Mark Johnson, left, and Gary Schneidmiller say reducinginventory is the biggest challenge the real estate industry faces inNorth Idaho.
—Staff photo by Mike McLean
Special Report - Real Estate & Construction - July 03, 2009
Getting back to basics in recession
Schneidmiller Cd'A real estate brokerage pulls back to its roots in down economyBy Mike McLean
Of the Journal of Business
Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Realty, a 27-year-old Coeurd'Alene real estate brokerage, has pulled back to its roots aspart of its strategy to endure the recession.Gary Schneidmiller, the agency's owner and broker, says hehas done some pruning of offshoot endeavors that didn't fit hisbusiness model for residential real estate, while cultivating thebrokerage's commercial side to grow on its own.The agency had swelled to three residential offices with acombined 250 agents during the real estate run-up of 2004and 2005, when annual residential sales in Kootenai Countytopped 5,000 units, a market pace that was unsustainable, hesays. Last year, total residential sales fell to 2,565 homes inKootenai County, according to the Coeur d'Alene Assoc-iationof Realtors' Multiple Listing Service. That drop in sales causedmany Schneidmiller Realty agents to revert to part-time status,he says.The agency late last year responded to the market downturnby closing its residential real estate offices in Post Falls andnorth Coeur d'Alene, and moving its commercial real estatedivision from its north-side office to a separate building at itsNorthwest Boulevard campus.Schneidmiller asserts that customers deserve full-time agents when they consider the largest purchase or sales of their lives."Our business model forever was based on full-time agents," he says. "We asked agents to work full-time or make otherarrangements."The brokerage now has 135 residential agents and 15 commercial agents, says Mark Johnson, Schneidmiller Realty's salesmanager.It's not the first time that Schneidmiller, who's been in the real estate business for 36 years, has consolidated residential real estateactivity to a central office. In 1982, he operated a brokerage in Post Falls and was developing his current building in Coeur d'Alenewhen he bought the Coldwell Banker franchise there. Consultants with Coldwell Banker convinced him to consolidate operations inone location, so he packed up the Post Falls office and moved the brokerage to Coeur d'Alene."That was right 27 years ago, and it's right today," he says.The brokerage's commercial division has remained stable in this recession and earlier this year became a separate franchise calledColdwell Banker Schneidmiller Commercial Realty, Johnson says. The commercial franchise also is a member of Oncor InternationalLLC, a global network of commercial real estate brokerages that usually are based in large markets, he says."Oncor gives us the opportunity to get face-to-face with significant commercial real estate assignments," he says.For instance, Schneidmiller Commercial heard from two big leads in just one day in June. Although Schneidmiller declines to namethem, he says one is a company from the Southwest that's looking to invest in senior health-care facilities in the North Idaho andSpokane markets, and the other is a potential lease tenant from the eastern U.S. that would require 40,000 square feet of floorspace.Over the last five years, commercial activity made up about 25 percent of Schneidmiller Realty's revenue.The residential franchise occupies 14,000 square feet of space in a two-story building at 1924 Northwest Blvd., across from the bigRiverstone development. Schneidmiller Commercial occupies about 8,000 square feet of office in an adjacent building, at 2000Northwest Blvd.
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