Realtor looks outside Florida until conditions improve

EVAN WILLIAMS/FLORIDA WEEKLY Randy Krise Now is a tough time for commercial real estate brokers like Randy Krise, owner of Krise Commercial Group LLC. Construction activity and permits are down. Plus, commercial real estate traditionally lags behind the residential real estate market, which has yet to recover. Since the slowdown began, the gap between the price he'd like to sell at and the price buyers say the property is worth continues to grow.

To Mr. Krise, these are signs it will take two or three years for the commercial market to get back on steady ground in Florida.

"You've gotta get that happy medium where buyers and sellers agree," Mr. Krise said.

Since moving to Fort Myers seven years ago from Georgia, where he also sold commercial real estate, Mr. Krise has become president of the Southwest Florida chapter of Certified Commercial Investment Members. The CCIM designation is comparable to earning a Ph.D. in commercial real estate.

Through that group and other organizations like the Real Estate Investment Society and the Lee County Horizon Council, Mr. Krise has become familiar with the area's commercial brokers. He says the number of working Realtors in Southwest Florida is less than half what it was in 2006.

That means less competition but also a slow market. So while Mr. Krise continues to do business and keep his office in Fort Myers, he has also looked to states like Texas, Tennessee and Kentucky to buy and sell property.

"If any (commercial real estate market) is robust in the U.S. right now, it's Dallas," Mr. Krise said.

He is looking to sell some of the land he owns in those places to investors interested in building hotels, apartments and multi-family dwellings. He's also looking for investors who pay cash. That straightforward method has become more popular in the commercial real estate industry since the housing collapse hammered home the consequences of overextending credit.

"The man with cash is king," Mr. Krise said. "They can pretty much give their bottom line and say 'take it or leave it.'"

Mr. Krise, 57, was a successful broker from the get go. He bought his first piece of property in 1978: 6 acres near his hometown, Marietta, Ga., for $23,000. Six months later, the property was appraised at $155,000. By keeping the land (ultimately for more than 20 years) and borrowing against it, he was able to buy and sell other properties.

"I used that to propel my business for many years," Mr. Krise said.

It was also his willingness to take risks, he said — unlike his parents — that led to success. "My parents were old-school non-risk takers," he said.

He is one of four siblings whom grew up in semi-rural Marietta, near Atlanta. Since then the city has grown up around it.

"Atlanta just marched past us," Mr. Krise said.

After attending the University of Georgia, he spent four years in the Air Force and returned to school at Georgia State University and Kennesaw State University on the GI Bill. He was also a college basketball referee for more than a decade and owned child care centers near Marietta for more than 26 years.

Mr. Krise also has an interest in politics. In college, he worked on a 1974 U.S Representative campaign for former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. He later ran for state representative at home in Cobb County in 1998, one of two Republican candidates.

He lost by a small margin, but has some fond memories of the campaign. His wife Arvey, a nurse turned commercial real estate broker, wrote his political commercials. They met in the 1990s in Atlanta. They now have six grandchildren and four children between them.

In one commercial, Mr. Krise, on the campaign trail, comes to the door of a "little old lady" (played by his wife). She keeps calling him "Mr. Christ" and he keeps correcting her, until finally he turns to the camera and says "Krise, Christ — just vote for Randy."

Mr. Krise didn't say whether he would run for public office in Fort Myers, but said, "I'm active in politics here a little bit."

Meanwhile, he plans to keep working in commercial real estate, confident that the market in Southwest Florida will recover eventually. He notes that many local properties are worth "four or five times" what they were 1985. It points to one of his philosophies about real estate: you should be willing, in many cases, to take the long view. Another one is that you have to work hard.

"Realtors are notorious for not working," said Mr. Krise. "They think it's like a hobby or something."

Even on his time off, he said, he likes to work.