(film rolling) - [Jason] There was a time, not all that long ago, when Charlotte was just another sleepy southern city.

A time when the airport was small and not under constant construction.

A time when people did their shopping uptown and uptown's buildings weren't towering skyscrapers.

Station wagons roamed the streets of Myers Park.

The interstate system had yet to be developed and the queen city was pretty much just a dot on the map.

- And when I took driver's ed, the only place we could drive a multi-lane highway was Independence.

So everything you know now from Monroe Road to Randolph to Ramble Road to Sharon Amity, were all two-lane roads at the time.

- [Jason] As the city began expanding, homes were being built.

And it was around that time that a young property manager named Thomas Lawing was on the verge of starting something special.

- And so, somewhere in the late fifties, the owner of an apartment complex that he was managing said, "Tommy, if you ever pull out and do your own company, you can manage mine."

- [Jason] The Laureldale Apartments, which has since become condos, were built for troops returning home from World War II.

- And that was the first project that my dad managed.

He and my mother, Katherine Lawing started the company.

She was the bookkeeper, he was the president and the property manager.

They were managing properties for individuals at the time, mostly apartment buildings.

- [Jason] Together, Tommy and Katherine had three children, Tommy Junior, Kathy, and Bob.

Fresh out of NC State in 1971, Tommy Junior went to work in the family business.

- Somebody along the line said, "If you found a job that you really like, you'll never do a day's work."

Okay, I'm pretty much an example of that.

- [Jason] A few years later, younger brother Bob, also with a degree from NC State, joined as well.

- We were doing a lot of multi-family at the time in the seventies and even into the eighties, we're managing a lot of a hundred unit, 150, even 200 unit apartment complexes.

- [Jason] Over the years as the for rent signs at TR Lawing Realty evolved, so too did the business model.

Apartments evolved into condos and eventually single family homes.

- The good Lord's been kind to us.

The economy has been kind to us.

This is a great market to be in.

Charlotte itself is a great market for real estate to be in.

- [Jason] Serving as founder and president for nearly 40 years, Thomas Lawing Sr. retired in 1995.

He passed in 2014.

Brother Bob, who was senior vice president and also moonlighted as an NFL official for a dozen years, died after a long battle with cancer in 2010.

But the Lawing family story doesn't end there.

- So the summer before I graduated, my grandfather reached out, said, "Hey, you should get your real estate license, just to have it."

He said, "I'll pay for it."

- [Jason] Joe Rempson, nephew of both Tommy and Bob, graduated from NC State with a degree in Agricultural Business Management, but wasn't sure that's what he wanted to get into.

- Had basically interviewed and kind of agreed that I was gonna go work for First Union.

And then Tommy and Bob reached out and asked if I would interview with him for a job here.

And I looked at it, I was like, "This is gonna be a lot less than what I was gonna make at First Union."

But I kind of liked the opportunity, I liked the ability to kind of do different things.

So I said, "I'll do it."

- [Jason] Now going on 25 years with the family business, Joe has worked his way up to vice president.

- I don't think I've let anybody in the family down and I don't plan to start that now either.

- [Jason] And he recently welcomed a new edition to the team.

- My favorite is the cabinet, it's the fridge.

- [Speaker] Oh.

- Well I always was like, you know, no, not gonna, not gonna do the family business wanting to be different.

And then I came in, tried it and was like, "Yeah, mm changed my mind, we're gonna stick with this for a while."

- [Jason] After finishing college last spring, Avery Rempson accepted a job as an assistant property manager, now working for her father and in the process becoming the fourth generation in the family to work at Lawing Realty.

- But so far it's been good.

He has stopped paying for my lunches, which is a downside, but.

- She started in July, I bought her lunch every day until, you know, through the end of the year.

And I made a decision that, "Hey, we've got to start paying for our own things."

- And he stuck to that.

Every time we go, I'd try and hide my card a little extra longer.

I was like, "Mm, you gonna get this one?"

He was like, "Nope."

- I told her I'll not pay for lunch, but I'll continue paying for her rent, her car payment, her health insurance or auto insurance and the utilities that come with living in my house.

I think it's fair.

- I brought my own lunch today.

- [Jason] After more than a half century in the business and now it's 74 years old, Tommy is finally ready to see what else life has to offer.

He plans on retiring this summer.

- It's hard to believe 52 years have rolled by.

It really is for me, they roll by in a hurry.

- [Jason] He'll be turning the keys of the family business over to Joe.

- I mean there is obviously some pressure, right?

I always know that in the back of mind that there's, the third generation's always key to failure in a family business, right?

So there is that kind of in the back of my mind always.

- [Jason] The second generation is retiring, the third taking over and the fourth already on board.

Wonder what Tommy Sr. would have to say?

- He would be very proud of that fact.

That would make him very happy.

We were very much family oriented and family business type situation.

I enjoy having Avery, it's another generation, it's another train of thought.

The way that she does things different than the way I did.

- I know he is smiling cause he's, I think in his mind this was kind of a plan of his right, that he never shared.

But I'm sure he's proud and happy that I'm stepping in.

In all honesty, he's probably most excited that Avery's over there.

- [Jason] "Renting Charlotte one house at a time", that's been Lawing Realty's tagline for years.

They could add one generation at a time as well.

For "Caroline Impact", I'm Jason Terzis reporting.