2004 Chairman of the Board

Dave Dalzell

is here to serve

by Marty Kramer   The 2004 chairman of the Texas Association of REALTORS® has never been one to sit on his hands. “I grew up all my life with the idea that you were supposed to do some type of service,” says Dalzell. He has practiced that idea in his professional life and in his community—two areas he feels are closely related.

Establishing a foundation of helping others

Dalzell’s notion of service was instilled early in his childhood. The son of a preacher, much of his family life focused on church activities. He remembers pitching in when he was nine years old to help his family renovate a long-closed community college in Idaho to open Magic Valley Christian College.

As a college freshman and sophomore, Dalzell not only served as student body president of Columbia Christian College but also traveled as a student recruiter, singing in a quartet and speaking at churches and other gatherings. He transferred to Abilene Christian University to finish college when his parents moved to Texas. There, he joined ACU’s Hilltop Singers, a group that performed at USO shows.

On the air

Before earning a bachelor’s in psychology from ACU with minors in masscommunications and bible, Dalzell landed a part-time job at a radio station. In fact, Dalzell was on the air graduation day, with another DJ spelling him for an hour—just long enough to walk across the stage.

Dalzell spent nearly 10 years at KRBC, racking up unheard of Arbitron ratings by capturing more than half of Abilene’s radio audience during morning drive time and even higher numbers in the afternoon. Halfway through his radio career, the station made him program director and operations manager. “I ran the day-to-day programming for the station,” Dalzell says. “I did it all.”

Dalzell was still at the station when Harry Chapin came out with W.O.L.D, a song with lyrics about a 45-year-old DJ. “The song got to me,” Dalzell says. “I was in my late twenties and still a rock ‘n’ roll DJ. I started looking for a change.”

Real estate calls

Dalzell considered going into the advertising business. Actually, he already was in it, having parlayed skills he learned from copywriting duties at the radio station into a small ad agency he operated. He also considered insurance. Both careers were exciting, but neither business struck him as the kind of career where he could serve people in the manner he desired.

About that time, Dalzell’s mother went into real estate sales. “I remember times we’d have lunch and she’d tell me how frustrated she was,” he recalls. When his mother complained about a lack of buyers, he would pick up the paper and point out all the people getting promotions and having babies. He urged her to call or send them a note along with a clipping of their item in the newspaper. She thought the tactic wouldn’t work.
So Dalzell put the strategy to use in his position at the radio station, sending out two clips a day. “Two weeks later, I got my first raise from it,” he remembers. “My boss came in and said, ‘I don’t know what you’re doing but I hear about you every place I go.’ It’s a typical marketing thing—everybody does it—but it works.”

Hitting the ground running

Dalzell recognized that real estate presented the kind of opportunity he sought—not just a promising entrepreneurial endeavor but one in which he could make the kind of positive impact he wanted by serving people. “Homes are a neat product,” he says, “something people need and that change their lives for the better.”

He left radio and joined the Ray Scott Company on Feb. 1, 1977, two years after his mother and six months after his father started selling real estate there. It was quite the family competition, with the three Dalzells dominating sales for the small firm. After just 11 months, the owner asked Dave Dalzell to take over the main office as sales manager while the current sales manager opened a branch office. He accepted. One year later, Dalzell was vice president of the company. In five years, the Ray Scott Company blossomed from eight agents to 42—the largest real estate firm in Abilene. Dalzell and Scott also became partners in an insurance firm.

But real estate was still a primary focus. “I went to Ray and told him my goal was to own my own company,” he says. The two negotiated for six months, during which time the price kept going higher. “So I left to start my own company in January 1983. The only agents I took with me were my mom and dad.” In nine months, Dalzell, REALTORS® had three offices and 39 agents.

Like most parts of Texas, the economy and real estate in Abilene took a nose dive in the mid-1980s. The area’s three major industries—the military, agriculture, and petroleum—all were hit hard.

Despite the hard times, Dalzell bought out his former broker in 1987, thinking that the economy was primed to rebound. “It looked like we were positioned to be really strong, but the market didn’t turn around until 1990,” he says. “I had to cut back sharply. Our overhead was way too high for no increase in production. By 1990 I was back down to nine agents. We’ve operated at anywhere from 13 to 22 agents ever since,” says Dalzell.

