Feature Article

LEGENDARY REALTOR® FOUND SUCCESS EVEN IN THE TOUGHEST TIMES

Written By: Angela Anderson
Published By: Calgary Real Estate News
Article Used with permission of the Calgary Real Estate Board. © Copyright Calgary Real Estate News, 2007
2007-02-08

In his 44-year real estate career, native Calgarian Kent Lyle has seen the industry prosper, be challenged, and change a lot, but he’s stuck with it, and as a result, has achieved a level of success to be admired.

In his lucrative career that saw him as a sales associate, a residential sales manager, a division manager, an Alberta area manager, president of his own company and a relocation executive, he looks back with pride and says that things have definitely changed in the business.

“When I entered the industry it was more than 90% men, and they were all roughly 45-ish and on. Since I came into the business when I was only 23, I felt very much out of sorts that way,” he recalled.

Lyle entered the real estate industry in 1963 just after graduating from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. Lyle recalls that many of those active in real estate sales had already had careers in something else, had retired and wanted to go back to work.

“What attracted me was the fact that you could be the author of your own fortune or misfortune. If you worked hard, there was the possibility of reaching whole other levels,” he said.

At that time, there was a short Calgary Real Estate Board primary course about the sale process, board policies and procedures and some contract law, but to get your license to sell real estate, all you had to do was merely apply to the Alberta Government.

“The people that get through the process now are significantly better qualified to help the public,” Lyle mused.

Lyle started his career working for Lyle Brothers Limited, a Calgary family real estate brokerage business owned by his father Ken Lyle and his uncle Pete Lyle. For three years he enjoyed learning the ropes from mainly his father and uncle both of whom had been president of the Calgary Real Estate Board and City of Calgary alderman.

In 1966, the then largest Canadian trust company, Royal Trust, bought out the family business, and the transition, while huge, was exciting for Lyle. He was somewhat prepared for the large company approach with his UWO business degree.

“We went from a family business where you could sit around a desk and talk through the next move to a very large company which was headquartered in Montreal, and you had to go through the right channels for approval of a major business decision,” Lyle remembered.

Soon after the reorganization, Lyle became the Calgary real estate manager and then the Alberta real estate area manager for Royal Trust Real Estate. He soon found himself, instead of in the role of a salesperson, managing a large team of salespeople first in Calgary and then, later, Edmonton and Lethbridge were also added to his responsibilities as the Alberta area real estate manager.

“We hit some very interesting times and we had a lot of fun,” Lyle recalled about that era. “The city was changing, it was on a really positive growth spurt. The economy was very strong and we had an energized and positive group of sales people.”

Lyle’s career was growing fast. The growth of Calgary’s economy and the real estate industry along with the size and success of the Royal Trust Real Estate’s operations in Calgary and Alberta helped greatly with that.

He said he attributes the growth and success of Royal Trust Real Estate, which soon became the largest residential real estate brokerage in Calgary, to four strategies.

“First, we opened new offices outside of the core, second, we hired younger and motivated people to manage the offices and as sales associates, and third, we hired a lot more women.” As well, Royal Trust was introducing some progressive real estate marketing concepts nationally such as a national real estate magazine, a national referral system and a guaranteed sales program.

The company now operates as Royal Lepage.

Lyle said to the best of his memory, he appointed, while at Royal Trust, the first woman to the position of real estate sales manager in Calgary aside from one other real estate firm which employed only women as a business model.

“Some companies would still only hire men,” he remembers.

Then in 1976, he left Royal Trust to start his own brokerage, Lyle Real Estate Ltd., with partners Ron Smith and Gary Johnson.

The company was prospering, and Lyle became President of the Calgary Real Estate Board in 1981, a very memorable year for those in the business, and one that many will never forget.

The year 1981 was a year of stark contrast; it was a record breaking year in the first half for activity in the real estate market, and then everything took a sharp down turn in August.

“We had a double whammy. You got very high interest rates up to about 18% and so on, and then, Mr. Trudeau decided to drop the National Energy Program on us. And the two together really knocked the hell out of the Calgary real estate market,” Lyle said.

“There are many people in Alberta that will never forget that time. The NEP sucked billions of dollars out of the Alberta economy.”

