Miller Griffin Realty and Dehildren Realty to Merge

Earlier this week it was announced that two long time Bainbridge real estate firms will merge.  Miller Griffin Realty and Dehildren Realty will form one company to serve southwest Georgia.  Dehildren Realty was formed in 2002 in a three way partnership between local businessmen Mark Harrell, Mike Conder and Greg Waddell.  Recently, Rollins Miller (the owner of Miller Griffin Realty) purchased Dehildren from it’s current owner, Mark Harrell.

“I will be the broker and owner of a newly formed company that will consist of the agents from Miller-Griffin Realty and Dehildren Realty.  The new company will be located at the current office of Dehildren Realty at 1609 E. Shotwell Street and will have an new name.” — Rollins Miller

History of Miller Griffin Realty

Miller Griffin Realty has been in business since 1958 when R.A. Cheney Griffin established Griffin Realty and Insurance Company.  Rollins’ father, Gene Miller, bought the business in 1980 and sold the insurance sales part of the business, forming Miller-Griffin Realty to operate as a real estate sales broker.  Rollins Miller then purchased the business from Gene Miller’s estate in 2012 and has been the hands on owner/operator since.

Decades of Real Estate Experience

You might say Rollins was born into the real estate business.  When asked how long he’s been in the industry, the answer is similar to those you’d hear from someone who was raised in the family field:

“I was born in 1979, the year before my dad bought the business, so real estate brokerage, construction, and development is all I’ve ever known.  When I was about 10, my older brother, our neighbor, and I used scrap wood and left over nails from a construction site and old real estate signs to build our “club house” in the neighbor’s back yard.  I’m sure it wasn’t safe, but we really built it.  I think Dad noticed, and as we got older, we found ourselves at construction sites and rental houses cleaning up and painting.  By the time I was in high school, Dad was doing a lot of building, so we weren’t just coming in after the crew to clean up, we were on the crew.  We would help pour foundations, frame houses, lay drywall, deck roofs, paint or stain trim, lay sod, install landscaping, etc.  This was in addition to putting up real estate signs at properties that were listed and mowing yards around town.  One of the last things Dad made me do before I went to college was pay bills for the company for a few months.  You can learn a lot about a business if you pay the bills.