By Kate Merrihew – Director of Education and Marketing
If you ever want to see the positive side of anything, including a huge investment in two shopping center complexes during the financial crisis of 2008, look no further than Coley Mynatt. He is a Certified Residential Appraiser with D.S. Murphy and our resident drummer and kind-hearted enthusiast.
Coley was born in the Toco Hills area near the intersection of Clairmont and Lavista Roads. He knew from a very young age that music would be a big part of his life and began playing the drums in elementary school continuing through high school with the jazz band, the marching Briarcliff Barons, and various other rock bands. In addition to music, he played soccer, enjoyed Scouting, and participated in youth activities at his home church Oak Grove Methodist, including a life-changing mission trip to Haiti.
After high school, Coley attended Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, a small liberal arts school with a surprising number of students from Georgia. There, he was a member of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, and he continued to make music a priority. Practicing in a school storage room, he started Children At Heart, a Christian rock band that played in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia for parties, retreats, festivals, and even fraternity parties. After changing his major from Physics, Coley graduated in 1990 with a dual degree in Accounting and Business and returned to Atlanta to start his career as a staff accountant with AIG Aviation. That year, Coley married Kim, the love of his life. They met their freshman year at PC and have been together ever since.
As he toiled away in Atlanta as an accountant, his college band made the bold move to Nashville. As fate would have it, the new drummer wasn’t working out, and the band called and asked if Kim and Coley would consider a move to Nashville. Why would they leave two stable jobs? Coley recounted a moment when he called his parents for advice on the big decision. They wisely responded with, “If you don’t do it, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.” So they went, spending the next four years in Nashville. Coley loved working as an accountant at Hummingbird Productions on Music Row, a studio known for their advertising jingles. There, he also finagled studio time from time to time. With Children at Heart, he recorded a couple of projects. He also produced independent albums and played for demos. Nashville was also where they welcomed their first son, Trey. After his birth, they decided to focus on family (as did the rest of the band, in their respective directions) and moved back to the Atlanta area to be closer to grandparents.
They came back to Atlanta in 1996, the year of the Atlanta summer Olympics. Coley started working at Hamilton Mill Golf Course during its development when there were only a few houses around the golf course. He was-you guessed it-the accountant for the golf course until 2000. He fondly remembers the corner office and the ability to grab his clubs and walk out the door, jump on a cart, play a few holes and come back into the office. It was a dream job, that is, until the owners sold the golf course, and the new owners centralized their accounting out west. Luckily, Coley had made close contacts within the organization. The former General Manager of Hamilton Mill called him up and asked, “How’d you like to do development?” In 2003, they started looking for their first project. It would be a commercial project. The plan was to build two, 13,600 sq ft shopping centers at the corner of Cedar Grove Rd and South Fulton Parkway. In 2008 the financial crisis hit, and development and the economy came to a screeching halt. As a result, tenants were failing. Many people would have been distraught, but not Coley.
Thinking back on this time, Coley said, “I don’t really look at it as a failure. We came out fairly unscathed. Many developers and business owners lost everything. I looked at it as an opportunity when the time just wasn’t right.” How’s that for positivity? During that time, he stumbled into owning and managing the shopping center’s biggest tenant, Cedar Grove Fine Wine and Spirits. Coley ended up running the store for four years (that’s what kept him from starting earlier in appraisal). He spoke with Scott about becoming an appraiser in 2010. His sister-in-law, Stephanie (of D.S. Murphy fame – see one of our first Team Member Spotlights), told him about the appraisal world. He was in an interesting position to decide his next step. In 2014, he officially started with D.S. Murphy. I met Coley for the first time at a Real Estate fair in Cobb Galleria and I consider him my “start time” buddy because we began our journey around the same few months. He bounced around in terms of training, starting with Scott, Jake Jimenez, and then Hudson. “It’s been a roller coaster but, overall, it has provided great flexibility.”
Coley is a family man who continues to pour his time into music, church, and his kids. He has three sons. He and Kim learned early on that their first born, Trey, has autism and growth hormone deficiency. They have been consistently devoted to his progress, and he has made great strides through the years. Trey lives with them full-time and is a huge light in their lives. Wesley, their second, graduated from GA Southern as a Mechanical Engineer, and he now works in Athens. Matthew, their youngest, is at Kennesaw studying Economics. He is currently studying abroad in Europe.
Today, he still plays for Oak Grove part time; he and Kim also attend services at 12 Stone Church. Having turned 56, he started thinking, “I’d love to just worship as opposed to leading it.” Coley mentioned that they are mountain people who love antiquing, camping, and hiking. There’s no doubt in my mind that he will find his way there in his next chapter, likely with a smile on his face.
I asked Coley the following questions…
Q: What made you want to be an appraiser?
A: My sister-in-law, Stephanie Mynatt, introduced me to the appraisal business and to Scott Murphy. Being at a crossroads in my carrier path, appraisal seemed to make a lot of sense… so basically, I blame Stephanie.
Q: What would you like to do when you are no longer appraising?
A: Retire to the mountains and travel more.
Q: What’s the weirdest thing you have come across when inspecting/appraising?
A: Two horse stables with a total of 35 stalls, riding ring, and a house on 9 acres.
Q: Something no one knows about you?
A: Besides being a drummer, I play guitar and sing. I’m also a sci-fi junkie… an unapologetic fan of The Great British Baking Show. Ok, that might be a bridge too far 😊
Q: What words of wisdom can you share with the team?
A: Take care of yourself. Mentally, physically, emotionally. Appraisal can be a very demanding job and depending on your personality, you have to make sure you’re taking care of yourself. I have a little bit of ADD and the accountant in me so if the two sides of the equation don’t equal, it can drive me nuts.