Q|amp|A with Kirk Heyle

Kirk A. Heyle, CCIM, CRE of Heyle Realtors & Counseling Services LLC recently attended the 50th anniversary of the annual convention of the Counselors of Real Estate in Miami, the birthplace of the organization. He is the only CRE in southwest Missouri.

Question: You have been a member of CRE since 1990. What requirements did you meet?

Answer: First of all, it's by invitation only. But you do apply. You go through the Counselors' home office in Chicago. It involves at least 10 years of active commercial real estate brokerage and consulting, minimum, before you can even apply. Then they actually check you out, talking to clients, attorneys, accountants, bankers whomever you used as references on your application. There is some merit to it, but you have to be invited in.

Q: What has the designation done for you and your business?

A: I guess, like anybody who is able to acquire a professional designation, it gives you some status that you've acquired over the years by having a professional designation. It gives you some confidence.

Q: What specific and different things do you, as a CRE, bring to your clients?

A: Real estate counseling is really a neutral position between the broker that has to sell or has to lease to get a commission and acquire a fee to get something accomplished in a transaction (and) on the other pole would be maybe an appraiser that's evaluating a property. The center ground, that's not transaction-driven, would be considered a place where the real estate counselor is located. (Counselors) are paid for their advisory services, whether it's investment or industrial or something that has to do with finance or environmental or valuation of the property or a decision to sell or lease or to do nothing. We're not transaction driven, like any consultant in any industry. You're giving out your experience and your advice for a fee. A lot of times we'll be blending in with an attorney or accountant where we're working as a team for a client or a corporation or an institutional customer of some sort.

Q: How do you balance this with your real estate brokerage?

A: I am still very active as a commercial real estate broker. I don't think in our little metro area that you could make a living doing 100 percent consulting. It has been a growing part of my business over the years. I do a lot of real estate consulting for lawyers, litigation. (Counseling) is separate, but it is a nice additional income producer and it also can transition into a brokerage situation, or vice versa. We don't force the issue and we try to avoid conflicts of interest.

Q: How do you think the role of the CRE has changed through the years?

A: I think it has changed. It was a very small little group 50 years ago, of eight or 10 people and was in the few hundreds for many, many years and was really confined to the major metropolitan areas the two coasts. And then I think just in the last 20 years we started spreading out and we started getting some members from the Orient and Canada and Hawaii and they can't come in just because they want in. They've got to come in and show their expertise, just like everybody else, to gain membership in the group.

What they've accepted as true consulting and counseling has changed also. Before, they would only consider someone that came in never ever deriving any income off of a commission or an appraisal. It was only for real estate consulting and you had to prove contracts with hourly agreements or bid-basis only. (That) is still the main way but, for instance, some members now are corporate, doing internal real estate consulting. The requirements have broadened some.

Q: At the convention, what industry changes were discussed, and how might those affect the local real estate market?

A: I think everybody recognized that the commercial real estate market is unpredictable and kind of odd right now. You'll see a lot of building going on now in Springfield and other cities, but with these interest rates so low in the commercial field many companies and many former lessees are now buyers. So there's a shortage of lessees. And then since 9-11, a lot of companies have really shrunk. Everybody's lean; they don't want any inventory. Warehouses are, for the first time in many years, starting to have some vacancies, both here and in the larger cities. And it's not necessarily that the market is sour or bad, (but) it has changed. Interest rates are a reflection of the marketplace and when prime is around 4 percent, or maybe even a little below, that means that commercial real estate ventures are becoming a little bit more rare, or the lenders are becoming more selective in whom they're lending to. There is some significant vacancy in Springfield and certainly in the big cities.