Licensed to sell

If you build it in the Flathead, real-estate agents will come

Kevin Costner was on to something.

If you build a baseball diamond in your cornfield, long-dead players can come play the game again. Moreover, people can come watch their childhood heroes.

If you build houses in the Flathead Valley, people who have dreamed of owning a piece of Montana can come live in a beautiful place.

Moreover, real-estate agents can come and help that along.

Some people, however, wonder whether the agents are so numerous that they're trampling this field of dreams.

There are about 900 Realtors in Northwest Montana, 20 percent of the 4,400-plus Realtors in the state.

There are even more real-estate licensees - people who are licensed by the state but don't necessarily belong to the National Association of Realtors. There are 5,658 licensees in Montana.

Certainly there's plenty of business. Last year, more than a billion dollars in residential and commercial property changed hands here, according to the Northwest Montana Association of Realtors, whose data includes Flathead, Lake and parts of Lincoln and Sanders counties.

Booming business notwithstanding, some people question whether the area really needs so many agents.

"Most people would say there have always been too many Realtors," Doug Denmark said with a laugh. Denmark is a real-estate broker and owner of RE/MAX Glacier Country.

In reality, Denmark said, it's all a matter of perspective.

Pam O'Reilley, member services manager of the Montana Association of Realtors, agreed. Statistically, one in every four people in California is a real-estate agent, she said. Not even the Flathead Valley is that saturated.

Furthermore, though agents in Northwest Montana make up a fifth of the state's total, all the Realtors in Montana make up less than one-half of 1 percent of the total number of Realtors in the nation.

"It's a matter of perspective," Denmark said. "If you come here from Choteau, this is the big city. If you come from L.A., it's a whole new ball game."

In the 1970s, Denver was growing at a rate of between 25,000 and 50,000 people a year, he said, the same rate at which Calgary is growing now.

"That's growth," he said.

Still, though it's not expanding as rapidly as some places, the area definitely is burgeoning, Denmark said.

"Growth is the biggest industry in the Flathead Valley. Anybody who doesn't realize that isn't paying attention," he said. "It's a very hustly-bustly area."

With all the hustle and bustle, there's plenty of room for the real-estate agents here, said Tom Burk, chief operating officer and managing broker of Coldwell Banker Wachholz and Co.

"I think that it appears to a lot of people that there are a lot of agents working in a small market, but in reality there are not too many at all," he said. "I don't think the consumer is served any better when there are fewer agents than when there are many agents.

"There's plenty of room for any competent Realtor to come into the market."

To ensure competency, the state of Montana requires anyone with a real-estate license to complete 12 credits of continuing education classes annually. The classes typically are packed with high-quality content, Burk said.

"We literally come out of there with something of value every time," he said. "We're not just putting in the hours."

Flathead Valley Community College has offered real-estate classes, but beginning this fall it will offer a two-year, 30-credit certificate program designed to help agents upgrade their skills.

The goal is to ensure that practicing agents understand the ins and outs of real estate, said Tom Jay, a professor in the college business division who wrote the new curriculum.

"We're not trying to get these people certified," he said. "It's our hope that it will add a degree of professionalism to that industry."

Although the classes are geared toward realty professionals, anyone can attend.

"I think it's going to be a benefit not only for us as an industry, but also for the public," said Ted Dykstra Jr., Realtor with Ted Dykstra and Associates Real Estate. "We felt that it opened the door for other people to feel out, 'Is this something I might want to do?'"

Even if they don't use it as a business tool, he said, people still can apply what they learned in class if they buy or sell their property.

Dykstra served on an advisory committee, recruited by Jay, that brainstormed ways to "make our industry better, raise the bar a little," Dykstra said.

Raising the bar is one reason many agents choose to join the National Association of Realtors. Members are the only ones correctly called "Realtors," though many people use the term in reference to all real-estate agents.

The difference is that Realtors are held to a higher standard of ethics, Dykstra said.

"The Realtors as a group take great pride in the fact that they've gone to a little further education and held themselves to a high standard, and we police ourselves," he said.

"Because of the fact that we police ourselves to a higher standard, we immediately oversee and jump on any issue that we feel might be a detriment to the public."

Even without the extra standards that come with being a Realtor, the business tends to weed out those who aren't ethical or can't make a living, Denmark said.

The money agents make is based on commission, he said.

"There are no salaries, no guarantees," he said. "You work with all kinds of people with zero guarantees.

"Until you build up clientele and trust, you're not doing business. You're just hoping to do business."

Business is a challenge even for those who stick with it, he added.

"Is it a tough business? You better believe it," Denmark said. "Public perception is that Realtors are rich, that when the market is this hot, you have to be a blind idiot not to make money."

In reality, he said, only half or even a third of real estate sells, because the property is overpriced, undermarketed, or both. Furthermore, the top 10 percent of the valley's agents do about 90 percent of the business, leaving the other 90 percent to fight over what's left.

Those who don't get the business often quit, he said.

The total number of Realtors "varies from day to day, with new people joining and people dropping out," said Kathy Schulte, chief executive officer of the Northwestern Montana Association of Realtors. "People that joined a few years ago who maybe didn't realize their dreams dropped out."

Schulte estimates that the association gains from 25 to 30 new members each month but also loses five or six. Losses are higher during the winter.

The number of agents in the valley consistently fluctuates, and in the end, everything reaches equilibrium, Dykstra said.

"If there are too many agents out there, it will level out itself as to whether or not they can afford to stay in the business," he said.

Denmark believes that for now, at least, there is enough business for all.

"There will be too many Realtors when not enough Realtors are making a living," he said.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.