Three days after Christmas in 2014, Atlanta commercial real estate executive David Canaday was surfing with his sons in Jupiter, Florida. He never saw the sandbar.
Canaday fell and was temporarily paralyzed from the neck down. He started to regain some feeling after a few hours, but doctors kept him on a board immobilized until a 12-hour surgery the next morning to fuse five vertebrae.
"South Florida is not known for its waves, but we were having a good time, until we weren't," Canaday, 65, said in an interview.
After over two months, still in pain, he returned to his job in charge of asset management, acquisitions and dispositions for an Atlanta firm that he figured was the last stop of his career. But in August 2015, his bosses told him they wanted to make a change, Canaday said.
They kept him as a consultant until the end of 2016, but finding a comparable commercial real estate position proved difficult. He said he often was the runner-up for jobs, while some potential employers told him he was overqualified.
'The job hunt was very discouraging.'
A move to residential real estate seemed logical because he could mine for clients from his many contacts on the commercial side. But when he reached out to friends and former associates, they questioned why a senior real estate executive would be content buying and selling homes.
"The job hunt was very discouraging, and also finding out my sphere of influence was wondering why I would make this transition was also discouraging," said Canaday, an Independence, Missouri, native whose father was a State Farm insurance agent.
Eventually, Canaday set out to build his business on cold leads, an often-frustrating exercise that's getting easier the more he does it. Now an agent for Watkins Real Estate Associates, he works with buyers and sellers in all price ranges, primarily in north and northwest Atlanta.
Unlike commercial real estate, where clients tend to be polished, analytical, and detached, he said residential real estate involves working with consumers who need frequent guidance and are more likely to be emotional and take things personally. His schedule is more flexible, but that also means he takes client calls at all hours. Canaday said those were significant adjustments, but he enjoys putting those deals together.
In his free time, he cooks and roots for the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs and teams at the University of Georgia and the University of Missouri, his alma mater. And he still loves the water; he surfed again after the accident but is a wakeboarder these days.
To connect with potential clients, he recently sent out a four-page flier with pictures of his wife, Cindy, three children and two grandchildren, along with background details of his career, the surfing accident and the struggles in finding a new income source.
"I've learned that pivoting and embracing new opportunities can open doors to unexpected fulfillment and growth," he wrote.
What is your house like?
"I have a four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath home in a swim and tennis community in Cherokee County, Georgia. Great place to raise a family."
What is your favorite spot in your home and why?
"The kitchen. Because it's the center of family, food and fun."
Who's your mentor?
Former colleague Stephen Budorick, then a senior vice president at Trizec Properties in Chicago. "He was very collaborative and we had mutual loyalty. He's a Chicago guy. A good, basic, common-sense person to work with."
What's the most bizarre thing that happened to you on the job?
"I had a buyer client relocating to Atlanta from the Northeast, and he created this bizarre scheme in which he faked having a job in order to buy the house. Just before closing, the lender noticed deposits from his girlfriend that were the same amounts as what he said his paychecks were. That's fraud. He lost the home and his earnest money."