The East Lansing Jim Built

If you were ever lucky enough to get a ride from Jim Hagan, you should have allotted some extra travel time.

Jim would have taken the opportunity to point out who had lived in which house over the decades, and he might have needed to swing by his latest rental property to handle a plumbing issue.

And make sure you watch out for the hole in the floor of his work truck — he hadn’t gotten around to fixing that.

Jim Hagan died earlier this month after a lifetime of hard work, quiet kindness to those down on their luck, and imparting his ethos of responsibility and commitment to those he left behind.

Three of his five children — Matt, Kevin and Brian — sat down with East Lansing Info to remember their father.

Jim’s father worked at Lansing’s Oldsmobile factory, and his mother was a secretary for the Michigan State Police.

He grew up on East Lansing’s Gunson Street, in two homes that he would eventually own and rent out.

“He lived upstairs in the Cape Cod at 227, and it was so hot,” Matt remembers. “My grandma wouldn’t let him have a fan in the window because it would keep her awake.”

“We’ve since ripped the roof off and put a second story on it,” his brother Kevin chimed in. “We had some concrete in the back that we repoured, and he put his parents’ initials and all his siblings’ names in it. It’s kind of cool to have that history there.”

Jim’s story can be told through a series of East Lansing streets. From Gunson, he built a home on Elizabeth Street, where his ex-wife and the boys’ mother still lives. He built homes on Spartan Street for his parents, and then another on Snyder for his father, who lived until he was 104.

He started his business — what would become known as Hagan Realty — in 1969.

The business, which has grown to be one of East Lansing’s premier rental companies, started when Jim was trying to make money to put himself through college. He did maintenance work like roofing and painting houses, building relationships with property owners in the process. 

“He just didn’t have much money,” Matt said. “In fact, the first house he bought, it was condemned the day after he bought it. Not a great start for the business.

“But Jim worked with people he grew up around, building relationships and trust. He would buy properties on land contracts.”

“He was a nice guy,” Kevin said. “A lot of times, people would say, ‘So-and-so will give me five grand more, but I like you better.’”

Jim was an old-school landlord who did deals on a handshake, his sons said, recalling a time he was working on a property on Kedzie and had a foundation dug on a handshake before the paperwork was even started.

“People trusted him,” Matt said. “Probably wouldn’t do that today.”

Jim didn’t have anyone to show him the ropes, learning to purchase and maintain properties over time.

“The first piece of drywall he ever cut,” said Matt, “he did in someone’s living room with a circular saw. It took him hours to clean that up.”

“He was figuring it out as he went,” Brian said.

Jim’s father-in-law was a plumber who taught him the basics, and his first wife and her friends would clean houses before renting them.

Despite his first marriage ending in divorce, relationships stayed cordial. Jim moved about a mile away, and the boys would go back and forth between their parents’ homes each day.

“My mom and stepmom are friends,” Kevin said. “They played euchre together last week.”

The brothers are close, frequently interjecting points they feel the others missed (or might miss). They smile easily and laugh often as they talk about the man who shaped them.

Matt recalls a story his father told about tearing down a garage with just a hammer and pry bar, putting the pieces on top of his Oldsmobile and driving it to the dump.

“My mom still complains about having her car used as a work truck,” Brian said.

“Even when he got older and had more wealth,” Kevin said, “he was still very frugal.”

“We’d have him drop us off a block away from school,” Brian said, laughing as he remembered the state of his father’s vehicles.

When asked if they were expected to go into their father’s line of work, Brian, Kevin and Matt each said it wasn’t forced, but they had all been exposed to it growing up, so it felt natural.

“The best thing he did for us — and the business — was he basically stopped buying houses when we were of age to start,” Kevin said. “Most people would have kept buying for themselves, but he saw long term for us to get involved and have equity.”

Jim first earned some name recognition as a star athlete at East Lansing High School, competing in football, basketball, baseball and track. He played on the 1964 state title winning East Lansing High School football team, kicking a 25-yard game winning field goal to help the Trojans secure an undefeated season. The team would later be inducted to the Greater Lansing Area Sports Hall of Fame.

“If I was allowed to pick teammates in any endeavor, I would pick Jim first every time,” said 1964 East Lansing High School football teammate Craig Tefft after Jim’s passing. “Small in stature, yet big in heart, he was the best all-around football player I ever had the privilege to play alongside.

“I consider Jim a brother and always will.”

Jim worked as long as he could. The brothers say he was motivated to keep going. Matt said that even a couple of years ago, he was still raking and trimming bushes.

“Work was never a problem for him,” he said. “Nothing was beneath him. Even when sick, he’d come into work.”

This work ethic shaped the brothers, their siblings Michael and Courtney, and numerous others. Jim coached sports teams his children played on and employed dozens.

“We’ve had employees go on to become doctors — a neurosurgeon — a Ph.D. in economics,” Matt said.

“One friend said he taught him how to ride a bike,” Kevin said. “Made him get back up after falling.”

During his lifetime, Jim quietly offered support to many people around him, even those he didn’t know particularly well.

“He was very giving but didn’t want recognition,” Kevin said. “He gave meal tickets to homeless people and let people stay in properties when he could.

“You don’t even know how much he gave away unless you look at the [financial] records. Tens of thousands.”

When asked how they wanted their father to be remembered, each brother thought for a moment before responding.

Brian said his father was honest and hardworking and tried to provide fair, quality housing.

Kevin said he led by example — not a big talker, but a believer in action.

“He just loved East Lansing and Michigan State,” Matt concluded. “He was a community guy.”