Prominent real estate brokerage Keller Williams Realty Spokane plans to launch a luxury home division here that will provide the franchise specialized training and worldwide marketing for high-end home sales, says broker Bruce Hardie.

Hardie says that the number of potential luxury homebuyers in the country is on the rise following a steep, multiyear decline.

"Prior to the decline in the national real estate market starting in 2006, the number of high net-worth individuals in the country dropped by 15 percent. Today that number is back," he says. "As the market does come back, we want to be in the position to fill the needs of the luxury home buyer."

Keller Williams Spokane will require specific training for agents to become members of the luxury home division, Hardie says.

He expects about a half-dozen of the brokerage's 192 agents here will complete their training in the luxury home market within the next couple of weeks. One of those agents is a pilot who plans to focus on recreational, waterfront, and fly-in properties, Hardie says.

The training includes a weeklong event in Austin, Texas, he says.

Of Keller Williams, 80,000 agents nationwide, only 1 percent of them have qualified for the luxury home division in their respective markets, he says.

"One of the benefits of this is it's tightly knit in terms of referring business back and forth to each other here," he says.

In the Spokane market, more than 350 homes are listed for sale for more than $500,000, which is Keller Williams' threshold for defining luxury homes. Of those, 58 are listed at more than $1 million.

That equates to an inventory in the range of more than one year to more than three years, Hardie says.

"The luxury home market here definitely is a buyer's market," he says.

Agents in the luxury division will be able to take advantage of relationships Keller Williams has with nationwide and international marketing outlets.

"All of our luxury homes get marketed worldwide," he says.

Keller Williams Spokane is based at 802 N. Washington, near downtown.