When Bill Lauer was five years old, he opened a modest business selling candy in front of his house. He purchased the candy for a nickel, and he sold it for a nickel. It didn’t take him long to realize the unnecessary tightness in his margins, however, and he upped the price to seven cents.
With that adjustment, an entrepreneur was born. Bill acquired a paper route and would shovel snow in the winters. Thoughtful, vociferous, and innovative, he was a leader amongst his peers. He didn’t follow trends; he set them. By the time he turned thirteen, he had saved up enough money to invest in his ultimate dream: a car.
The boy reasoned with his parents that, as long as he drove on private roads, the venture would be legal, so they let him purchase a Jeep convertible. Now the founder and President of Tetra Partners, a full service real estate and development company that has played a vital role in laying the foundations of communities around the D.C. metropolitan area, Bill has owned 132 cars since that first Jeep, demonstrating the kind of commitment to and achievement of his passions that has become a hallmark of his career. “I love to take an idea and make it happen,” he affirms today. “It’s what drives me. That’s why my lawyer calls me the developer of last resort. I take projects that people say can’t be done, and I do them. Everyone knows that, if they need an innovative thought on how to make something work in real estate, they can come to me.”
Bill started in the homebuilding business in 1969 when he landed his first job in real estate working for his “double-mentor,” Jim Todd, at the Yeonas Company. Bill then went to work for another homebuilder, which was coincidentally acquired by the Yeonas Company shortly thereafter. By that time, Jim had moved on to serve as President of an oil company called Gulf Reston, and he soon called Bill to offer him a job as Vice President of Marketing. “That was the turning point in my career because, in the early days of Reston, there was no market,” Bill remarks. “It hadn’t been built yet. When the oil company had a period of relative quiet and decided it would purchase the 7,400 acres of Reston and try its hand at real estate, I was there to learn.” Having no real estate expertise themselves, Gulf Reston had hired Jim Todd, who hired Bill. “It was a huge amount of money and a huge undertaking, but we didn’t have a market, so Gulf was essentially the major developer and owner of the entire project,” Bill explains. “We were building houses, the country club, the hotel, the golf courses, the warehouses, the shopping centers—each endeavor was one we hadn’t yet taken, but were thrilled to drive into.”
When he was hired, Bill’s job was to get all the new residential and commercial spaces sold and leased, and though many of those challenges were new to him, he succeeded. “That total immersion taught me everything from property management to country club construction,” he recalls. “It was a melting pot of opportunity that you can’t get anywhere. When it comes to real estate, there’s no school better than the School of Hard Knocks, and I was enrolled in advanced courses.”
Bill worked in that capacity for about nine years but had always considered doing something on his own. That’s why, when Gulf decided it was time to sell the enterprise to ExxonMobil and Bill had the opportunity to stay or go, he knew it was time to take a leap. “I knew there was a chance I might not have any income at all for two years, but I needed to do it,” Bill affirms. “I had developed an array of skills, and just like with my cars, I needed to use them or lose them. I needed to concentrate on my business plan and on the two areas of expertise I had honed over the years—areas that I felt were niches in the market.”
Looking for a niche—an area of expertise that isn’t oversaturated—is a mainstay of Bill’s approach to business, and he had found the first one in his natural affinity for commercial real estate. His skills and innate grace in that market set him apart from his peers and led him to decide that his main business would be land brokerage. “I had a good research model for finding lots, which offered homebuilders an alternative to working with large master developers,” says Bill. “Furthermore, I knew everybody, and in this business, knowing people is the key.”
At that time, Bill was also working with a lawyer in Reston who wanted to buy one of his properties and turn it into a restaurant. Bill suggested that he instead pursue a larger project that would turn the property into an office condominium, and the lawyer hired him to make it happen. With that, the two penniless years Bill had prepared himself for were suddenly transformed into a period of unexpected prosperity. That, coupled with his robust land business, set the stage for his remarkable success, even in those earlier years.
After two failed marriages during that time, Bill had also finally met the love of his life: Rosemary, who had five children. He then brought each of those children into the company in addition to the two biological children he had already hired, and with the constant workings of young, ambitious, and innovative minds, Tetra expanded further. “My whole theme has always been marketing, and I aimed to instill in my kids some acumen in that regard,” Bill explains. “I hope they benefited as much from working for Tetra as the company benefited from the diversity of perspective and vigor of spirit that they offered as members of the team.”
Time passed, and before long, the Tetra team changed locations and began looking for niches again. For one thing, Bill had noted that the complexion of the homebuilder had changed completely. What had once been individual entrepreneurs was transformed into REITs and Wall Street—entities that came in to purchase ample property to set up their own real estate and land divisions to “feed the engine.” Tetra backed away from that market somewhat and started a retail division after purchasing a shopping center, blazoning a new trail for itself and its clientele. Bill also noted the writing on the wall that a recession was looming, so he decided to stabilize cash by building up a niche boutique property management company specializing in office and commercial condominiums.
