80 Percent Of Her Income Gone

BROOKSVILLE - She could not afford to "feed the beast" any longer.

Beth Garman was a real estate broker who once had a staff of 18 agents.

During the next 18 months, when it appeared the market was on the decline, all but four left the state or the industry altogether.

Garman, 48, had just endured surgery and chemotherapy for breast cancer. Now she had to face the unenviable task of firing those four employees who stuck with her.

"They all understood," she said. The four agents later went into business under the same roof again.

"It was important for my agents to stick together," Garman said. "We were a family."

The former RE/MAX broker is now an "independent player." She has lived in Brooksville since 1985. She has an 8-year-old daughter and a husband who owns a civil engineering consulting firm located downtown.

Even though she does commercial real estate as well as residential, she has been hit with an 80 percent loss of income in the last year.

She is not alone.

"It's an expensive way to make a living if you're not making money," said EXIT Success Realtor Alan Boland. "Everything comes out of your pocket."

Coincidentally, he made those comments the same day the annual dues for the Hernando County Board of Realtors had to be paid. All the member fees added up to nearly $500.

"There are some real estate veterans here who've done it for 10 or more years and they say it's the worst they've ever seen," Boland said. "That's disheartening."

EXIT Realtor Ruth Hersh, of Spring Hill, recently won a Bronze Award from her company for her sales success.

She downplayed the recognition, perhaps because she and her colleagues are under so much duress. She mentioned two former associates who bowed out of the industry altogether and now work in retail. Hersh thinks too many people jumped in the business while sales were booming and were not expecting the imminent swoon.

"A lot of those agents thought those great times would never end," she said.

Hersh knew better. The fourth-generation Realtor recalled a sobering image from her youth. She walked in on her mother, a former Century 21 broker, while she was sobbing and sorting through her jewelry. She needed to hock some of her gold and silver to keep a roof over her and her family.

"For someone who has never been through this before, I feel for them," said Garman.

She was seated at the table of Brooksville Blue Print, a small local business she co-owns with her husband. It never makes much of a profit. Garman's stepdaughter manages it and successfully keeps it from going in the red.

Since business has slowed, Garman has spent more time at home with her daughter and step-grandchildren. She cooks, paints the house and runs errands.

She knows she is lucky to be married to a successful businessman. Nonetheless, she keeps track of every penny she owns. What little residential business she can find usually comes her way because of reputation. She has been working in Brooksville for a long time.

"The housing side is strictly word of mouth," Garman said. "I've been really blessed there."

The guilt from having to lay off her four employees last fall still bothers her. She also struggles with the realization she is not raking in business the way she used to. When she decided it was time for her to leave RE/MAX and go on her own, she gave her agents three days notice. She looked uncomfortable admitting that.

"I had a lot of monthly outflow," she said, recalling her expenses. She often had to dip far into her own assets to make her payments.

"I couldn't keep feeding the beast," Garman admitted.

While she still struggles from guilt, she also finds room in her heart to blame county commissioners for instituting a plethora of fees, which make it difficult for her commercial business.

"The fees are just astronomical," she said. "It's hard enough to bring businesses here. When we push fees on them, we end up pushing them away."

She also puts some of the blame on the industry itself. She knows the ebb after the flow is tough to handle. Garman has seen it before, but this time seems different.

"I didn't fail at real estate," she said. "Real estate itself is failing."