Few understand the significance of Parcell’s achievement like former Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, who is also a Realtor® and served in various roles in the same organization in addition to his political career.

“Kenny is a great person and a great individual,” Herbert said. “As a past president of the National Governors Association, I have a recognition of what we can do at

a national level through the good example of Utah, sharing information and learning from each other. The National Association of Realtors® does that through all the state presidents and the board of directors. I recognize how important it is to learn from each other to make the whole country better.”

Parcell’s road to the NAR presidency is one that includes perseverance, drive and, of course, unexpected-butfortunate twists of fate.

After seeing the challenges his family endured, working hard but not having much money, Parcell was determined to get a college degree.

His athletic ability opened some doors for him to reach that goal, and he was planning to go to the University of Utah to play football. While on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, however, he found out that there was a chance to stay closer to home and have scholarship money to play at BYU.

That might not seem like it would have anything to do with becoming successful in real estate, but it was the first step on the path. That’s because one of Parcell’s Cougar teammates, linebacker Jeff Ellis, introduced him to his future wife, Heather.

“It changed everything because after a year, Heather and I got married,” Parcell said. “She was getting her MBA and I had three more years of school, so I thought why rent? I’ll see if I could own a house.”

The process of buying a home for the new couple, however, didn’t go well.

“We went to see an agent and she told me she was really busy, so for me to see if I could talk my way into any of the six homes you qualify for,” Parcell said. “So I did that and we got the offer accepted. Thirty days later we got married, closed on our home and went on our honeymoon. When we got back, the good white refrigerator was replaced by a lime green one that didn’t work. The kitchen cabinets were taken, and the air conditioning was taken. I called the agent and said, ‘we have a problem.’ She answered, ‘no, you have a problem.’ Because of that, for the first six months we lived out of a camping cooler.”

Not long after that, Parcell saw a classified ad about becoming a Realtor® and decided he never wanted to work through that nightmare again. He got his real estate license so he would understand the process, which turned out to be useful in the classroom when he wrote a paper about his experience.

“It was a family science class and the professor called me,” Parcell said. “She said the teaching assistant was sick and so he stumbled across my paper. She was transferring and wanted to interview me about selling his house. My very first client was my current professor, who then referred me to two other professors and that just kept growing. The first year alone I sold 15 homes, which is pretty good business.”

Suddenly he had clients, many of whom didn’t even know he was actually a BYU student. He did get his degree and had 35 job opportunities, but he already knew what career path he was going to take.

“There is absolutely no regrets,” Parcell said. “If I didn’t go on a mission or went up to the University of Utah, or if I didn’t get my real estate license, none of this happens for me. I didn’t have any connection to the business, but here I am.”

He said he learned early on that kindness goes a long ways.

“Everyone is struggling with something,” Parcell said. “If you can be a little more empathetic with people, you have a lot more compassion. It makes a big difference.”

His business grew and he enjoyed significant success through the 1990s and early 2000s. He actually had no inclination to get involved with the Realtor® trade association until a colleague invited him to volunteer.

“I didn’t do anything with the state or local boards until another Realtor®, Randy Smith, called me up and asked if I had considered running,” Parcell said. “I asked him about the time commitment and when he said it was probably a couple of hours per week, I said I was too busy. He said, ‘Kenny, no one has been more blessed than you from this industry’ and then hung up. I thought about it and called him back about five minutes later to tell him he was right.”

That conversation led Parcell to get involved first at the local level in Utah Valley, becoming the president in 2008, before going on to serve at the state and national levels.

As he got to know other industry professionals throughout the country, he decided he wanted to serve them at the highest level.

“People gave me opportunities on committees and I built relationships,” Parcell said. “I got to see you could make a difference on a national scale. You can help people with homeownership across the country. (continued on page 22)

Photo courtesy of NAR