Kidder Mathews expands into Treasure Valley market

One thing is visibly evident across the landscape of the Treasure Valley: Real estate is booming.

Whether it’s residential, commercial or industrial, there is plenty of demand. It’s with that in mind that Bellevue, Washington-based Kidder Mathews has opened a location in Boise to be helmed by Sherry Schoen, executive vice president, and initially staffed with Kasey Smart as an associate.

But opening new offices isn’t something the company does quickly or without research. CEO Bill Frame said the company takes its time and does its due diligence.

“I’m very picky about what we do and when we do it and how we do it and where we do it,” he said. “And I’ve been looking at four or five cities to expand into and Boise is one of those.”

The company now has 19 offices in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Nevada and Arizona, with 900 employees – 500 of which are brokers – and $31.7 million in annual sales.

Though the company has established its office at 999 W. Main Street in Boise, staff works remotely for the time being.

Frame and Schoen recently took time to conduct a virtual meeting with Idaho Business Review to talk about setting up shop in Boise and what the future looks like for Kidder Mathews in the area.

Marc Lutz: Sherry, what is your background in commercial real estate?

Sherry Schoen: I have been in the business 18 years now. I primarily focus on retail tenant and buyer representation. I do a lot of national tenant rep. I do all their site selection and market penetration, expansion, things like that. But I have done everything. I’ve done industrial, I’ve done office in smaller markets. We do quite a bit of product types. But my passion is retail, for sure.

When I got into the business, I looked at all the areas and retail … I just loved it growing with residential. It wasn’t industrial, although I love industrial now. I liked retail. I could always spot (places that needed a grocery store). It just came naturally.

ML: What was the main driver for expanding into Idaho?

Bill Frame: We’ve doubled in size in the last, basically, seven years. We’re gaining quite a bit of presence on the West Coast. We’re pretty prevalent in SIOR across the country. We’re getting some pretty good notoriety and I’m getting inbound calls … to open up in other states. I’ve been reluctant to do that just based on what we’ve got going right here in the Western States. …For us, it’s all about the people. If we find the right person or the right group of people, and we’re convinced that we can shape a region or city or office around them, we’ll go for it, and we’ve been very successful in doing that.

We found that in Sherry and Kasey. They’re very captivating people, a lot of experience, been a team for a very long time, very well-known. We do our homework. (They have) a lot of energy and are willing to go the extra mile for the good of the order, not necessarily themselves. That what was coming through loud and clear when we met with them on a handful of occasions.

That was really the determining factor. It’s the West Coast. It’s a market that’s raised through 850,000 population, headed to a million. They’ve got 95,000 single family starts in play right now, and you’ve got two of the top brokers in the market wanting to join forces, so we say, “go,” and that’s what we did.

ML: What are the challenges of expanding into a totally new market?

BF: With the way the cost structure is set up right now, it’s very low overhead for us. But it would not be a traditional Kidder Mathews full-service office. … This is a very small scale. But we’ve done that before, like El Segundo, (California). We started with three people, and they were a senior team in the market. Now, we’ve got 23 people, so I have to look at that and I have to know that we can go from two or four, which is what we have now (in Boise) and we have a pathway to get to 25 agents doing average production for our company. And then with that, if you can button on the other services that we provide in property management and engineering and valuation, it’s all the better. Can we get economies of scale by obtaining critical mass and then the cost structure to do so. (Idaho is) a pretty inexpensive state to operate in, comparatively speaking. When you look at the other cities we’re in and states we’re in, like San Francisco and downtown LA, pretty expensive, and you got it right.

SS: I only see opportunities with our historic growth, our continued migration and just the tech expansion here in the Treasure Valley. I think there’s just more room for another reputable brokerage firm. I felt very strongly that Kidder Mathews was definitely a fit for me and our market.

ML: What is it about the overall industry that you like, you absolutely love and dislike or even hate?

SS: I like the entrepreneurial spirit of brokerage. I love the problem solving, creativity and hustle that it takes to be successful in the brokerage business. I love my clients. I’ve been working with a lot of them now for 15 to 18 years – national clients – and delivering them exceptional service is my No. 1 priority. I value my relationships in the industry and that can be anyone from other brokers to appraisers to the title companies to developers. I really love this decision to join Kidder Mathews. I didn’t take this decision lightly and I really, really meant that. As a broker to be successful, you have to have that fire in the belly … and I was looking for that back-of-house support, and they have been nothing but impressive.

Hate. I don’t know that I hate anything about it. Maybe there’s not enough time to get everything done in one day. How about that?

ML: What are some of the differences between operating in a state like Idaho versus somewhere like Washington or California?

BF: Real estate licensing. Very, very sticky in the state of Idaho and the state of Nevada – much, much more than, say, Washington state. That’s a consideration. Labor laws differ for us from state to state, which we have to pay attention to in today’s world. The ability to hire staff to do all the work, that varies from state to state and skill levels from city to city. We like Boise because you’ve got Boise State, so you’ve got a pretty educated population there, which is good for us. We’ll exploit that. A lot of people don’t think of that stuff but we have to. So, I’d say labor, labor laws, education of the population, growth of the population, trajectory, type of market – institutional, non-institutional – we’re paying very close attention to all that.

ML: As we’ve reported on in the past, the number of women brokers in commercial real estate is growing. How important is it to have that equity and diversity in the workplace?

SS: Commercial real estate can be a cutthroat, dog-eat-dog kind of business and some women choose to opt out because of that. But I feel strongly that boosting amount of females that we have in this industry brings a new level of service and grace and compassion to the business. Women tend to be collaborators, problem solvers, creative and we just don’t give up easily. I think we are definitely a boost to business

BF: It’s extremely important. If you look at the senior leadership in our company, our top financial person is Jackie Sims, our HR person is Kendra Ristad … Christina Twidale is running our corporate marketing. Erin French runs property management. They manage 55 million square feet and they contribute $36 million a year with 10% margin to the consolidated financial. It’s a big deal. I’ve got to share responsibility for this company, and it could be politically incorrect, but I’m not going to hire someone whether they’re female or male, whatever color they are. I don’t care about any of that. What I care about is can they do the job that’s being asked of them? If the right person for the job is male or female – and in this case you’re asking about female – they’re getting the job. I put my money where my mouth is, and you don’t have to go very far in this company to see that.