Gaye Landry - STV: 25

Marc sits down with Gaye Landry of Landry Team Real Estate for an engaging conversation about homes, community, and the unique character of St. Francisville. Together they explore what makes the town so inviting, from its beautiful properties to the sense of connection and belonging that makes it feel like home.

Landry Team Real Estate [WEBSITE]

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, I'm Mark Charbonnet. Welcome to C the Bill. Today we have a wonderful guest. Her name is Gay Landry, and she is the broker of Landry in real estate. And she's been in this town for quite a while, and she is the lady to go to if somebody wants to sell or buy a house. Hi Gay.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Hi, Mark. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

I'm so glad you're here. I've been looking forward to talking to you because you really do know about everything that's going on. First of all, as you know, I give my tours and I was giving one today, and everybody always wants to know what do things cost. I know what the latest things on in the historic district are going for, but what if a if a family with three kids comes here and they want a little property and they want a house that's comfortable, what does that house cost around here now?

SPEAKER_01 1:00

There's no specific science to real estate in West Feliciana because it depends largely on the topography or the land and is it south of St. Francisville or north of St. Francisville? So it varies greatly. And there's no there's not a lot of cookie-cutter subdivisions to like other communities have. But for if I was gonna ballpark that, I'd say you'd probably need $350 to $450,000.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

And that's pretty basic, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:31

That's pretty that's that's a decent house. Um you know, um but they're going up.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Would that be like on the other side of 61 from town? And what is that called? Audubon?

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Uh no, Audubon Hills. Audubon Hills you could still buy, because those homes were most of them were built for the paper mill when it came in the 50s and 60s, I think. And so those houses are older. And you can when they become available, and it's very rare that they do, yeah, you can might be able to get one for like 190 up to the high 200s.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

I was really surprised. We both know a man who was a legend in this town named Butch Kerr. And his home saw, have you seen his house?

SPEAKER_01 2:16

I have driven by recently. I haven't.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

You don't even realize it's his. I mean, it's got that big portico. Well, that's right, yeah. It doesn't even look like the same. I actually was trying to find it because it's as a as a place where I knew to start from to look for something, and I didn't even recognize it. It's amazing what you can do to those little houses. We had some uh interior designers on who well they're coming on, and that's Carolyn Albastadt and Maggie Lambert. They're gonna be on, but they were talking about how people can really dress up an old house, and they did a wonderful job with Butch's Place.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

We're seeing a lot of that.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Yeah, you live at Lake Rosemont, and you actually were the proprietor of the famous little grocery store out there. I was. And you told me just now that that is how you actually got into real estate.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

I did. Um when I was in my early 20s, we moved here. Cecil and I had just married, and uh we I worked there for a little while, and then I bought it. And there was a judge who lived at Lake Rosemound. Lake Rosemond uh was has always it's it's been there since the 60s. So the judge came and she said, Gay, if you can sell my house, I'm gonna basically hook you up. That wasn't the word she used, but I'm gonna I'm gonna make it good for you. So I found a buyer for her house, and I wasn't a realtor, so I just put them together and I was really excited to see what I was gonna get paid, man. I was all pumped up. And she brought me this uh needlepoint pastel-colored pictures, and it was like these three pigs playing, and it was just pretty hideous, and I still have it in my attic. And I went home and I told Cecil I can do better. And so I talked to Vicki Spurlock, who had locations real estate, and she lived up uh there with all of her children, and uh I got my license in 1993.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

That is what you got? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Yeah, I was very disappointed.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

I won't mention any names, but a good friend of mine was telling me how the matriarch had promised her a really big check, and she because my friend was working on something for a benefit, and at the end of the benefit, she wound up being given a five dollar check. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Well, I might should be more satisfied.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

And what did you get?

