News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Banner Reality owner Margie Haaxma shows off the first dollar she earned after the business opened in 1990. The real estate company is celebrating it 30th anniversary this month.

ALPENA — Being able to survive in business for 30 years is no small feat, especially in a field such as real estate, when market conditions and trends vary often.

At Alpena’s Banner Reality, owner Margie Haaxma and her staff are celebrating the business’s 30th anniversary this month. A special open house is planned for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday so the public can celebrate the milestone.

Haaxma said she grew up in business.

Her parents owned and operated a motel on State Avenue. From a young age, she was expected to help in operations.

Later on, she went to school and then became a real estate agent, working at a local office before moving out on her own and opening Banner Reality. She named her shop after her favorite Bible verse.

In 1990, Haaxma and three other agents opened the office with a goal of having 120 listings in 120 days. They did do, and, soon, the business had captured a majority of the local market share. A few years later, a second office was opened at the Alpena Mall, and things continued to expand from there.

Haaxma said God is at the center of everything the company and its employees do and believe. On Tuesdays, the staff hosts a short devotion service that Haaxma believes helps build the bond she has with her staff and clients.

“We are family, and I have been so blessed to have so many great and talented people to work with,” she said. “The anniversary isn’t just about me. There were a lot of people that played a role during the last 30 years.”

Over the last three decades, Banner has seen peaks and valleys in the housing and commercial real estate markets.

Haaxma said prayer and lessons learned during the recession in the early 1980s helped her to overcome the challenges of the Great Recession in 2008 and the accompanying housing market collapse.

Over the years, many developments changed the real estate field. She said host websites, such as Zillow and Realtor.com, market homes from real estate companies, which can bolster sales. Haaxma said there are also negatives associated with those sites, such as home value projections that are often wrong.

“They don’t know what the condition of the house next door is, or if there is a sandy beach that isn’t in the picture,” she said. “They are never right. It is a guesstimate.”

Other significant changes to the industry are also technology-related.

In the early days of Banner, there was always a great deal of fax-sending and hand-delivering important documents. Haaxma said the invention of the internet, email, and electronic signature programs changed the way business is done.

“Things have went from fax, to email, to flip phones, to iPhones that you can do everything on,” she said. “We can finish deals with someone who is out of town, state, or even country in a matter of minutes, now.”

Haaxma said that, because she loves her job and her staff and is still energetic enough to handle the busy schedule of a real estate agent, she intends to continue working for as long as she can and has no retirement plans at this time.

“Business has been a part of my life, and I love Banner Reality and the agents from all through the years,” she said. “The Lord opened the door to come into this, and I will wait for him to tell me what is next, if there is a next.”

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ss_alpenanews.com.