Hundreds of real estate brokers have left the business in the past three years as the business became tougher and tougher. But many local Realtors not only held tight for this ride, they’ve done it several times before.
We spoke with a few local veterans who have been in the industry for three decades or longer and asked them why they still like their jobs.
Georg Syvertsen, managing broker with Coldwell Banker McKenzie on Bainbridge Island, started out in sales when he was young. He stumbled into real estate after getting tired of bouncing from one location to another around the country following a corporate career.
He started out selling real estate for Pauline Deschamps in 1977 and became manager two years later. After managing the company for 20 years, he bought it after her death in 2000, and in turn sold it four years ago while staying on board as manager.
Syvertsen recalls those early days when Realtors walked around with a sheet listing properties for sale. “Back then, listing agreements were one page and purchase and sale agreements were one page,” he said, comparing it to today’s highly technical documents that can go on for 20 pages or more.
The reason he’s stayed in business, he said, is because he likes working with people and making them happy. “I find the real estate business challenging as well as stimulating,” he said.
Although he’s seen down markets several times, he said things have changed industrywide this time around. “Five to seven years ago, anyone could get into the business, they just needed a license and a sign. Now, you have to work harder to make a sale, you must invest more time, energy and your own financial resources into marketing, to be successful,” he said.
He looks fondly at the late 1990s through about 2006 as the best time of his career, as was the time when he worked for the much-revered Deschamps.
“She was a classy lady who taught a great deal of respect, business ethics and business model,” he said. “I had a great role model for many years and I was privileged to be working with her.”
Brenda Prowse, broker/owner of Prowse and Company, became a full-time Realtor in 1979 after teaching school in Australia for six years straight out of college. She decided the teaching career wasn’t for her when she returned to the States and was planning to visit an aunt in California and work for her real estate office.
California happened to be going through a gas war so her aunt advised her to find a local realty office instead. Prowse walked into a John L. Scott office and said she wanted to work for them — and a career was launched.
She opened her own agency in Poulsbo in 1998. “I kind of always wanted my own company and the timing was right. It was scary but it was ‘now or never,’” she said.
Working without corporate restrictions has given her the opportunity to make her own decisions. “I’m the bottom line here,” she said. “I don’t have to go to someone else and say, ‘Can we do this?’”
Her husband, Hugh Nelson, is the transaction coordinator and has been working for the business for 10 years after retiring from a long career with the Navy. The office currently has about eight people including three buyers’ agents.
Prowse’s recollection of her early days includes the lack of inspections or inspection contingencies. “We never had to worry about errors and omissions insurance either,” she said.
The bottom line in her job, she said, has been gaining the trust of clients; being respected and thanked in the end has been especially satisfying. She said being able to use her business to give back has also been important. As one example, when Lions Club members refer business to her, she donates a portion of her commission back to the club.
“Success has been about being wise about the way I spend my time. There’s people I can help and people I can’t, and I have to be straightforward about it,” she said. “Plus, having people to rely on like the lenders, inspectors, contractors, title and escrow (agents) — I couldn’t be successful without them.”
Fred Depee, broker with John L. Scott in Port Orchard, bought his first home at age 20 and sold it three or four years later for profit. He’d already had an interest in real estate but that experience gave him a taste for a potential career. Joining the industry in 1979, he’s done every aspect of real estate. He now primarily sells plats and also owns properties.
“When you look at a closing statement, there’s normally three checks: one to the Realtor, one to the owner and one to the bank. I wanted to move up the latter, to a Realtor-owner,” he said of his decision to evolve. “I package properties, getting them ready completely for permits to build.”
That process could take years, especially since he likes to buy what he calls problem properties, like landlocked ones. While he can buy them at a good price, they can also take a very long time to “clean up.”
Depee grew up on the Kitsap Peninsula and came back to the area after living in California for a decade. He has stayed involved in various things, like the county Planning Commission and other citizen advisory groups.
Asked about what it took to succeed in his job, he said, “The Number One asset is the right attitude. The market is always between your ears — everything in the marketplace is relevant to the amount of work you put into it. I just look for a niche I don’t feel is being filled and that’s the one I focus on.”
Carole Holmaas, associate broker with Windermere Real Estate in Gig Harbor, decided to get her real estate license in the late ’70s after she and her husband, John, worked together as contractors on occasion. They immediately created their own agency, which later merged with another.
The couple grew up in families involved in real estate. “We both had it in our genes,” she said.
For more than three decades, she has been specializing on waterfront homes, and has sold more than 50 properties on Gig Harbor Bay alone.
Raised in Port Orchard (a South Kitsap High grad celebrating 50th class reunion this summer), Holmaas said she’s known in Gig Harbor as the “waterfront navigator.”
“I have made a practice of learning everything I can about waterfront, its title issues, its benefits, its peculiarities and the regulations surrounding waterfront,” she said.
She has also served on many committees, including the City’s and Pierce County’s committees tasked with revising shoreline regulations.
The couple became involved in developing and Holmaas estimates that her husband created more than 30 subdivisions in Gig Harbor. “Our interest has always been in creating nice places to live,” she said.
After selling her interest in the real estate company, Holmaas joined Windermere in 2000 so she could focus on working with buyers and sellers.
“I enjoy being a part of helping buyers in particular achieve their goals and dreams,” she said. “Because my focus is on waterfront, the buyers are enthused — it’s a lifestyle. It’s very rewarding to see them enjoy their properties.”
When Holmaas first started, Gig Harbor didn’t have a multiple listing service, so a group of agents agreed to share listings among themselves. “There were few houses so we were selling dirt,” she said.
She said the work is interesting because it’s challenging. “Being in a challenging industry makes it exciting,” she said.
