Double R Land closing after 15 years

After 15 years of selling real estate, the doors are closing at Double R Land Company.

Owner Richard Rakness, who will be 82 years old this year, began working in real estate 25 years ago after closing his ranch. He sold real estate for Bill Saulcy and then Laurie Forster at Town and County Real Estate, before opening Double R at its 116 W. Bridge St. location.

Double R's New Year's Day closing marked exactly 15 years of business, and Rakness said his good health helped keep him going strong with it for so long. The Double R stood for "Richard Rakness", and primarily sold residential real estate since its Jan. 1, 1999 opening day.

"I started coming in through that door Jan. 1, 1999, and Jan. 1 of 2014 is our last day here," Rakness said. "Setting up our own business, we had to come up with a name, and Double R is what we came up with. We have already moved a lot of stuff over to ERA ."

Rakness will begin working as a real estate agent with Andrea Shepard at ERA Shepard and Associates in Saratoga this week. He said he will be able to work fewer hours while at ERA.

"I will be kind of merging in with Andrea, so that I don't have to be there all the time, full-time," Rakness said. "I'll have all my listings that I have to take care of, and I think I'll take something like around 40 listings over there. This will be closed up and done with as far as we're concerned, but I won't be a beginning agent by any means at ERA. I'll just be added to the list of agents, but I'll just stay here while everyone else can roam. She has no agents full-time in Saratoga."

In the past, Rakness has traveled and sold ranches and properties nationwide, but said he will stay in Carbon County and close to home. He also said he felt now was a good time to start taking it easier and working fewer hours as a real estate agent.

"One day Andrea stopped by and asked 'When are you going to retire and slow down?" he said. "She said, 'Why don't you come over to my spot and then you have someone to help you?' It's nothing too big or complicated. I didn't really want to give up and say 'This is the end, it's time to go home.'"

Rakness said he looks forward to visiting friends in states like Idaho, Utah and Arizona, and hopes he can visit cities like Nashville, Tenn. in his downtime. He said he will be happy to also have more time off to do recreational things.

"This will be kind of an easy transfer or change and I'm looking forward to not having to go to work all day everyday," Rakness said. "I'll have to get acquainted with all the gals that work in that office. Probably the only real difference between me and the other agents there is that I'll spend more time here in Saratoga than they do."

While in great shape for being in his early 80s, Rakness said he might as well keeping working as an agent while he can.

"Like my daughter said, 'Who cares about the age, as long as you're healthy go out and do something,'" he said.

 

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