However, Lyle recalls a positive development that happened during his presidency in 1981.

The Calgary Real Estate Board developed and introduced at what in those days was a state of the art computer system.

“We could do so much more with it,” he said, adding the new system eliminated the need for sales people to have to manually update their ‘green sheets’ — listings, amendments and sales — every day, saving REALTORS® a very significant amount of time.

The new system allowed the board to print a weekly catalogue that automatically updated all listing and sales information for the members.

Lyle said he is impressed at the level of computerization of the industry today and the “benefits for both customers and REALTORS®.”

At the time, Lyle had operated three offices, but under pressure from the downward economic situation, especially the NEP, the partners decided the best thing to do was to re-group and closed one office, and sold another, keeping just one active.

The company survived, while many did not. During the early 1980s dozens of real estate offices shut their doors permanently, and thousands of Calgarians had their mortgages foreclosed because of skyrocketing interest rates.

After his presidency with the Calgary Real Estate Board, Lyle said he always stayed involved with the board, whether it was on committees or attending various business and social functions, as he always felt they were important.

He also invested a considerable amount of volunteer time with local organizations, sports groups and charity causes.

He also served a year as national chairman of the FRI division of the Real Estate Institute of Canada and one year as a director of the Canadian Real Estate Association.

He ran Lyle Real Estate actively until 1986, and then decided he was ready for another change.

At the prompting of two friends from management from the Royal Trust days, Lyle joined Employee Relocation Services Ltd. (ERS) Ltd. in 1986 and opened a Calgary office for the Toronto-based company. The main function of ERS was to assist employers with relocating their transferred employees and to reduce the stress for the relocated families.

“The economy and the resultant real estate market in the early 80s really was not much fun. This opportunity came along and I thought it was an interesting career change because of the variety of corporate clients and a new type of real estate service,” Lyle said.

Lyle was still in the real estate industry, but now working with Canadian and international corporations which were relocating employees.

He worked in relocation management in Calgary until 1992 and then ERS was awarded a very large and significant relocation management contract with the Federal Government to manage the new Canadian Forces Relocation Program.

Lyle was asked by ERS to head up the Canadian Forces program by ERS.

That meant Lyle needed to be based in Ottawa to manage the program. Some of his staff were relocated to CF bases across Canada and in Europe.

Soon after the contract was awarded the Canadian Government announced the closing of the Canadian NATO bases in Europe.

As a result Lyle’s group also had the responsibility of moving all the Canadian Forces members stationed in Europe and their families back to Canada.

“During the two years of the initial contract we moved 23,000 CF members and their families, including 5,000 from Europe,” he said. They partnered with REALTORS® across Canada to help deliver this service.

By 1995, ERS Ltd. had been bought out by a New York listed American relocation company and Lyle transferred to its Canadian head office in Toronto where he operated as a director of homefinding services and supplier management.

In the meantime there was another merger and the company became HFS Mobility Services. He remained with HFS until 1997.

In July 1997, he semi-retired, and moved to his summer home on Sylvan Lake, AB where he resides today.

However he still keeps involved and is currently licensed as a Broker to Envoy Real Estate Services Inc. The parent company is an active relocation management company based in Oakville.

After retiring, he became very involved with the Summer Village of Norglenwold, his village located on the shores of Sylvan Lake and served a three year term as Mayor.

He’s now actively involved in the Sylvan Lake Watershed Stewardship Society and recently served two terms as president.

As Lyle looks back on his 44-year career, he looks back with fondness and satisfaction, but he’s happy where he is now.

He has the time to play hockey in the winter and downhill ski in the Rockies with his grandchildren, family and friends.

The summer brings all the family to the lake including his partner Susan, his three children and their spouses and seven grandchildren to enjoy the lazy summer days recreating on the lake.

Kent Lyle is an Honourary Life Member of the Calgary Real Estate Board and has been a member for over 43 consecutive years.

This article was written for Calgary Real Estate News, a division of the Calgary Real Estate Board, for the series “Legends of Real Estate” showcasing important members of the Calgary Real Estate Board. Please visit the Calgary Real Estate Board online.This article is part of the collection of the Calgary Real Estate News. Please visit them online.