Sequim real estate agents are wondering what Chuck Marunde is doing to sell so many homes and get so many qualified leads.   Neighbors of a home Chuck has listed in Sunland on the golf course are seeing the sign and the activity and wondering who this broker is.   They’re used to seeing the familiar franchise signs for sale on homes in Sunland.   So who is Sequim & Port Angeles Real Estate, LLC, and what’s all the hullabaloo?

“Back in 1995 I realized the Internet was going to be a major player in real estate, and I started a website then, but in the past two years the Internet has become the dominant tool buyers use to find a home,” says Chuck.   “So I built the largest Internet brokerage in all of Sequim and Port Angeles, and the results are stunning, but other brokers and many homeowners who are not paying attention to this Internet trend are still in the dark.   I don’t advertise in the local newspaper, because that is NOT where buyers from California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and Montana are looking!   And it’s not Sequim homeowners who are the buyers.   I am reaching out directly to the buyers from out of state.   It just makes sense, but many people haven’t thought this through, including local real estate brokers.”

In the biggest real estate recession the country has seen in decades, and the worst real estate market in memory for Sequim and Port Angeles, many real estate agents have left the business, and some have not sold anything in over a year.   Many are working other jobs, including washing dishes (literally) just to survive.   Not Chuck Marunde.

“I feel very blessed.   I sold a home in January, one in March, one in May, and I have two pending transactions in June already, and I’m submitting another offer today or tomorrow.   Here’s the amazing thing.   I don’t waste my money or my client’s money on things that don’t work, advertising that produces no results.   My Internet presence is producing buyers who are delighted to work with a Realtor who gets it.   Clients tell me they appreciate the fact that I was a real estate attorney, and tthe articles I post for them at no cost so they can make intelligent choices when they move here.   I would just call this basic customer service.”

“I’m so fortunate that the pieces of my chaotic life seem to have come together at this time and place.   I spent a lifetime in real estate transactions and law, marketing and sales, and technology.   I also love to write, so all of this somehow uniquely fits me, but most importantly it fits clients who are buying and selling.”

Most real state brokerages are operating under a 20 year old business model, but they are being left behind by the Internet.   Selling homes in Sequim or Port Angeles is no longer a simple matter of putting it in the MLS, running an ad once every six weeks in the local paper or the home sales magazine.   Agents who are sitting at the desk staring at the phone while it does not ring and waiting for buyers to walk into their brick and mortar offices are getting nervous, but more importantly, they are not producing sales for their listing clients and they are not connecting with buyers.

“Don’t be fooled by agents who tell you they have your listing all over the Internet.   There is much much more to the story about what works and what doesn’t work.   While I prefer not to reveal secrets that have taken me years and a wheel barrel of money to learn, I will share those with my clients.”

Sharp buyers and sellers are not just using the Internet–they are using it intelligently.   They know how to filter through the garbage to find a good agent, how to search for property, and they are discerning the   difference between agents who are blowing smoke and the agents who have real experience and professional knowledge.

So this real estate blog continues to help buyers and sellers to buy and sell in this market, but this blog also continues to be a source of professional education for real estate agents.   Everyone is welcome here.

At least one agent in Sequim and Port Angeles is having fun.   Chuck Marunde can be reached at his email, which is chuckmarunde@gmail.com or his direct phone, which is 360-775-5424.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Real Estate Agents Leaving Business in Large Numbers
• Real Estate Agents – A Dime a Dozen?
• Real Estate Marketing
• The Curse of a Referral: Referrals Are Supposed to be Reliable
• Wanted: New Sequim and Port Angeles Real Estate Agents

Finding a real estate agent who is good is not something some people consider important, or they don’t realize how to find a good real estate agent.

Pick a Real Estate Agent (Pick a Card)

A buyer decides he needs a real estate agent to buy a home, but this buyer makes a huge mistake, and the bad news is he has no idea he is making it.   He’s in a very respected profession, and he’s a mature and intelligent man.   He has a good friend, and his good friend’s wife is a real estate agent.   So when he wants to buy a house, he automatically hires his friend’s wife.   After all, she is a real estate agent.   Notice that word “automatically.”

This is a true story.   As it turns out, his friend’s wife is not so competent and not so ethical or professional.   The details don’t matter for purposes of this brief story, but the bottom line is that Mr. Professional gets less than royal treatment, and that is the understatement of the century.   I’m being polite here.   At the time Mr. Professional had no idea how his own real estate agent sabotaged his transaction with her incompetence and unprofessionalism. He never knew, that is, until much later, when he subsequently finds out, and later tells me the whole story.

Real Estate Agent -  Dime a Dozen?

What’s the moral of this story?   Just because your friend’s wife is a real estate agent does NOT mean she is a great agent who will do such a great job for you.   Why in the world would someone assume they must hire their friend’s wife or sister or friend?   I’ll tell you why, and when you think about it, it just seems dumb.   They hire that person simply because of that relationship.   Period.   That is the ONLY reason.   It’s hard to believe, but this happens regularly, and I hear the nightmare stories.

