Scot Auble says he doesn't like to do things unless he's 100 percent committed to them. For years, he gave all his energy to building Auble, Jolicoeur & Gentry, a real estate appraisal firm started here by his father in 1985. But after years of doing a high volume of work and reviewing the work of his associates, he says now, "There were points in the last couple of years that I said, 'I don't know if I can do one more appraisal.'"

So the 48-year-old Auble has decided to leave the firm, which he has led since 1996. He wants to buy a business he can run with his wife, Treasure, who also owns Treasured Resources, a business consulting service here. He plans to continue doing appraisals for banks, working from home, and he wants to finish a novel he's been writing. He wants to spend more time on his personal real estate investments, more time with his wife and two sons, Michael, age 11, and Matthew, 8, and more time cycling. He'd be happy to engage a corporate sponsor to bankroll a cycling trip across the U.S., he jokes.

Auble went to work for his father, David C. Auble, in 1985, the week after he graduated from WSU with a degree in criminal justice. Auble says he had worked for his father during his college summer breaks, and between his junior and senior years, decided to switch to real estate as a career, but didn't want to spend an extra year completing another degree program. His father and Bruce Jolicoeur, a partner in the firm, mentored him in the beginning, and he took numerous certification courses from the Appraisal Institute.

"It's a tough learning curve. There's so much to learn if you want to be good," Auble says of the business. His toughest challenges were with math, he says, but a former appraiser with the firm tutored him in the math skills he needed.

As time went on, Auble says he saw ways to improve practices at the firm, and his father began to give him more control, until the elder Auble retired and Scot stepped into the role of president.

Knowing he still had a lot to learn, and wanting to be mentored by other business leaders, Auble joined a CEO group. He says Mark Sonderen, of Sonderen Packaging Inc.; Larry Brown, of Onions Inc.; Lee Tate, of Tate Technology Inc.; and Mike Nowling, then of The Heart Institute, looked at his PowerPoint analyses and listened to his ideas for growing the firm, such as building custom data bases to increase the efficiency of report writing and hiring lower-paid research assistants, which would free up the appraisers to take on more work.

"They patted me on the back and said, 'You're right—you can do it," Auble says. "But I couldn't do it. I knew I'd lose some of the best producers in the company. My ideas wouldn't fit how they worked."

After he had struggled for some time with the decision, one of his mentors said to him, "Scot, what's holding you back? If you're not making money, and you're not happy, take the risk," Auble recalls.

So, about two years after he became president of Auble, Jolicoeur & Gentry, he says he began to implement major changes in the firm. He believed that the changes would allow his appraisers working on commission to become productive enough to want to remain with the firm, rather than go out on their own to make more money.

As a result of the changes, two of his best producers left the firm, he says, but he adds that those who stayed increased their income by 30 percent the following year.

"It worked," Auble says. "It was a very big risk, but the others bought into the plan, and it went off like a rocket ship."

Next, one of his CEO mentors began telling Auble he needed to do job costing, but he says he had a mental block against implementing that strategy in a real estate appraisal firm. Finally, he told himself, "OK—I'm going to do it. After a couple of iterations, I instituted job costings. Right away, the business became more profitable."

Auble says the firm doubled in productivity per appraiser in five years under his new plans, and according to its clients, the appraisers' work didn't lose any quality. The president was on a roll, but at one point, one of his partners came to him and said, "Scot, can we not change for awhile?"

"I had to slow down here and there," Auble says.

Another challenge he took on was to engage in community service, following the example of his father, whom Auble describes as "an amazing machine—he volunteered for all kinds of associations."

Auble joined the board of directors of the YMCA and YWCA, the Washington State University Spokane Advisory Council, and the Spokane and Kootenai County Real Estate Research Committee.

On the "Y" boards, he was heavily engaged for several years in the process of planning and building the new north and central facilities, and says it was "a great experience."

He found the WSU council less satisfying.

"I don't feel my contribution was very good. I could never figure out how colleges work. I couldn't get my arms around it," he says.

Auble believes the Real Estate Research Committee, of which he was chairman in 2005, has had a significant impact on community development in Spokane.

Auble says that at its first meeting in 1977, leaders from prominent companies, such as James S. Black & Co. and Kiemle & Hagood Co., sat down together and discussed a possible collaboration. Auble says the companies controlled a lot of data about the real estate market, but agreed that controlling their data was not making them money, and they would benefit by sharing it. That year, they agreed to split the cost of compiling data for the entire real estate market, and began printing it in a book every six months.

Auble believes the publication "has helped us grow up as a community. Big companies that do big loans insist on having that service. They need a comprehensive survey before they will invest in your town."

Dale Strom, of the city of Spokane's Community Development Department, has been on the Real Estate Research Committee since its inception. He says, "Scot is a real star in our business community. He's got a generous spirit. He's extremely good at what he does. For someone to be that skilled, and still give a lot of his free time to see good things happen . Scot is a tremendous asset to the whole community."

When Auble isn't hard at work, or hard at volunteering, he prefers to be hard at play. He says he began entering triathlons with several of his friends 20 years ago.

"It was really fun, so we just kept doing it," he says, until two knee surgeries ended his running aspirations, and he began focusing on cycling.

Now, he says, cycling is his primary hobby. He likes long-distance road trips, and says the North Cascades Highway is his favorite route. He likes to take trips with family or friends, but usually plans trips on short notice, so he often goes by himself. He says his wife encourages him to take cycling trips, because when he gets out and exercises, "reportedly, I have a better demeanor."

Auble also likes spending time with his family. One summer, he and his wife decided to telecommute from their lake place. He says he did office work until 10 a.m., then played with the boys until 4 p.m., then went back to work. He sent his office staff a photo of himself waterskiing in business clothes, labeling it, "my morning commute."

Although his partners in Auble, Jolicoeur & Gentry are buying him out, Auble says he always will be involved in real estate. He will continue to manage his real estate investments in the Spokane area, and he says he's been asked to join the board of a local bank. He says he wants to remain in Spokane because of the magnanimity of business leaders here.

"There's a big difference working with someone in New York versus someone in Spokane," he says.

He doesn't fear for the future of his appraisal firm, which now will be led by Bruce Jolicoeur.

"Mr. Jolicoeur has been here longer than me, and he helped train me. Everyone owes him a lot. He has one of the most brilliant real estate minds in Spokane," Auble says.

Neither does he fear for the future of Spokane.

"Obviously, we have to recover from the recession, but already Realtors are reporting an uptick in showings. Downtown is still on a roll. I know of several major leases being negotiated that will be good for downtown.

"Some buildings will go into foreclosure this year, there's no question about that, but that doesn't mean the sky is falling. It's just falling for those individuals."

Auble says it's personally painful for him to see others' real estate investments fail.

"It's always difficult being an appraiser in a recession. You don't make people happy. That I won't miss. People I've known for 25 years are calling me, saying, 'You're sure it isn't worth any more than that?' But they respect your integrity."

Auble insists that the recession is not the reason for his decision to leave the firm. He says it's something he's been contemplating for several years. He says he needs to answer the question, "Could I do well at another business? I've got to do it sooner rather than later. I've prayed a lot about it, and this is the direction I'm comfortable going in."