John Guess III is a legendary figure in Houston regarding Blacks in real estate, entrepreneurship, education, and general community empowerment. Founder and president of The Guess Group, a full-service commercial real estate company that has been providing exceptional real estate services for its who’s who list of clients for 36 years, Guess first made a name for himself in the real estate space via his groundbreaking work in that area for the City of Houston, and before that, for Shell Oil.
A firm believer in hard work, family, and legacy, Guess shared insights with the Defender on his journey to becoming a Houston-area mover-and-shaker.
Defender: Was 8-year-old John Guess III running around saying, I want to be in real estate?
Guess: Not quite. Actually, it was a fluke. I was recruited by Shell. At that time, the early seventies, everybody was trying to find a super Negro to put into their program. So, I was recruited by a number of the oil companies because President Lyndon Johnson had come in and started putting pressure on oil companies to have a more positive affirmative action program. I was recruited by Shell to come and work for them as a marketing person. I worked in marketing for a short period, and they gave me a promotion into the real estate department. I was the first Black in Shell’s Real Estate department.
Defender: What lessons did you take from that experience?
Guess: Shell gave me my basis for understanding commercial real estate and how important it is. The other thing was it was difficult for me to close a deal and see the owner walk away with millions and the broker walk away with hundreds of thousands of dollars, and then I’d go get my little brown envelope with two weeks of wages . That was a big difference in the checks. So, I decided I wanted to go on my own. I joined a group of brothers and went into the residential real estate business. We worked that for a while, but my love was commercial real estate.
Defender: What was your next big move in real estate?
Guess: I was fortunate enough to be tapped by the mayor at that time, Fred Hofheinz. He tapped me to come into his operation in the city and be part of his team. I had a five-year plan to stay with Hofheinz and then move on. Then he lost on his third bid, and a new guy by the name Jim McConn came in, who made a pledge to move brothers up in his administration, especially into some department heads. So, he tapped me to move to the real estate department since I had commercial training. So, I was assistant director for about three or four years when the next mayor, Kathy Whitmire, tapped me to take over as director of real estate for the City of Houston. I was the first Black to ever hold a position that powerful in the city of Houston. I enjoyed that, getting a chance to meet all the major players in the Houston real estate market – oil and gas, developers downtown, residential spaces. I did that for five years. Then I said it’s time for me to make a move to start my own company. So. in ‘88, we started The Guess Group.
Defender: How did the Guess Group grow to its current stature?
Guess: We managed to get more contracts and worked the commercial market. Then, the big boys in real estate from the majority community saw that I would not be going away. Also, affirmative action, especially with public agencies, they saw there was merit in hiring a Black real estate company to work with as joint venture partners on a lot of these different contracts that they were going for, like HISD, Katy ISD, the Woodlands, Fort Bend County, Harris County, and the city of Houston. That public exposure I had downtown was very important, especially to developers. So, we were fortunate enough to get on that train, and that helped us until we really got stable footing in the market and people knew who The Guess Group was.
Defender: How did those joint ventures benefit you and those firms?
Guess: By going with large firms like Transwestern, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), CBRE, we got exposure not only in Houston, but Texas and across the United States because CBRE is the largest commercial real estate company in the world. JLL is the third largest in the world. So, I was very fortunate to get those two working with me along with Caldwell Banker, etc.; all the big boys. And it proved successful for them because our company was known in the public sector. That was additional favor given to us because they had, as a partner in a lot of these ventures, an individual with a lot of experience in public marketplace. So, that became an easy transition for me, and the basis by which we built the company.
Defender: How has your business expanded over the years?
Guess: Over the years, we expanded more and more. We became asset managers. We were the first Black team to be paired with a Black joint venture that won a $780 million contract with Resolution Trust Corporation at the time, under the guidance of FDIC. This is why when all the banks started failing, and everybody was talking about recession, depression. So, all these assets came back to the banks and savings and loans because people couldn’t service debt. So, we had to pick them up and manage them until we were able to sell them. So with a contract, we took down San Antonio Savings and Loan for $780 million and that got us on our way with doing commercial marketing for the Feds. Out of that, we had managed a contract for about four or five years. And because we were so good at it, we kept getting additional assets in our bucket. So, we took that $780 million to $1,2 billion by the time they closed the program.
Defender: What do you consider your greatest legacy?
Guess: I guess my greatest legacy is to be an example for other Black men and women to know that these are reachable goals. Simply, you have to work hard and you have to know your business. I hope my legacy is one that said, because he did it, it could be done. The other thing is my legacy would be to leave legacy wealth for my children; that they will be able to carry on after mother and father are gone. And they have hopefully my grandchildren working in real estate to continue what we started here. I simply would like my legacy to be one that is an example of creating wealth out of situations that normally Black folks aren’t allowed; to pierce the corporate veil. We are hoping that shows, yes, you too can play with the big boys as long as you apply yourself and know what you’re doing. Hopefully, I’ve laid out a game plan that others can follow that could make them successful, not only in real estate, but in business and life itself.
