James Nay of River City Elite Properties (Photo by Jay Paul)
The desk where James Nay sat in the winter of 2015 when he started working at Joyner Fine Properties came with a collection of several magazines. His eyes fell on the National Association of Realtors’ “30 Under 30” issue, highlighting 30 top-selling agents under the age of 30. At the time, such a ranking seemed a distant goal.
The day after he landed a spot in that issue in March 2019, he recalls, “I had a dream, being a younger agent — who’d never sold a house — of one day making it there.”
What he lacked in experience, he made up for with the drive and ambition that turned him into “The 24-hour Agent.”
As a younger agent without any connections, he was forced to get plugged in. “I set lunches up for every day of the week with other investors, lenders, agents and service providers/company owners in the field,” he recalls. “I hate excuses, so I wasn’t willing to let being a young agent with hardly any contacts to become [an excuse] for me.
“There were days that I had no appointments, so I would go to the DMV and ask everyone … ‘So when do you plan on moving?’ ”
In his first year, Nay, 27, sold 24 houses; 63 the second; and last year, his third in the business, he sold 104 properties. Such a track record may indicate a knack for real estate, but it wasn’t necessarily how the 27-year-old envisioned his professional life.
He became acquainted with real estate during early high school through his father, Mark, who worked with Long & Foster. For the younger Nay, the concept of buying or selling a house was difficult to understand and prompted his curiosity about the profession.
In economics classes at Old Dominion University, Nay read about the economic downturn of 2008, which resulted from the collapse of a housing bubble. While still in school, he started a clothing line called The Year’s Supply that catered primarily to hip-hop artists. He traveled with rapper Chris Webby. “We had a good time and learned a lot about sales,” he says, including e-commerce, the variables of different venues and merchandising.
After finishing at ODU in 2014, he became a personal trainer at Gold’s Gym in Midlothian. “I was in love with investing in rental [properties] and flipping homes,” he says, “but as a trainer, I didn’t have the capital to invest.”
He and another Gold’s employee, Christian Morganti, bought a HUD foreclosure house on Ingram Avenue in Blackwell. They spent three months, every evening and weekend, giving the place a massive makeover with the help of contractor Tom Storey.
Morganti and Nay still own and manage rental homes in the Richmond region, and Storey remains one of their contractors. Nay also renovates and resells properties through the Hall Design Co.
Today, as vice president and agent of River City Elite Properties, Nay sells everything from river-view mansions purchased by executives to starter homes bought by graduates of the CARITAS programs for aspiring homeowners.
He’s served in several capacities with the nonprofit agency, even moving furniture in the CARITAS warehouses. Sometimes his upper-bracket clients donate excess furniture that CARITAS in turn uses to furnish houses of families who’ve completed their home-ownership program.
“I look up to everyone there,” he says of the CARITAS staff. “They’re some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met.”
Once, Nay was mystified about how to make a living by bringing people into houses of their own, but his mission now is clear. “I love that my job allows me to help others achieve their personal and financial goals,” he says. “It is extremely fulfilling being able to help someone transition into a home that they have always dreamed about.”
