FRONT LINES: Sales and Soldiering
BY ROBERT FREEDMAN
Reporting for duty
Reservists called to active service work to keep their real estate business going.
Sudden bursts of popping broke the stillness in the air as a handful of U.S. Army military police picked their way down an empty stretch of road at Fort Bliss, Texas. Moments later, a few of the soldiers lay on the ground.
They weren’t hurt. They’d been felled in a mock battle orchestrated by John Endres, GRI, a sales associate with Hour Realty in Yuma, Ariz.
Since late January, Endres, a staff sergeant with the U.S. Army Reserve, has been training military police in combat preparedness as they ready to deploy in the Middle East. But Endres, like other real estate professionals who volunteer their time as members of U.S. and state military reserves, has business on his mind as well as war.
As an independent contractor, Endres is largely on his own when it comes to managing his business while he’s on active duty. And he’s been called up three times since Sept. 11, 2001.
“Everybody in the REALTOR® family has been just great, but the bottom line is, it’s difficult to keep your affairs together when you’re away,” says Endres, who entered real estate two years ago and immediately rose to the top of his company in sales volume. As of late January, he had six transactions pending and 16 active listings, the most of anyone in his office, according to Donna Lomonaco, CRB, CRS®, broker-owner of Hour Realty.
By some measures, Endres is well positioned to keep his clients serviced in his absence. After being called to duty twice between Sept. 11, 2001, and late 2002—first to guard a nuclear power plant and then to provide security at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City—Endres hired his sister-in-law to be his full-time assistant. His wife, a part-time sales associate at the company, also helps out. “I introduce them to my clients and customers as soon as we meet,” says Endres. “That way, my buyers and sellers are reassured that there’ll be continuity when I’m away.”
Even so, he keeps a close eye on his transactions. “I live by my cell phone,” he says. “During a previous mission, in one week I wrote two contracts and two counteroffers from my hotel.”
For any transaction that closes while he’s gone, Endres splits his commissions on a 50-50 basis with his assistant.
In love and war
Many reservists say help from family members has been a business lifeline. Margaret Evans, GRI, broker-owner of Evans Real Estate & Auction in Martinsville, Va., has been handling the business of her son, Nelson Evans, who was called up in July 2002 and continues to serve on active duty at an undisclosed location in the eastern United States. That arrangement keeps his real estate business going, but the deployment still creates difficulties for him, says his mother.
For one thing, he had to resign as the 2003 president of the Martinsville Henry County Association of REALTORS®. For another, his REALTOR® association dues and real estate license have lapsed, so “he’ll have to start all over again when he returns,” she says.
To the extent they can, state and local REALTOR® associations are doing their part to help their members who are called up. Spurred by Endres’ situation in Yuma, the Arizona Association of REALTORS® in early 2003 adopted a policy to waive state dues whenever a local association in the state waives a reservist member’s dues. As of mid-February, only Endres’ local board had adopted such a waiver. But the state is prepared to waive dues payments from members in other local boards as needed, says Ty Strout, executive officer of the state association.
Last year, during the fighting in Afghanistan, the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® also adopted a dues waiver policy, as it has done at other times when large numbers of reservists are called up. And recently the national association voted to extend the waiver.
As helpful as the dues waiver is, it’s a drop in the bucket for those facing a prolonged spell away from their sales market, say practitioners. That’s why Thomas Washington, ABR®, GRI, a sales associate with Century 21 New Millennium in Alexandria, Va., considers himself lucky to sell homes in markets throughout northern Virginia. Given the proximity of his area to the Pentagon, it’s not surprising that the Army National Guard lieutenant colonel’s unit was the first to be called up after Sept. 11, 2001, in response to the attack on the Pentagon. As part of what’s called a mobilization/augmentation command, Washington served for several months as an action officer at the Pentagon, providing Army operations center support there.
But as involved as that tour of duty was, Washington says, he was able to continue his business because of his proximity to his clients. “I could spend about two days a week doing business,” he says. “During duty, it was eight days on, four days off.” Sometimes one of his colleagues would attend a settlement for him as a favor. “Everyone in the office was willing to chip in when I needed someone,” he says. Washington closed the year with 24 transaction sides, including several he settled during his tour of duty.
It helped that he works on salary rather than on commission, as do most of the two dozen associates in his office, many of whom, including the broker, Todd Hetherington, CRS®, GRI, are former military.
Despite the hardship their duty creates, there’s satisfaction in helping their country, reservists say. At the same time, their sacrifice motivates others to help as well. “The whole REALTOR® family has been phenomenal,” says Endres. “Everyone just couldn’t be more supportive.”
—Additional reporting by Pat Taylor
Dues waiver extended for military
The NAR Board of Directors resolution waiving 2002 national dues for the members who are reservists called up to active duty or whose spouses are called up to active duty will continue for the 2003 dues cycle. NAR’s Finance Committee will recommend to the Board of Directors that this extension become a permanent feature of NAR’s dues policy for military action in the future. For more information, contact John Pierpoint, jpierpoint@realtors.org, 312/329-8260.