SPEAKER_01 4:35

A pig It was a a frame, needlepoint, pastel colored, of some little pigs playing. It was bad. That is yeah, it was, yeah. And she was mm-hmm. So things have only gotten better.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

So uh tell us, it's a whole different place up there at the lake. Tell us about that since you've been there.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Sure, yeah. Lake Roseman used to be primarily uh secondary homes, but now there's a lot of permanent residents. Once they four-laned Highway 61 and it was an easier ride to get there, people are more willing to make that ride. I think it has a lot to do with the traffic um south of the state capitol. So if you work in Baton Rouge, you can get home to Lake Rosemound quicker than trying to wonder how quick you're gonna get home to the south. Um, but it's beautiful. It's 185 acres. Uh, it's a private lake, in that um you can't put your boat or your big toe in it unless you have a membership. And there's 300 members. Um, and I and since I've been there when I was young, I should have bought a lot more because the pri the values up there have just really gone uh up, up and away. But um, give us an example. Oh, okay. So let's see. This week we listed a property for $449,000. It's on a beautiful waterfront lot. Um and it's about sixteen hundred square foot, but the house is old, you know, it's it's an old camp. And it went pending immediately. And we listed another one this week for 393. And it's like they just go pending immediately. Well, when you moved there, what would those have been listed for? 60,000, 55,000. That's that's really something. It is. I wish I'd had more sense and money back in the day. We don't live on the water, we live um across the street. And when we moved there, we had lived on the Amy River uh and it flooded. And so we moved up to the highest part we could find on seven acres, and um and we've never moved. Cecil built houses, I sold houses, but we got lucky and we got a really pretty place, and um we're really happy there.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

And uh so you've been in the same place?

SPEAKER_01 7:02

For 40 something years.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

What do you do on your seven acres?

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Well, now it's 30 acres because every time something came up, we were like, ah, well, we don't want a neighbor, so we bought. So we have 30 acres. It's surrounded by a gorgeous West Feliciana Creek, one of those sandy creeks. And um uh Cecil is retired. He uh he built a lot of houses in in the parish. Um we just have a wonderful time. We he gardens and we have dogs.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

And he does pottery.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, he's a potter.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

When when gay uh handles a sale, she gifts you a beautiful little birdhouse, which Cecil makes. They're there, these is it pottery or yeah, it's pottery.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

They're fine.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

They they really work. I know people that have them, that they love the pot.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Yeah, we had a little pathonitary warbler going in one yesterday. And we've given bird houses for the 33 years we've been in business. Cecil used to build them out of wood, and now he does pottery. So it kind of lends itself to the whole Audubon area. There's so many great birds here.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

You told me a funny story. I'll just interrupt and tell a little bit of minutiae here, which I just learned. A cemetery is where you bury relatives or their friends or family, uh, where there is no church. A graveyard is where there is a church. For instance, Grace's graveyard, the Episcopal Church, that is a graveyard. Whereas uh at uh one of the historic homes that might have a cemetery on the property, that's a cemetery. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

That's until you told me on our ghost tour.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

But you were telling me about Owen, who was on this podcast a while back as one of our yoga people, and you and she were working together and tell the story. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Okay. So Owen and I were dear friends, and she worked with our company for, I don't know, 15 years probably, and we're still best of friends. In fact, we were going on a fabulous trip soon. But years ago, Mr. Jordan Truett, he did neighborhoods in the parish and is a well-known contractor, and he is he had passed his family call and said, we have a lot out in solitude and and we want to sell it. So Owen and I went out there, and um, the name of the road was Indian Mound Road. Well, that should have been a clue. But so we get out there and we look at it, and we're like, okay, well, here's the vacant lot. How curious it's the only one with the heel. And when we go back, tell them what it's worth, and then we show up with our sign, and Owen is hammering it in the ground in the front of this hilled property. And this elderly African-American lady across the street was in her collard green garden, and she hollers out at us and says, Are y'all selling the ancient burial ground? And we looked at each other, and I Owen said, No, ma'am, no, ma'am, we're not. And we pulled the sign up and drove back down Indian Mound Road and looked at each other and thought, well, we are clueless that we didn't figure that one out. And so it worked out great because the truits ended up getting um LSU out there and it was it's a protected site now. There's a lot of Indian mounds out that way. Yeah, so uh I love that story. Yeah, isn't that great? We had so many good times.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

So I was gonna ask you, so it's still protected. Yes. How high was the hill?

