Gregg Elizabeth Jones and her daughter, Sabrina Jones-Schroeder, are liquidating their Spokane real estate company in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, but have launched a new company that will operate under the Exit Real Estate brand the former company used. The two women also have filed for personal bankruptcy.

Jones-Schroeder says the company she and her mother owned, Jones & Jones-Schroeder Real Estate Inc., which did business as Exit Real Estate-Jones & Associates, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in June and is in the process of closing as the bankruptcy proceedings wrap up. Its office, at 421 S. Division, was sold to Providence Health Services in a $1.4 million short sale in May. Meanwhile, the mother-daughter team launched another brokerage company, called G&S Real Estate Professionals Inc., which has opened an office at 3124 S. Regal, on the South Hill, and the previous company's about 50 real estate agents are working at the new company, Jones-Schroeder says. The new company is doing business as Exit Real Estate Professionals.

Due to heavy personal investment in Jones & Jones-Schroeder Real Estate, Jones, as well as Jones-Schroeder and her husband, Jeffrey Schroeder, filed for personal bankruptcy in two separate filings, Jones-Schroeder says.

"We're not discharging a whole lot of personal debt," she says. "We had personal guarantees on the building and business loans. It was facing 20 years of judgments, or filing bankruptcy. None of us are happy that we couldn't make good on those loans."

Jones-Schroeder adds, "Selling our building and downsizing created a lot of upheaval for our agents to go through. Obviously, we're doing something right because our agents decided to stick with us," she says.

In its Bankruptcy Court filing, the former brokerage listed assets of $4,600 and liabilities of $226,000. Sterling Savings Bank, of Spokane, is listed as the largest creditor, with claims of $108,000.

In her Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy, Gregg Elizabeth Jones listed assets of $310,000 and liabilities of $1.5 million. The filing describes $1.1 million of those liabilities as business debt, including $650,000 owed to the Northwest Business Development Association, of Spokane, for the balance on the short sale of the agency building on Division Street.

In their Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy filing, Jeffrey Lee Schroeder and Sabrina Katherine Jones-Schroeder listed assets of $841,000 and liabilities of nearly $2 million, including $1.3 million described as business debt, some of it the same debt listed in Gregg Jones' filing.

Jones & Jones-Schroeder Real Estate Inc. listed Jones as 51 percent owner and Jones-Schroeder with 49 percent ownership. That entity had no business activity during the bankruptcy proceedings, Jones-Schroeder says.

Bruce R. Boyden, a Spokane attorney, handled all three bankruptcy cases. He deferred to Jones-Schroeder for comments on the cases.

"Last spring was tough, but this summer has been really great," Jones-Schroeder says. "We're happy that the end is in sight. We're still here. We're still in business. We're going to hunker down for awhile. We've cut our expenses way back. We're not going to try to grow for five or 10 years."