Document text
Like father, like daughter Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Kim and Dan Frank are a father-daughter team tackling rural real estate sales from their Jackson Street office in east Medford. By GREG STILES Back when Kim Frank attended Kennedy Elementary School, she used to tromp through rural Jackson County helping her dad stake out property. "He would map out the corners, the best that somebody who wasn't a surveyor could do, and I carried the ribbon," recalls Frank. "It was an adventure for me." And it was a prelude to a father-daughter partnership. Nearly 20 years later, Kim Frank is now helping Dan Frank run Landline Real Estate in east Medford. Instead of sidestepping snakes or poison oak, the younger Frank's adventures now involve closing deals on rural residences in Southern Oregon and Northern California. "When Dad approached me about forming a partnership, I told him I'd think about," says 27-year-old Kim Frank. "I was making a pretty good living at U.S. Cellular in quality assurance. It took me about a day to decide to exchange my cubicle for fresh air." That was in September of 2000. "Security was out the window," she admits. "But I had seen my dad succeed at it so long that the risk of failure seemed kind of small. If you work hard, you can make a living." Even amid a declining inventory of rural land - plots not served by city water and city sewer - available for development and ever-growing government regulation, Landline has prospered. Dan Frank, 60, grew up in the Mount Shasta area in Northern California and moved to Oregon while attending what is now Southern Oregon University. After graduating with a biology degree in 1970, his first career took him to Pendleton and Dallas before returning to Jackson County. Restaurant inspections, wastewater disposal, site evaluations and septic tanks were among his tasks for various agencies. "I had never been in the business world or in sales, and I got to the point where I wanted to make a career change," says the elder Frank, who worked for a civil engineer a couple of years before joining Windermere VanVleet Real Estate in 1983. "It was something I knew a little bit about from my past experience." Frank struck out on his own in 1986 after serving the three-year minimum under the guidance of another real estate broker. From the beginning, he was attracted to bare land and rural property. "When I first started, a lot of the agents weren't interested in the more-rural property and home sites," Dan Frank says. "When you're dealing with rural property there are certain amount of regulations you need to know about. Now we're doing much more rural home sales. Quite honestly that's because there is less land available to develop for home sites." Although he had an office assistant, Frank pretty much was a one-man show for 15 years. "I've always been running around and scrambling to get things done through the years," Dan Frank says. "It got to a point where I thought I either needed to sell the business or get some help. That's when I approached Kim. "When you work with people in a pretty closed environment, sometimes differences can spell disaster. But Kim had a good background and discipline from her work experience. I feel pretty lucky to be working with my daughter." Although Landline had an Internet presence, Kim Frank has expanded the firm's Web activity. "This is a new age in real estate in which even small companies can capitalize," she says. But there are realities today that were only on the distant horizon when Dan Frank set up shop. "Sometimes, it's frustrating for buyers," he says. "They see all that land and think I'm going to get my little chunk of Oregon. But it's not that simple." The reality, his daughter says, is that it gets more complicated every year. "The trend is especially true of rural property development and sales," Kim Frank says. "Governmental restrictions on property development are not particularly surprising." Growth and the desire for elbow room have led to present obstacles. "There are fewer and fewer undeveloped parcels available to develop into a home site," she says. "Creation of new rural parcels has become difficult and expensive." The litany of zoning restrictions, special approvals and setbacks, not to mention septic permits, utility availability, road access, and water sources are hurdles not easily cleared. As a result, there are times when real estate agents best avoid pursuing deals that may be doomed from the start. "I had to learn rather quickly," Kim Frank says. "We're totally independent, but I would gather that there aren't many situations better than mine. I have a mentor that's got a vested interest in what we do." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.