REAL ESTATE: THIS PROFESSION IS `PEOPLE-ORIENTED'

Birdie Rader switched careers 20 years ago to become a real estate agent. It's a change she has never regretted.

Herb Annis left his life on the road as an agriculture-fertilizer and farm-supplies salesmen to start selling real estate. "I've never looked back," he said.

Carl Blanchard dabbled in real estate, buying and selling a few properties, before getting into the business on a full-time basis 20 years ago.

Few professions are as people oriented as the real estate profession.

Being a realtor is not really a house business, said Karen Mogelnicki, a partner with Barbara Travers in the firm of Century 21 Key Realty. "It's a people business; you work with people's emotions. It takes a special type of person to deal with that."

Rader, Annis and Blanchard are just three of the many "special people" on the Cape Girardeau real estate scene.

Rader was a biology teacher at Southeast Missouri State University 10 years before she changed directions.

"I enjoyed that phase of my life," she said. "But I wanted something to develop my own talents and help others."

Rader is a member of the Century 21 Divisional Hall of Fame, one of only 16 members who have been inducted into the Hall. She has received the Century 21 Centurion Award -- the highest level of annual recognition given to top-producing sales associates -- five times.

Rader, Doris Jean Arnold of Century 21 Ashland and Liz Abernathy of Coldwell Banker are among top real-estate sales people in the Cape Girardeau area.

During her 20-year career with Century 21, Rader has sold more than 800 units and produced sales of more than $62 million.

Rader and Arnold are currently among the top 1 percent of sales agents in the Century 21 region that includes more than 7,200 agents. Abernathy is one of the leaders in the Coldwell Banker region.

Rader attributes her success to her "Golden-Rule" philosophy toward work: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In the end, the seller, buyer and agent win. My satisfaction comes from working with people and helping them to achieve their goals. It gives me a thrill to see a family acquire the home they want."

Rader has been with Century 21 Key Realty since 1988. She owned her own realty company, A Century 21 firm, for a number of years.

Rader sold Century 21 American Real Estate Co. in 1983, and remained with the firm for five years as a listing and selling agent before joining Century 21 Key Realty.

Being a real estate agent is not a five-day, 9-to-5 job, said Rader. "Weekend work and night work are part of being in real estate."

All real estate people agree.

"You look at any successful agent, and you will find someone who doesn't count hours," said Annis, owner of Century 21 Ashland. Annis, a developer who recently opened Annwood Estates at Jackson, said that subdivision is two-thirds sold, with 41 of 62 lots having been sold the first two weeks.

"Our agents are pretty well on their own," said Blanchard, owner of Coldwell Banker Blanchard and Associates. "They are required to put in some floor duty, but otherwise they're on their own to develop business."

Real estate agents are generally described as "a little business within a big business." Agents must have an understanding of real estate markets and economic conditions and must understand the laws, regulations and legal procedures governing all real estate transactions.

All are licensed by the state, which requires a 60-hour certification course.

Many colleges and universities offer real-estate courses. No less than 30 offer undergraduate degrees and a select few offer master's degrees in some courses of real-estate study.

The real-estate industry has had some ups and downs over the past decade. It has been on the up side the past couple of years in the diversified business climate of the Cape Girardeau area.

Commercial and residential real estate has been on an upswing this year, realtors say.

Commercial realtors Ivan Irvin of Ivan Irvin Associates Real Estate and Development and Bob Price of ERA Cape Realty say it is unusual to see both commercial and home real estate up at the same time.

"Usually, if one is up the other is down," said Irvin."But this year there is a lot of activity on the commercial side. People area looking and buying."

Eight months into the year, home sales have totaled more than $44 million in the Cape Girardeau market area, which includes the cities of Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Scott City, and a few rural properties.

The lion's share of sales have been in Cape Girardeau, at $22 million, with about $12 million in Jackson.

Interest rates are still favorable for the buyer, say realtors, and home prices are under the national average.

The Cape Girardeau Multi-List Service sales charts show about 15 percent of the homes sold were in the $100,000-$120,000 range. Another 15 percent were in the $50,000-$60,000 range, with the area average at $69,000. The national average price for a home is about $100,000, says the National Association of Realtors.

Many Cape Girardeau-area real-estate agencies had the best year ever in 1993, and are continuing that success in 1994.

"These are pretty good times for real estate," said Thomas M. Meyer of Thomas L. Meyer Real Estate and Insurance Co. and president-elect of the Missouri Association of Realtors. "The market is strong and the attraction of adjustable rate mortgages is keeping the market active."

A year ago residential sales in the area totaled more than $59 million, with more than $33 million in Cape Girardeau and $14.5 million in Jackson.

The brisk market means opportunity for real-estate firms.

A total of more than two dozen companies, ranging from the smallest operation of two agents to the largest of 30, operate in the area. More than 200 agents are members of the Cape Girardeau Area Board of Realtors Multi-List, which keeps sales records for the area.

Century 21 Key Realty, Century 21 Ashland Realty Co., and Coldwell Banker Blanchard and Associates Realty Inc. are among the major real-estate agencies in the Cape Girardeau, all with more than 25-person staffs.

Among other agencies with eight-to-13-person staffs are Classic Real Estate Better Homes & Gardens, ERA Cape Realty, Bridgeport Realtors Inc., Town and Country Realty, Capitol Hill Realty and Owens Realty Co., all of Cape Girardeau, and Century 21 Dutch Realty of Jackson.

Thomas L. Meyer Real Estate and Insurance is one of the oldest continuing realty firms in Cape Girardeau. Thomas L. Meyer founded the company in 1946, Rupert Meyer joined in 1960, and Thomas M. Meyer joined 1970. Thomas L. Meyer has been in the business for almost 50 years and was instrumental in putting together a real-estate transaction that led to the Procter & Gamble plant being built here more than 25 years ago.