SPEAKER_01 10:30

You know, maybe it's not extraordinary because we thought it was buildable, but maybe like sloping up 25 feet or something. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Speaking of that, you found on your property some century-old pottery. Pottery. And LSU told you what it was.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Tell us about well, they said it was not um native to that area, so it was brought by another tribe, but it was probably uh anywhere from 650 to 700 years old, which was old, and it was a very it was an intact vessel about three or four inches high and equally round. And it was the day that Cecil's mother passed away. And my son, who was about 12 or 11 or so, had gone to the creek and was walking on the creek, and um he f and he was sad, you know, he was with the dogs, and he found it and left it on the porch. So when Cecil came home, he saw it and said, Geez, Dustin, where'd this come from? And he said, Ah, you know, I was thinking about grands and I found it. Well, that night, uh, Cecil, we were all asleep, and Cecil stepped up to the mantle and picked it up, and and he said he saw his mother, and she had had Alzheimer's, and she just conveyed to him that she was whole again and she had others to go see. So we've always called it the talking base.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

And she loved talking.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

She loved Indians. Yeah, wherever they traveled, she'd talk about going to see the Indians. So it felt really a gift, a gift for us.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

I love that story.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

I do too. I do too. Cecil was blessed.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

So do you have any ghost stories? Have you heard any from people?

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Not tremendous, nothing really comes to mind. I'm sure I have.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

That's funny because I've had a couple of experiences here in St. Francisville.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

I haven't personally had a lot that I can remember. So I have to say no.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

I'll tell you one, because I haven't said it on this podcast yet. When Brandon and Jim, and they're the fellows that own the St. Francis. Oh, wait, she says she has one. I do.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Well, it it's you want to finish yours first? All right.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Go ahead. So uh they were purchasing uh the Barrow House on Royal, and uh V Shirley, who had owned it, was having uh an estate person come in to uh Pam Rath was coming in to uh you know tell everybody what things cost and what they were, and she was gonna have an estate sale there. And uh so I wasn't there to look at things. And we were in the living room, and she had showed me everything. We were in the living room, and I kept hearing something in the kitchen. And this is a large, rambling place, so I said, Is somebody here? And she said, I don't think so. And I said, Did you hear that? And she said, No, I she hadn't heard it. And then we heard it was just something like moving a dish, you know. And I said, uh, is someone here? We're in the living room. And it's there was no more noise. And then it did it again, and she looked at me and she said, I heard that. And I said, There's either a raccoon or a ghost in here. So we kind of got the hell out.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

But anyway. I had the pleasure of being part of that transaction with Brandon and Jim when they renovated and just made the house so incredibly fabulous. The one I was thinking was Derek Toddley. Uh, you weren't here, but Derek Toddley was a uh uh fellow that lived in our community and ended up being a serial killer of a very large magnitude. But the story is such, and it has more about the energy on houses. Um, so we would get, we still do with sheriff sales. We'll have to go out and tell the sheriff what a house is worth. So Tammy Herring, that's worked with me forever and is a realtor and um uh an older lady who has passed since Miss Juita, they went out to do that. And they came back, and it was Derek Todd-Liza. No, we didn't know who that was. We didn't know anything about him, nor did anybody else. But they walked in. I said, How did it go? And um they said, We we've got numbers for you, but we're never going back. I said, Well, but you know, we it if it goes for foreclosure, it might go up, we might be able to get a listing. And they said, Oh no, gay, you don't understand. We're never going back. And I said, Why are y'all saying that? And they said, It has a very bad energy there. Well, fast forward like a year, and they found out that Derek Toddley was the serial killer of just a horrendous person, and that was his house. And so at that time I had all of Star Hill Trace lots for sale uh with Miss Renee Priest. Um, and I thought, oh my goodness, we're not gonna be able to sell those lots because Derek Toddlee's house was right at the mouth of the subdivision. And I learned then that any press is good press because they just started going because people came and were aware and looked at storial traits, and now it's a fabulous neighborhood, it was then too. But yeah, so energy houses have a distinct energy and it and yeah I mean, is that house still there?