Placing a premium on learning

Education has always been a priority for this year’s chairman of the board, both as student and teacher. In fact, real estate instructor was one of the items on that seven-page list he wrote out for his broker. In 1978 a junior college in Abilene offered real estate classes, but the teachers, though licensed, weren’t actively listing and selling properties. “I went to the school’s director of curriculum and voiced my concerns,” Dalzell says. “He hired me as a teacher.”

I started out writing my own materials—how to list and sell, how to market—basic stuff.”

Dalzell taught at the junior college for five years, then at Abilene Christian University for 12 years. In 1986, Dalzell became a Graduate, REALTOR® Institute (GRI) instructor for the Texas Association of REALTORS® and continues to teach GRI courses today. He has helped develop course materials for that program and others.

Getting involved early and often

“One of the first things I did when I started in real estate was join a bunch of committees at my local board,” Dalzell says. One of those committees was the VA/FHA Committee, because he wanted to learn about alternatives to conventional financing. In 1978, Dalzell drove to Austin for the TAR Winter Meeting and walked in on the association’s VA/FHA Committee. “I sat down and told them what we were doing in Abilene,” he remembers. Since that start, he has participated on almost every TAR committee at one time or another, chairing several.

“Everybody has their own reasons to get involved,” says Dalzell. “For me it was my lifestyle and background.” He feels that many in the industry—once they see that they can pay their bills—look for something more. “By getting involved in their associations, REALTORS® can make the industry better so we can better serve people who want to buy real estate, which then makes the community better.”
He acknowledges that there is a profit motive involved, but says association and community involvement goes beyond that. “The motivation tends to turn more toward community growth and personal development—to make a better town and provide better jobs—and the income is just a blessing that comes along with it,” he says.

Goals that are made to last

While Dalzell knows that REALTORS® who get involved in association leadership roles have definite ideas about what they would like to see the organization accomplish, he doesn’t define those as one-year goals for his year as chairman. “Most of those things are accomplished along the way as a committee member, then chairman of that committee, then as a member of the executive board,” he says. “Hopefully, many of those initiatives will continue long after your year as chairman has come and gone. I hope I can continue the evolution of those ideas to help the organization grow.”

Dalzell is proud to have been a part of many of the Texas Association of REALTORS®’ accomplishments in recent years. He points to examples like the association re-emphasizing career development and re-establishing itself as a main player in the educational arena with a restructured GRI, seminars to meet special needs, and the association’s ability to quickly develop MCE classes on a variety of topics.

Dalzell also takes pride in how governmental affairs has grown in importance, with a political action committee that continues to build its contributions and influence. And as a founding member of the association’s Issues Mobilization Committee, Dalzell feels strongly about putting even more importance on involvement in local issues that have statewide implications for REALTORS® and property owners.

Learning from those who came before

Those who attended Dalzell’s installation heard him speak of many role models and mentors. He named Julio Laguarta, a former president of TAR and NAR, whose comments at his own NAR president’s installation about family and community inspired Dalzell. Dalzell also mentioned his first broker, Ray Scott. “He was such an honest, honorable, hard-working person. I learned so much from him.”

Dalzell praises the past TAR presidents and committee chairmen he has known and worked with. “They are all mentors to me,” he says, “and a big reason I’m here. I hope I can live up to some of their expectations and talents.”

As Dave Dalzell travels across the state during 2004, he will bring a message with him. “I hope to have many opportunities to share with REALTORS® what a wonderful opportunity we all enjoy—to have a career with a great product—real property—and the opportunities for service, community building, political and issues involvement, all in an industry with the highest professional standards and educational opportunities.”

He also aims to encourage others to deepen their involvement in their communities, with commitments like adopting schools (his company has adopted three). He would like to see every school in Texas with a sponsoring REALTOR® or REALTOR® company. “It’s a natural thing to be involved,” he says. If adopting a school doesn’t interest you, he has plenty of other ideas for you to get involved. In fact, if you ask him to name them, you get the feeling he just might create another seven-page list.

Photo by Scott Van Osdol.

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