After the economic crash of 2008, Bill launched an investment division, knowing that people would retreat back to real estate at some point in the future. He’s also exploring a niche interest in marrying technology and real estate by setting up a division to work on data centers—an experiment that Tetra may or may not pursue. “There is also a pent-up demand for residential housing of all varieties because everything coming out of the pipeline right now is high density and high price—we’re talking high-rises by metro stops,” Bill details. “That market is way oversaturated, so we’ve been working for a while to position ourselves ideally for the shift that’s sure to come. We have a unique methodology for identifying the product, so that’s our latest thinking in niche action.”
Bill has lived in the D.C. metro area all his life. His parents were in the parking lot business, and his father was a successful entrepreneur who owned a lot across from the Mayflower Hotel in downtown D.C. Bill attended a private preparatory school and had a photographic memory as a child. “I never even owned jeans until I went to college,” he recalls. “My father tested automobiles for General Motors, and he took me out for drives when I was thirteen. We were a very proper family, but also very close.” As Bill grew up, the Lauers moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, and then to Rockville. He attended the University of Maryland and launched an extremely successful business parking cars for country clubs. Then, during the Vietnam War, Bill’s deferment ran out, so he joined the Coast Guard reserve.
When Bill was released from the military, he married and began working for a property management company in DC before receiving a call from a friend about the Yeonas Company. At that time, Yeonas was one of the biggest and most prominent homebuilders in the market, boasting a highly innovative and entirely unique approach that was otherwise unheard of in the industry. That’s when Bill met Jim Todd, came to work for him, and became his top salesperson. “Real estate had always fascinated me, and it was how my father had survived,” Bill said. “Still, I couldn’t have told you that this is where I’d end up. I’m extremely lucky that I started to work for who I did and when I did. I was able to learn an incredible amount and advance my career at a highly rapid pace.”
Life was good until the family’s wealth ran out, and eventually Bill’s parents sold their house and moved into a condominium. Bill was in his late twenties when his father died, and he cared for his mother and aunt until they passed away as well. Deepening that period of loss, his younger brother died at a relatively young age. “Despite the hardships, life’s lessons are good,” Bill still holds. “I was reminded of the importance of giving back and helping others in times of need.”
Indeed, Bill drew from the sadness of loss a strength of will that deepened his already staunch resolve to give back to the less fortunate. Having built houses for Joe Gibbs’ Youth for Tomorrow and Ronald McDonald House, the drive to give back had been sown into Bill’s DNA. A member of the board of Reston Interfaith, he served on the Affordable Housing Task Force launched by Representative Gerald Connolly of Virginia, working to provide avenues for low-income families to rent and own homes. He served on the governing board of the Partnership to Prevent and End Homelessness, helping Fairfax to distinguish itself as one of the few communities to actually reduce homelessness during the Great Recession.
When Bill met his wife, Rosemary, the two actually had nothing in common except for their mutual love of charity. Rosemary had launched a nonprofit of her own called Devotion to Children, whose mission Bill backed with his characteristic zeal for change and community betterment—to the point that he was given the organization’s Community Legacy Award in 2012. So compelling were these philanthropic acts that Congressman Connolly immortalized them in the Congressional Record for the Second Session of the 112th Congress, honoring Bill in the pages of history for a lifetime of contributions to the community.
Today, Bill leads Tetra with a philosophy that steers clear of abrasive self-promotion and a take-no-prisoners approach, instead allowing the numbers to speak for themselves. “It’s a matter of insight and experience,” Bill advises. “If you go in and lay the gauntlet down, you’d better be prepared to go. I used to be that way, but experience has taught me to take a more measured, balanced, controlled, modest approach.” In a business as high-risk as real estate, this philosophy plays a fundamental role in leveling out the waves of fortune and keeping Tetra afloat even when markets are bad. “I think the company is really on-target to get back into markets we were in before, as well as new markets,” Bill affirms. “There’s an energy you can feel that we’re really moving in the right direction. As long as the economy doesn’t go down the tubes again, I think we’ll fare very well.”
As a real estate developer, Bill finds great comfort in the fact that the land and development he’s accomplished in his life will live on for centuries after he’s gone. He doesn’t just have to dream about his legacy—he can see it before him now, with his own eyes. “I turn seventy this year, and I still have more energy than 90 percent of the people I know,” he remarks. “I love every day because I immerse myself in every day. Because of that, I learn every day. I’ve never had two days in a row that are the same.”
In advising young entrepreneurs entering the business world today, Bill points to work ethic as an important character trait that seems to be disintegrating in the younger generation today. “With the way the world is going, young people are losing their will to work hard just as it’s becoming most important,” he points out. “You can’t count on company pensions or government subsidies anymore. It’s of paramount importance to work hard, save money, and put away a nest egg, and to do so without relying on anyone but yourself. It’s important that young people not lose their core values, from writing to ethics. Focus on your character, your career, and your family first, and you’ll make it happen—whatever ‘it’ you may be pursuing at the time.”
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