David Cook
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Background and Education
David Cook was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1949 to a small family as the older of two boys, with his younger brother being born four years later. David grew up in the Dallas area, where he enjoyed hobbies such as fishing, hunting, playing football, and running track throughout his junior high years. David’s father passed away when he was 15 years old, and both his mother and brother have passed since. David attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas, a large, established high school in Dallas that opened in 1956 and enrolls over 1,600 students. After high school, David attended Southern Methodist University (SMU), also in Dallas, Texas, where he specialized his education in real estate and finance and received a degree in business administration. It was at SMU he first gained his strong interest in commercial and investment real estate. Upon earning his degree from SMU, David attended the Dallas Theology Seminary where he received a Master of Theology degree.
Professional History
During his time at SMU, David had one of the most formative experiences in his professional life at a summer job with the Southwestern Publishing Company, where he sold books door to door in the rural areas of North Carolina and Ohio. From this experience he learned sales, management, and how to handle rejection. Before his second summer, he recruited 16 college students to be on his team. They were his responsibility, and he had to continue to train, comfort, and motivate them every Sunday. Each student was assigned a territory and they were expected to work 14 hours a day, 6 days a week and show up on Sundays for sales meetings that David put on. It’s a challenging job away from home, and, over time, seven of his team could not make the grade. It was tough, but David’s team ended up in the top 10 teams in the country. This experience helped shape David’s skills and desires to be in the sales business, but it also helped David know he did not want to pursue a role that would involve managing a number of peers or employees every day.
After graduating from SMU and then Dallas Theological Seminary in 1976, David entered the real estate business in 1977 as a broker specializing in sales and leasing of industrial properties for the Joe Foster Company in Dallas. From his time at the Joe Foster Company, David moved to Darrow Hildreth in 1983, specializing more in tenant and landlord representation until 1990, when he made the decision to start his own real estate company, the David Cook Company, and elected to focus on the segment of the business he enjoyed the most: investment sales. The David Cook Company was an independent, one-man firm focused on the Dallas/Fort Worth MSA. David ran this business successfully and independently for 14 years before purchasing a Sperry Van Ness franchise in 2004, creating what is now SVN | David Cook Co, LLC.
Society of Exchange Counselors
In September 2009, David was invited to and attended his first S.E.C. meeting in Albany, New York, as a guest of long-time friend and client Bill Stonaker. Prior to participating and ultimately becoming a member of the Society of Exchange Counselors less than three years later, David had focused his professional career almost exclusively in the Dallas/Fort Worth markets and was not actively pursuing growing a real estate portfolio as part of his retirement and life plans. Since joining the S.E.C., David’s business has expanded well beyond the Dallas/Fort Worth MSA, and an estimated 65% of his annual business comes from and/or is related to the S.E.C. in one way or another. He is in over a dozen different partnerships in real estate deals with other S.E.C. members around the country. David’s participation in the S.E.C. has also provided him with his best experiences in his commercial real estate career. Of particular note was his first S.E.C. partnership, which was in a retail center in Longview, Texas. David joined a partnership that acquired the property with a value-add plan to increase the value through lease-up and expansion. Two years later, the partnership listed the property with David. It was soon under contract, and upon closing, all the partners doubled their initial investment after holding the property for only two years and two months. Among the many reasons for loving his experience with the S.E.C., David believes the S.E.C. holds the same core philosophies and values that he holds in his career: be honest and helpful, care about others, and be available to assist in any way you can. Among other descriptions, David describes his experiences with the S.E.C. as being a family reunion every two months.
Personal & Current Life
A little over 31 years ago, David was set up on a blind date through a residential broker named Mary Pearson, who worked at a high-end boutique real estate firm in Dallas. Mary and other friends had tried to set David up on many blind dates because he was a well-established professional who had never married at that time. A little over a year later, David and Laura Cook were married in June 1988, and they celebrated their 30-year wedding anniversary last summer. Today Laura and David live in Dallas, Texas, where David enjoys hunting and fishing, specifically fly fishing, preferably in northern areas such as Alaska and Canada. As a devout Christian, David is also very active in and currently on the board for EvanTell, a nonprofit faith ministry that exists to encourage and equip individuals and churches to reach the world with the clear and simple good news of Jesus Christ.
Awards and Accolades
- Over 30 years as an SIOR (Society of Industrial and Office Realtors)
- SVN Partner’s Circle Award – 2007, 2008, 2014, and 2018
- SVN Outstanding Client Satisfaction Award – 2007
- SVN #2 Agent Nationally – 2008 (out of 1,000 agents)
- E.C. Rookie of the Year – 2013
- E.C. Yvonne Nash Award – 2013
