Chuck Marunde, Broker and Manager of eXp Realty in Sequim and Port Angeles, is pleased to announce another home sold this week.  This makes eight homes already this year making Chuck one of the top producing buyer’s agents on the entire Olympic Peninsula.   Reflecting on this sale, Chuck said, “This home is a beautiful home and with what I might call an exceptional floor plan, but this home also has a water view, a peaceful neighborhood and walking trails nearby.  My clients are wonderful people and an absolute pleasure to work for.”

The negotiations went well, but let me say that one of the reasons the negotiations went well was because my clients knew precisely what they wanted, how much they could afford, and they already were pre-qualified.  They are also intelligent and mature, which means realistic and reasonable.  There’s another reason this transaction went smoothly, and this one often goes unnoticed.  The Realtor on the other side of the transaction is a professional who knew how to work in her own client’s best interests while dealing professionally with me and my clients.

What a great time to be buying a home, whether it is in Sequim, Port Angeles, Port Townsend, or Port Ludlow.  There are uncertainties in this world, but home prices have never been better and interest rates are not likely to be lower.  It is very likely that interest rates will be rising soon, and not likely they will return to these historical lows.

If you want to work with a professional buyer’s agent, may I suggest you contact Chuck and start the process.  Chuck has clients making appointments out as far as one year from now, and you can email or call Chuck to interview him anytime.  Why do buyers like working with Chuck?  That’s easy.  We asked his clients.  They like the 20 years  of experience he practiced as a real estate attorney, and they like the friendly professional way he does business.  They feel protected, know they have an agent who can draft contract language, and they find out he is a master negotiator.  In other words, they feel they are getting the best representation they can get.  Chuck can be reached at chuckmarunde@gmail.com or at 360-775-5424.

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Many people who are approaching retirement, or already have retired, have been planning their move to Sequim, and many are looking for a Sequim buyer’s agent because they know the important of having their own representative without the conflict inherent in dual agency.

A Nevada couple bought a home in Sequim, and there’s no doubt that they are two of my favorite people in the  whole world.  Having lived in the Nevada desert myself, we had some things in common.  Bob and Dorothy were retired and told me they thought of Sequim as a great midpoint between the hot dry desert of Nevada and the cool green mountains and rivers of Alaska, where they often spent time with family.

I love working for clients from out of the area and representing them as their Buyer’s Agent.  We communicated for several months by email and on the telephone before they arrived, and by the time they got here, we already had filtered through a lot of homes to narrow down the MLS listings to eight good possibilities.

I loved how we communicated by email, because Bob and Dorothy each had some fascinating questions along the way.  For example, one of Bob’s questions was, “This is going to sound like a odd question, but I know Seattle is pretty liberal, but what’s Sequim like?  Liberal, conservative, or what?”  And one of Dorothy’s questions that made me laugh was, “Is there a scrapbook making club in Sequim?”

Bob said he had some things he wanted in their Sequim home, but he was flexible.  He wanted a two car attached garage, and he wanted a shop or at least enough acreage to build a shop for his RV and wood working tools.  His main theme was, “I could live in almost any home, but Dorothy wants a nice kitchen.  She’s got some ideas, and she says she’ll know it when she sees it.”   When Bob said that I looked at Dorothy for her response, and she kind of bobbed her head back and forth with a hint of a smile on her face.

As we walked through each home, we would talk about its features.  Mostly I listened.  Having only seen the online photos and virtual tours (on two of the listings that had tours), Bob would comment that some of the homes didn’t look at all like the photos, and Dorothy was more emotional in her responses.  “This house doesn’t speak to me,” she said about one house.  And about another house she said, “This kitchen doesn’t feel right.  I can’t do this.”

Bob was apparently more left brained than Dorothy, because he would say about a garage, “That’ll work,” or “Not deep enough.”  Brief and to the point.  I guess that was a function of his background as a CEO of a corporation.

About midway through our tour of the eight homes, we did talk about the possibility of them having a home built if they couldn’t find the right location and floor plan, but it was the seventh house that hit the mark.  As soon as we drove up, Bob and Dorothy both started nodding their heads in approval, and when we walked in the front door, they both went silent.  And then they began to examine the house like a fine art museum.

Dorothy slid her hands across the marble countertops in the kitchen as she imagined herself cooking dinner and practically living in the kitchen every day.  I could almost see the gears turning as she quietly moved around the kitchen and dining room and living room.  She told me later she was feeling like she was home and she was just taking it all in.

