52-Year Industry Veteran Follows Favorite Landmark to National Harbor

After 52 years in real estate, Fred Davis still awakens each day expecting to learn something new. Interviewed at his National Harbor office, Davis explained that the relocation of his favorite sculpture, The Awakening, to the multi-billion waterfront project in Prince George’s County, Maryland, prompted him to sign an office lease there. 

In his formative years, Davis had his own career awakening. A fifth generation Washingtonian, he was influenced by his brother and uncle to learn about the industry from the ground up.

As a teen, he worked in his uncle’s hardware store and also assisted his brother with property-management maintenance chores. Between selling tools and hardware and helping to fix apartments, he grew to appreciate the importance of homeownership.

Eager to earn the best credentials, Davis majored in real estate at American University. He became a residential agent in the era that preceded fax machines, the World Wide Web, smartphones and multiple listing services, he explained. “We would get a delivery of four inch by eight inch index cards, which I kept in a three-ring binder,” he said. “I would organize [the listings] by price and then by location, and we would get new ones each Monday.”

Even the industry-wide focus was different then. “In those days,” he recalls, “everyone represented the seller. It was a much slower process with a lot more room for errors or mis-communication.”

After a stint working at Shannon and Luchs and a locally-owned real estate office, he opened the Fred W. Davis Realty Group. “I have lived through the good times and the bad times of the real estate cycles,” he said. “There is an ebb and flow in this business always.”

The Awakening had always been his favorite when it was located at the tip of Hains Point. The sculpture, created by Seward Johnson, was relocated to its current site near the water at National Harbor. “I wanted to be able to look out of my office balcony and see it,” Davis said.

Davis and the sculpture’s new owner, Milton V. Peterson, the founder of the Peterson Companies, which owns National Harbor, both are avid admirers. 

A member of GCAAR and NVAR, Davis continues taking classes in real estate, knowing that “education is ingrained in me. 
“You have to keep learning,” he said. Aware of how quickly the industry changes, Davis’s role as a student and Realtor® fill his waking hours with no end in sight.