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Yes. And it's lived in? Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

And I think they uh they might have saged it or whatever, but they it seems to be a happy home now.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

They must have had three priests and a big bottle of whole water. Indeed. Yeah. Um I did real estate for a little while, but I found it just so difficult. I couldn't seem to get keep it straight. And it there's a lot of work in either selling or listing, I have.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

When I started it, we didn't even have faxes. You know, everything was you'd get in your car and go places, and now it's so fast and furious with the end, you know, with the documents, everything's e-signed. And I I recognize that it is an easier way to make errors. So it's uh a matter of slowing down and and really paying attention to detail. But I'm a very gregarious person. I truly like people, and it's um and then I get to see um our home, our parish, through their eyes new, and they're and it's just it's refreshing because West Feliciana's naturally beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

It really is. It is pretty sky, really pretty sky always. Yeah. I never I I never really appreciated it. I've been here since 17, but in the last three years I've started to look at the sky and I've thought, how come I never noticed that before?

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Especially and today the humidity was low. So pleasant. Um, yeah, it's it and and but it it it has its moments. A lot of people think, uh, well, I love houses. I like to look at houses. And I'm like, girl, that is the top of the, you know, just the tip of the iceberg, because there's so much more that has to be done to do it well. And we're we're very uh fortunate to have a team of realtors and and have had them throughout the years that are dedicated and honest. It's a small town. If you're not honest, the word gets out quick and fast. So that's our main prior priority.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Not to plug myself, but you recently hired me to take you and all the people in your office on a tour of the ghost of Bayou Sarah. And uh we had a wonderful time, and all of the women were just so attractive and dressed so nicely. It uh it was really a wonderful experience. It is a nice group of people.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Oh, I'm so fortunate. And they're young. Uh again, I'm 66, almost 67, and I get to hang out with these young, vibrant women. And they all like each other. That was really cool. We all get along. Yeah. It's it's it's well, and we always have. We've always had a really happy, friendly office place. Um yeah, it it's I'm I don't take it for granted. Dumb.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

So um do you have any secrets about the parish that you can give us or any little tidbits on?

SPEAKER_01 18:57

You know, I listened to Kenny Havard talking the other day. I love your podcast, by the way. Oh, thank you. And I've I've listened to pretty much everybody. And I when I was coming on here, I was like, well, I I haven't met Tom Cruise like Susan, and I haven't I'm not a a a scholar like Mr. Nichols. He was amazed. Oh, I loved his. Um but you know, Kenny really said it well that our parish is just so unique in its it's not perfect, but uh one of the things that I I tell people about our parish, and I think one of the reasons it's so successful is because many moons ago when uh integration came to the South and the nation, uh West Feliciana Parish, the the African American school, and the the uh uh white school superintendents got together and said, you know, what can we do? Let's try to make this work. Because of course there were people who say we've got to build a private school. And they never did. So all of our children go to school together.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

That must be one of the things that really makes this place.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

It makes it incredibly uh every child has a and it's a it's a sin and a shame that it's not a national thing, that every child has a right to the same education. But in our parish they do, and that's very unheard of. And it's just it's I think it's just uh it was kind of like Lloyd Lindsay said, Marsha's um husband when he was school superintendent. I remember him saying there's nothing special in our water, and our children are no different than anybody else's children, but we put our money from our parish towards our children. And I find in our parish that's one of the things that has happened. Our money's gone towards fire protection, police, Lord, if there's ever an apocalypse, you want to come here because I think we have every uh emergency vehicle under the sun. Um yeah. Maybe not a secret, but just a it's true.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

You know, um, not very far from here, there are communities that allow prejudice to hold themselves back. And it's a shame.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

It's it's very it's it's maybe that is what the secret is.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

This place is so anyone that's might be listening that's never visited, it is a truly unique uh situation. Culture. I really I really think it is.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

