Keith Murray is a business entrepreneur who founded PCV Murcor in 1981 as a local real estate appraisal company serving Southern California. Since inception, he’s grown the company to a nationwide firm that provides real estate valuations management services in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia. He holds the MAI designation from the Appraisal Institute and the IFAS from the American Society of Appraisers.
Here are ten interesting facts that you probably didn’t know about him.
First and foremost, Keith is a family man
Keith and his wife Mara have four children, ranging in age from 8 to 16. He initially met Mara through a friend and was formally introduced to her after purchasing a table at a Los Angeles African-American Chamber of Commerce fundraiser. What started as a friendship, blossomed into courting, “It’s an awesome feeling when you fall in love from a friendship,” Murray says.
He and his family are world travelers
Keith and Mara believe it is important that their children experience other cultures and creating family memories. They’ve traveled to Croatia, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, among other destinations; Italy being the family favorite. The COVID-19 pandemic might have restricted their world travel over the summer, but it didn’t stop them from road tripping across California, stopping in Napa, Monterey, Carmel, Paso Robles, and Ojai.
The Murray family in front of the La Sagrada Familia during a vacation to Barcelona, Spain.
His Grandmother got him his first job
Keith had an extremely close relationship with his Grandmother, Margaret. She taught him the importance of family and helped shape his work ethic. During his youth, Margaret worked for a prestigious Los Angeles family as their house manager. At the age of 14, she got Keith his first job in the mailroom of a bank that the family owned. He worked at the bank during school breaks and over the summer.
Being held up at gunpoint, shaped his career and future
Keith eventually transitioned from the bank’s mailroom to their appraiser program. However, during the early 1980s recession, the bank sent appraisers to work as tellers due to the lack of loan activity. Shortly after, as Keith was working as a teller, he was held at gunpoint during a bank robbery. He resigned the following day and started a local appraisal company from his one-bedroom apartment.
He was invited to try out for a Major League Baseball team
Keith played baseball and football throughout high school. He excelled in baseball, being invited to rookie camp with the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals). The Expos at that time had a very talented player pool, including future Hall of Famers Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, and Gary Carter. As Keith shares, “I could run down a ball in the outfield quickly, but couldn’t make the throw to home plate.”
He keeps an active lifestyle, focusing on wellness daily
Aside from his weekly workout routine, Keith is an avid skier, golfer, and runner. Keith has completed the Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago marathons. His preparation for a marathon starts at least six months before the event, describing the process as, “painful, but inspirational.”
He holds the highest appraiser designation
In addition to having a Bachelor of Finance from Cal State Northridge, Keith holds the Appraisal Institute’s highest member designation, MAI. To receive the MAI designation, members must meet several criteria, including demonstrating good moral character and completing and passing rigorous continuing education requirements. The MAI designation is recognized as a mark of excellence in the field of real estate valuation and analysis.
He met President Obama
While on a business trip to Washington D.C., Keith got to meet President Obama during his first term in office. The setting was at a home of a U.S. ambassador, among 50 guests. Keith recalls standing in an orderly line with other guests as instructed by the Secret Service and suddenly hearing a helicopter above and the roar of Obama’s motorcade. From his line of sight, he could see the President preparing to enter the room, taking a deep breath, and then proceeding to enter “Hey everybody…” Keith describes meeting the President as “an out of body experience to realize you’re standing next to the most powerful person in the world. Growing up, I never imagined I would get to meet the President.”
He values and supports diversity
As Keith is one of only a handful, if not the only, African American CEOs in the appraisal management industry, he is often asked about diversity. According to Keith, “It is our ability to recruit and hire a diverse and talented staff that has helped made us successful over the past 40 years. Our diversity reflects the importance of different points of view and different ways to solve problems. Without a diverse staff, we would be in danger of having a perspective that doesn’t serve everyone.”
He believes customer service is the most crucial part of the appraisal process
Keith often reminds staff to remember their clients’ end customers, a father, a mother, a family, who are making one of the biggest, if not the biggest, financial commitments in their lifetimes by purchasing a home. “If we deliver service that is timely, professional, and high quality, it eases the transaction for all parties, making our clients’ jobs less stressful,” Keith said.