Bob watched Dorothy and he mechanically went through the other rooms giving his approval for this feature and for that.  We ended up sitting on the large leather sofa in the living room and just relaxing for a few minutes while Bob and especially Dorothy just soaked it up.  Brazilian hardwood in the living room and hallways, a classy tile in the kitchen with marble countertops and custom built cabinets, a grand master bedroom with a walk-in his and hers closet, a bathroom with a large shower with tile and high quality hardware and a large deep tub with jets.  The five acres is level and all irrigated with a commercial underground system.  And a fishing hole within walking distance.  Almost too good to be true.

After some negotiating, and a few contingencies and some due diligence, Bob and Dorothy bought their dream home for $460,000.  Are they happy today, months later?  Absolutely.  You would think they arrived in Heaven already.  Were there some challenges and some stress along the way?  Yes.  But nothing we couldn’t handle together.

I help retired people find the home they expect to live in the rest of their lives.  Their castle.  I love what I do, and I really like my clients, too.  Of course, Sequim is an amazing place to live.

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I have many wonderful California clients who retire in Sequim, so I couldn’t resist echoing some of their thoughts about why they move from California to Sequim.

I live in California where the sun is bright and the flowers bloom,
Where highways are byways, and mudslides and fires consume.
I live in the masses and the overpasses and I promise it’s full to the brim,
Oh, can you imagine how I long for the paradise known as Sequim?

I seek and I search for that perfect little perch,
And I know in my heart, satisfied will be my thirst,
When at last I find my dream home in that one place never grim,
My home, my destiny, my retirement dream, yes it’s Sequim.

Night and day I travel the Internet superhighway,
I look, I long, I sing a song, but where oh where will I stay?
I love the trees, the mountains and the sea, and I love to swim,
So why am I here in California and not in Sequim?

I know that I know that I need a Sequim Buyer’s Agent,
But I wait and I wait, did I say I procrastinate?
Where oh where will I find that ideal buyer’s agent, I’m stuck.
Alas, a Google search of “Sequim Buyer’s Agent” answered–it’s Chuck.

Chuck Marunde, J.D.
Sequim Buyer’s Agent
Sequim-Real-Estate-Blog.com
chuckmarunde@gmail.com
360-775-5424

An early photograph, much earlier.

Call or email me today.

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Confession time.  I love being a Sequim Buyer’s Agent.   Today was another busy day, but it was a good busy.   This morning I wrote and submitted an offer on a lot for clients intending to build their retirement home.   Tomorrow we will know whether the seller accepts, rejects, or counters.   I represented my clients as their Sequim Exclusive Buyer’s Agent.

I followed up on some post-closing paperwork on two houses I sold and that closed last week.   One sold for $449,000 and the other for $425,000.   I have to say that my clients in both cases are incredible people and a tremendous pleasure to work with.   There were many many details involved for both of those transactions, but all went smoothly all the way through closing.   (I’m a detail person and having been an attorney helps to make sure all the T’s are crossed and all the I’s are dotted.”)

I also touched base with another party, because I submitted an offer two weeks ago on a house that is a short sale for just under $325,000, and we are still waiting impatiently for the bank on the east coast to render their written approval of the price.   The bank will suffer a significant loss on that transaction.   Short sales are a pain, because we have to deal with banks that move slower than snails.

And last, I did a walk through for some out of state clients on their purchase of a nice home in Sequim that closes tomorrow.   This is a gorgeous custom home with a back yard that would make any Master Gardener salivate, or at least want to get their hands dirty.   It sold for exactly $325,000.

All things considered, it was another beautiful day in Paradise for this Sequim Exclusive Buyer’s Agent.

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I just realized that not everyone knows how I can represent them as a buyer’s agent.   Of course, I can represent a buyer who finds a home for sale in the MLS listed by another agent, and I cost my client nothing, since the seller pays the real estate commissions.

And I can represent a buyer who is purchasing a home in a foreclosure or in a short sale.

I can also represent a buyer as a consultant if they already have a contract signed and they are unrepresented.

In all of these cases, I cost my client absolutely nothing.   You’ve got to love that.   You get an experienced Realtor with 20 years of real estate law practice to boot.   And free!

I hope I have the privilege of working with you.

Chuck Marunde, J.D.
Realtor/Broker
chuckmarunde@gmail.com
360-775-5424

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