And it's not perfect, but it's pretty pretty fabulous. And again, being in my business, uh we have that opportunity to see it through newcomers' eyes. And it it's a blessing. Well, uh And my children live here. My oldest, my youngest son, Dustin, when he left for LSU, he left and said, I'm never coming back to this podunk tank. And he headed out and he did. He worked and lived other places, but I always say he was just like a rabbit. He came right back in the same hole. And now he has a wonderful wife who's a teacher here and uh two beautiful children. And my other son, Bobby, he never left. He'd he's lived at Lake Rosemound pretty much his entire life, and his wife and three children live here.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

That's so nice. It really is.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

It is.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

It's true. And you know what you just said about children. You know people's children that do live here, work and live here, you know, because so many p small communities they do head out of town. It's interesting that you you mentioned that.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Yeah, if they can stay, I think they try to stay. It's a little hard uh because of the cost of real estate for some of our high school graduates. We we uh give them such an incredible education, and some of them can't afford to live here, which is uh you know the other side of that pendulum. But yes, we're very blessed to have the so good kids.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

You like to travel and you like to do it freestyle in your uh a little motorhome. Your little motorhome. Yes. And you've been all over the country, haven't you?

SPEAKER_01 23:11

We have. We um well we there's still places to go, but I was born into the Air Force, so I um I was an Air Force brat, and so I lived in a lot of different places. And Daddy, wherever we would go, would always take us camping. Like, and that was like in Yosemite. Um I remember when we were children in Yosemite, we were our little, you know, our little family. And when we woke up, there were hippies everywhere. Oh my God, they had moved in. And I'd never seen George Baggett pack up so fast and get his sweet little daughters out of there. And we were, we took us to Haight Ashbury. I must have been like second or third grade. And I told mom and daddy, I said, Well, I've decided I'm either gonna be a go-go dancer or a missionary. And my mama said, I always hit it kind of in the middle.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

So I always hit it kind of in the middle.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Yeah. But anyway, yeah, we we've we get to travel. We have a small motorhome that we can get around in.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

I know. And you go, you, you take off regularly because I'll hear, okay's out here, okay's out there.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

Well, the blessing of technology is uh I actually I was sitting on top of the great sand dunes. I'd hiked to the top and I did a deal up there, you know, because I had signal and I have Tammy who is my client care coordinator, and she's been with me for right at 30 years, and and you know, she can do all the boots on the ground if I'm out of town. I'm here. If I'm here, I'm working. I almost have to leave not to work because I really enjoy working.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

I um yes, it's you had a good worth after instilled in you, that's what happened.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

My parents, yeah. I can let thank them for that. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Well, very happy and lucky to have you here.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Well, that went fast.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

It did. I want to thank you for coming today, and uh want to remind everybody that I do give tours. Okay, tell them how great it was.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

Oh, it was so great. It was so great. It really was because I've lived here for 40 something years. And I went home and told Cecil, I didn't know this and I didn't know that. They were it it was informative, and I recommend anybody, whether you live here or not, especially if you live here, you should get in touch with Mark and take his uh Bayusra ghost to the ghost of Bayusera.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

Yes. And it's called that because every home in town, for the most part, that's built before 1900, is built from or a building from Bayusera. So they're all ghosts from the from the from the port.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

It was wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

And uh I think that makes it a really interesting story. And so much more comes from that.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

It is, it is. When I was in high school, I um we were we were blue-collar, so college was not talked about. So I took construction management and um home construction, and I was the only girl in the class. And we would build a house, our senior year. We built a house and learned all about architectural styles and that kind of stuff. Um, and it just lent itself. And so I love architecture, and yet you taught me things on that tour that I didn't know, which I haven't I've put them away for.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

I just love safety. I love little bits of minutiae.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Uh-huh, indeed. Well, we love you.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

As I was saying, it's a treat to have you here. And I'm so glad. And what is your website?

SPEAKER_01 26:46

Landry Team Real Estate.com.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Okay, and uh she is the best, y'all. I think I've had like three or four deals with her myself in town. So thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Thank you, Mark.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

And thank you all for listening, and we'll be back to talk to you all in another podcast on Steve the Vale. Thank you.