(photo at left, Mike Gain in his West Seattle office, next to framed drawings of Cayce and Gain’s past headquarters)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“Personally, I think the market’s bottomed out.”
Longtime West Seattle real-estate/development leader Mike Gain was careful to include the term “personally.” But it’s emblematic of his optimistic nature, which he is using to fuel what he calls the “run” to get up to speed as he takes over Prudential Northwest Realty, which he ran for two years after he and Roger Cayce sold their West Seattle-iconic Cayce and Gain real-estate firm to Prudential in 2002.
That “run” hasn’t stopped since at least Tuesday, when he prepared to tell the PNW areawide team he was coming back to run the company (as first reported here Thursday morning, once Gain confirmed it).
Even as I sat in Gain’s 3210 California SW office this afternoon – where I’d last visited in December 2007 to talk with Gain and Cayce about their rezoning proposal for the blocks surrounding it (more on that proposal’s status later) – signs of that “run” persisted.
First: The phone rang several times during our conversation. One of those calls was from Michael Smith, who is now running Prudential Northwest’s Eastside operations, but previously owned his own successful company, the only one bought by PNW after Gain’s departure.
Gain’s title right now for the firm is CEO, though he also is careful to note that the “deal points” are not all finalized, so you may hear more news about the changes soon.
Second: Piles of paper were spread across a counter in the office Gain has long shared with Cayce. He explained that most were notes he took during a sleepless night Thursday – not sleepless from worry, but sleepless from a relentless stream of thoughts and ideas, the night after he announced to Prudential Northwest team members — including 575 “sales professionals” spread across six offices from North Seattle to Bellevue to Burien, plus a relocation office — that he was returning.
“It all happened so fast,” he recalled. “Tuesday night is when I got the paperwork.”
Attending the sales meeting at Jefferson Square on Thursday, Gain said, “I felt like I was coming home.” And right now, he is looking ahead to this coming Wednesday, when he says “strategic planning” will begin for the operation he’s now leading, 
again.
Technically, he’d been retired for the past five years or so, though he didn’t spend much time kicking back. Sure, he was wintering in Palm Desert and playing golf – a pastime, he says on a rainy Seattle winter afternoon, that is likely missed most by his 14-year-old canine companion Tucker (photo right), who snoozed in the office while we talked, instead of — perhaps — enjoying a sunny afternoon in a California golf cart.
Through the window next to his desk, you can see the 3221 California SW offices just vacated 5 weeks ago by part of the Prudential Northwest Realty team Gain is now leading. We ask about a rumor he might reopen that location, and he says, “That’s just a rumor,” springboarding into a mention that before this new role emerged, he was thinking about using that site for a new “real-estate startup” of his own – perhaps back to “Cayce and Gain, The Local Professionals” as was known through West Seattle during their heyday in the ’80s and ’90s, before the Prudential sale in 1996 – but, “now, we just don’t have to go there.”
One of the many reasons Gain says he is interested in being back in the thick of things is that “the real-estate business hasn’t changed as much as people think. People are starving to find someone who can guide them and help them through the process.” That would also seem to apply to the role he plans to serve as leader of the firm — guiding and helping its employees, many of whom are happy about Gain’s return; as PNW realtor Alice Kuder told WSB on Thursday, “Many of the longtime agents in this office worked for/with Mike during his previous ownership and they are VERY excited about his return.”
“My intention is to make this company as great as it once was,” Gain declares.
He does not want to discuss how it slipped out of greatness, though: “I’m not going to say anything negative,” he insists. He allows that the former owners did some “incredible” things, not the least of which is, upgrading technology — computers and phones included — throughout the company, acknowledging that it had become “a little tired” by the time he and Cayce sold it in 2002: “I feel like I left an old Chevrolet, and am now getting behind the wheel of a Cadillac.”
