In the spring of 1976 I told administrators in the Kelso schools I would not be back for the coming year.

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Thus began a five-year-period in my life that was eventful, for good or ill.

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Before school was out in 1976, I talked with a real estate broker acquaintance, Charles (Chuck) Bond. Chuck had a thriving real estate office on 14th Avenue in Longview immediately behind what used to be the Penny's store. He had eight or ten agents and at least one vacant desk and seemed delighted with the idea that I was interested in this line of work. 

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Licensing was required. One way to get a real estate license was to take a night class at Lower Columbia College taught by Jerry Wetle, a prominent broker in the area. This was new territory for me, but I found it fascinating and enjoyed the class. I see no need to go in to the details. But early in the summer of 1976 I took the state test and passed it and become an official real estate salesperson for Dynamic Reality. My immediate boss was Jerry Thomason, a former Kelso student (though not in my choir). His wife, who incidentally had the gift of perfect pitch, had been a student of mine. Jerry was the sales manager for Chuck Bond.

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I don't remember how long it took before I sold a house. But somehow I began to think that I could, in fact, make a living doing this. The commission was nice. The house selling that the salesperson listed meant 25% of the total 6 or 7 percent (of the selling price) to that salesperson. If you sold your own listing, your got 50% of the total commission. The broker, who had the expense of advertising, office supplies, rent on the building...that sort of thing, got 50%. ​

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Since people have asked me to compare the salaries of real estate sales with that of teaching, OK. Teachers in 1976 might have hit the $10,000 per year figure by then. Obviously, realtors made money only when they sold houses. To compare salaries is difficult, but I did make more as a realtor than as a teacher. Not much more the first year, but considerably more by year three. Do remember that new houses could be purchased for as little (as much) as $30,000. As sellers of average priced residential homes listed at 7%, the total commission was not huge, but it's all a matter of perspective.

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I enjoyed meeting and talking with people. I also found you could spend a great deal of time, gas, and effort working with a buyer to find the right home and then find, sometimes, no loyalty or "thanks" whatsoever for there were those who would "happen" on a house they liked and buy it from another agent simply because that agent was holding an open house on that day. 

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You were also "tied" to your phone. We had no cell phones at that time. At home, at night, weekends or holidays...it mattered not. I always felt compelled to answer the phone, for you never know when a "motivated" buyer or seller was calling.

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Helping people determine how much they could afford, walking them through the loan companies and keeping tabs on the progress of a sale by staying in touch with the title companies was part of the job, too.

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Chuck Bond's Dynamic Realty thrived to the point he decided to build his own building and did so just inside West Kelso. West Kelso was part of the city, but on the west side of the Cowlitz River. His big sign was prominent as people drove west on the bridge over the Cowlitz. 

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In late 1976, I had several sales in progress. I asked the associate sales manager, Bob Neilsen, if he would watch over these for me. I called Norman Luboff and asked him if he had an opening for a bass/baritone for the 1977 tour. He did. Norman invited me to fly to New York in January of '77 and thus began the rehearsals (one week this time) and the tour with the group that took us again in a circle completely around the United States over a three month period. (See the blog entitled "Luboff Tours" for more about the Luboff tours.)

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I continued to work at Dynamic Realty for another year, through the remainder of 1977 and into 1978. During this time I decided to get my broker's license. Despite any risk involved, I actually thought that a flat-fee brokerage or real estate office had a chance of succeeding. I traveled to Vancouver to a real estate school that was set up so one could listen to cassette recordings prepared by instructors and then take practice tests on each category. The shortened story...I took the broker's exam and got a real estate broker's license for the state of Washington.

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Then came the exciting (to me, at least) time of deciding on a name, logo, signs, and setting up my office. My new business was called Team Residential Sales. 

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The idea for the flat-fee office was that is cost the broker no more to sell a $75,000 house (expensive in those days) than it did a $25,000 house. The going commission rate for real estate offices in our area was 7%. That's $5,250 for that $75,000 house. My thought was, "why should a seller pay $5,000 in commission for that $75,000 house when it was no more expensive for the broker than selling a $30,000 house and making only $2,100. 

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I finally settled on a flat fee of $2,100 as the sales commission rate for TRS.

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I'm sure I have realtor friends who have perfectly good arguments for the 7% rate on any price. In 1979 there were a good many real estate brokers in Longview/Kelso, Washington who "hated" the idea that someone would break ranks and work for a flat-fee. I suspect concern over FTC regulations on price-fixing for such services caused virtually all of them to keep a low profile about this. They allowed Team Residential Sales to be a part of the Multiple Listing Service. While I feel certain that agents resisted telling clients about TRS listings, occasionally I did have a sale generated by another office. The MLS operated with 50% of the commission going to the other office. On higher priced homes this meant a much smaller cut on TRS listings. There was no reason to think that other offices would "push" my listings and I was totally up-front with clients who listed with me that this would be the case. 

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The first six months of the business were slow and a bit frightening. Listings were coming in regularly, however and things picked up slowly.

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The office was a small space with outside entry in the State Farm Insurance building at the corner of  8th Avenue and Ocean Beach Highway, Longview. 

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I tell people I might still be selling houses today except for a couple of major events happening in 1980. While not as dramatic as the second event, the fact that interest rates on mortgages rose has high as 15 to 16% was a huge factor for potential buyers. Obviously, these rates made for huge payments and this slowed sales greatly. Sellers could sell using contracts...essentially becoming a lender, but most people wanted cashed out for they needed money for a down-payment (at least) or cash to buy another home elsewhere. This made for very slow sales.

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But then, the dramatic happened. Mt. St. Helen's, about 40 miles away (as the crow flies) erupted in fury. While this first eruption had all ash blowing to the east, the main effect for Longview/Kelso was the flow from the main river coming out of Spirit Lake (at the foot of the mountain). This is the Toutle River. It,  now laden with in-calculable amounts of debris and ash, roared down the river and into the Cowlitz River, filling it with mud and debris, including rooftops and logs at such heights that dikes barely held.

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We had taken a few days off and were in Hawaii. We were at the airport in Honolulu on our way home, when we heard that the mountain had erupted. We picked up our car at the Portland airport and drove north. Crossing the bridge over the Cowlitz after leaving I-5 we could see the river below. It looked like molten and very thick, roiling, hot-chocolate stretching from bank to bank and filled with debris of all kinds. This was roughly twelve hours after the initial eruption.

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One can find many sources for Mt. St. Helens information, but the effect on real estate sales, as you might guess, was to kill it. The news was always pointing to the possibility of more eruptions. Indeed, a week after the initial blast, the mountain erupted again. This time the wind blew to the west. We were covered with an inch or so of gritty ash. It was called ash, but it was actually more like fine gray sand. Roofers for decades afterwards found ample evidence of this each time a new roof was applied.

 

So, with this, as well as interest rates at all-time highs, no one wanted to buy a house in Cowlitz County. 

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Team Residential Sales struggled along for another year. Though sales were few and far-between, the expense for office rental and the need to advertise a nice selection of listings kept the overhead the same. It finally became apparent that short of going deeply into debt to cover expenses, thus betting on better times ahead, that it was time to close down. We did...and without loss financially...mostly the sadness of disappointment that the dream would not be realized.

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TRS was not alone in closing it's doors. Many others closed shop, too. I went to work for another agency...one of the largest in the area. In the summer and fall of 1981, I was able to sell one piece of vacant land, a large lot on a hill in Kelso. My commission was $600. 

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The return to teaching - 1981-1995 HERE​

 

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