The former owners, he adds, seemed to have their strengths in improving systems and functionality — but weren’t as strong in what he sees as his strengths: Leadership and motivation. Particularly, Gain says, in a challenging market, as is the case now — and he is quick to point out that he has worked through times like these before, even going back to the early ’80s, when Cayce and Gain was founded, which he says in some ways was a tougher time — with much-higher interest rates — than the current day, which he terms “a time of opportunity,” adding that he disagrees with President Obama, regarding the White House use of doom-and-gloom terminology for the current economic woes.
Speaking of Cayce, Gain mentions him often during our conversation, and even points more than a few times toward his longtime business partner’s desk on the other side of the office. As announced on Thursday, Cayce is part of the new operation, too, in what sounds like an advising/consulting role as much as anything, and will offer his expertise “going inside the numbers,” as Gain explains it — “Instead of focusing on 7 percent unemployment, he’ll focus on 93 percent employment,” for 
example.
Cayce also will be picking up Gain’s share of the development projects on which they had been working together. Among them, Gain mentions, a project that’s under construction on Alki, in the 2400 block of 55th SW (photo left; here’s a map) — as well as the now-year-and-a-half old upzoning proposal for the California SW blocks in which their offices are located. As we have reported here more than a few times (most recently a month ago), the city is still working toward a decision on the request, though Gain says there’s no rush, as this is not quite the right time to go ahead with their development ideas for the area (which were detailed in our December 2007 story; we’ll be checking in with Cayce regarding what happens next once the city’s decision on the upzoning request is in.)
Along with Cayce and Smith, Al Lynch rounds out the leadership team that Gain has tabbed for starters; Lynch ran the Jefferson Square wing of the realty for more than a decade, and will now be chief operating officer — “cheap operating officer, is how I put it,” Gain jokes, underscoring the need for financial prudence.
While those who report to him will have important roles, Gain doesn’t underplay his own, nor the value of the fact he can speak to workers from someone who’s walked in their shoes: “I don’t just talk the game. I was a top producer. I started a startup, and by 1986, we were at the top in West Seattle, by 1996 the world changed and we joined Prudential … They know I know what it’s like (to be out in the field, working on deals).” And he expresses appreciation for the experience of many of the people he says are still with the firm, or coming back to the “bullpen” — “many have been through a bad market and know you don’t have to just wait for it to get better. If you just want to wait for the market to improve, then go to work for the competition.”
He says he intends to focus on marketing the company to which he has returned, and he engages in some of that during our conversation, laying out the case for why he feels property buyers and sellers are better served by dealing with agents than going with online companies or trying to handle transactions themselves: “Your home has to be priced properly. If comparable homes are on the market, yours better be the best value. Websites give you information, just data, but (to successfully sell or buy) you have to know the market. Just using raw information is dangerous — that’s why people need professional help. We bring value to the transaction. The people who try to save the cost of the commission can wind up netting less than if they had paid a professional to help.”
Any myths he’d like to debunk about where the real-estate market stands now? “It’s a good time to have homes on the market, as long as they are priced properly.” He warns against getting hung up on what your home theoretically was worth before prices started falling as the economy faltered: “You have to take out your memory chip. What happened before doesn’t matter.”
And that’s exactly what he says about the past few years at Prudential Northwest Realty. He’s focusing on something of a fresh start, but with the added benefit of the technological improvements he mentioned earlier — “for agents, we have the best tools and technology for them to offer the best services” — and the national connections of Prudential, which is why he says he and Cayce chose to go with that company in the late ’90s, rather than a more regional one like John L. Scott or Windermere.
He’s even going to make some more personal-level changes, finding himself a new office, meaning he soon won’t be based at 3210 California SW. The Cayce and Gain rental and development work will go on — “my daughter and son still work here!” he points out — but he’ll be physically based elsewhere. And that means the first time in years that he and Cayce will be on truly separate paths. Cayce, he laughs, asked a question like “are you crazy?” upon first word that Gain would be retaking the PNW Realty helm, but ultimately, Gain says, he’s glad to be back in the fray: “I missed the action, and the interaction.”
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