[In my book on this subject I included this paragraph, and I included this in a response to a comment to this article:  "As a small but important point of clarification, when I use the term 'housewives' I’m really talking about people, men or women, who got their real estate license but have no real estate education, no business education, no sales education, no marketing education, no legal training to draft legal documents, and very little to offer clients except time and a smile. As consumers tell me all the time, there are agents just like this all over the country. I actually picked up this derogatory use of the word 'housewives' from consumers themselves over many years. Do not misunderstand me here. This doesn’t mean a person I call a licensed housewife (or househusband) isn’t a wonderful person and a good person. This is not a character issue. It’s a professional competence issue. It’s not about the person—it’s about their lack of education, knowledge, experience, and professionalism. I get along with almost everybody, and I love almost everybody, regardless of their background or history. Anyone who knows me also knows that I am a strong believer in extending grace and mercy to everyone."  See more in the comments below.]

Your Real Estate Agent and Professionalism

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with hiring a friend’s wife as your real estate agent, if she is truly competent, experienced, professional, and ethical, but for goodness sake, do some due diligence first.   Go out and interview at least three real estate agents, and choose those three carefully by filtering through the Internet to first read about them and find the one real estate agent with the best education PLUS experience PLUS a powerful Internet presence.   The first two should be obvious, but don’t forget that 85% of all home buyers start their search on the Internet today according to a national survey by the National Association of Realtors, so if your real estate agent doesn’t have a powerful Internet presence, go somewhere else.

Honestly, I have heard so many stories from good people who hired a housewife as their real estate agent because she was a sister of someone or a brother’s aunt’s daughter, and after they have made the same big mistake that so many before have innocently made, they shake their head in disbelief as they talk about it.

Why would I be so blunt and honest in this article?   Because I have seen this same scenario so many times as a real estate attorney and again as a real estate agent that I think I’ll scream it out–All real estate agents are NOT the same.   Hire a good real estate agent, not just someone who has a license and is your friend’s wife.   Many of these real estate agents have no business background, no degree in marketing or sales, no real estate knowledge, other than the little online courses required to pass the test, and virtually no experience in hard negotiating or legal documents, and you’re hiring this person to spend your $300,000?   Egad!

Okay.   I’ve said it.   Now you have some choices to make.   Hire someone who is professional, honest and has the experience, someone who will assertively represent you, or . . . hire Tom, Sally, or Jane who just happens to be a friend of a friend and got his or her license.

Not sure who to hire?   Call me and ask me anything under the sun, and I’ll answer your questions honestly.   Do the same with two other real estate agents.   Then judge for yourself.   If you don’t think I’m the man for the job, then hire someone else, but don’t you deserve the opportunity to find out for yourself before you hire Jane or Sally automatically?

Hire a good real estate agent, whoever he or she might be.  A good real estate agent is not easy to find.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Real Estate Agents Leaving Business in Large Numbers
• Real Estate Agents – A Dime a Dozen?
• Real Estate Marketing
• The Curse of a Referral: Referrals Are Supposed to be Reliable
• Wanted: New Sequim and Port Angeles Real Estate Agents

Some real estate agents around the country are riding bicycles to save gas and the environment while they show their clients homes for sale.   Amazing!   In this photo, an agent in San Diego takes clients out.

This presents a challenge to all of us who are Realtors.   Do we promote bicycling to show houses and land?   Would clients like that?   Should be we more conscious of the environment and try to save fossil fuels?

The answers are no, no, and yes.

Bicycling has not caught on in Sequim or Port Angeles as a popular form of transportation for showing listed properties for sale.   Hmm.   How long would it take for me and two clients to look at eight houses on bike’s stretching from Freshwater Bay west of Port Angeles to the John Wayne Marina in Sequim?   Answer:   too long.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Real Estate Agents – A Dime a Dozen?
• Real Estate Marketing
• The Curse of a Referral: Referrals Are Supposed to be Reliable
• Wanted: New Sequim and Port Angeles Real Estate Agents
• Who is this Sequim Realtor?

Sequim and Port Angeles Real Estate, LLC, Broker Chuck Marunde is paying out 90% to agents, and that’s virtually unheard of in Sequim and Port Angeles.   Chuck reflects here.   “Agents need to be able to take home a lot more of their own commissions, and that means reducing their ridiculously high overhead and monthly expenses, and keeping much more of what they earn.”

(more…)

Possibly Related Posts:

• Real Estate Agents – A Dime a Dozen?
• Real Estate Marketing
• The Curse of a Referral: Referrals Are Supposed to be Reliable
• Wanted: New Sequim and Port Angeles Real Estate Agents
• Who is this Sequim Realtor?

How many Sequim agents are there? By my last count there are 218 real estate agents in Sequim, Washington. Wow. That’s one agent for every 18 Sequim residents (including babies), if you believe the city population of 4,000. Of course, most of the agents do serve a larger area outside the city limits, too.

Okay, let’s qualify that a little bit. Sequim is a well known retirement community. While there is no data collected on this, it is my educated guess that about 50% of the Sequim agents are either retirees with an income who decided to get a real estate license, or their spouses have a retirement income.

The other speculation is that out of the 50% who are not retired and don’t have a spouse with a retirement income, 50% of that group has an income from a regular non-real estate job. There’s nothing wrong with being a part time real estate agent. That is popular throughout the U.S.

That leaves 53 agents who are not retired, do not have a retired spouse with an income, and who do not have an income from a regular job or a spouse with an income from a regular job (other than real estate).

Out of this group of 53 agents, how many are full time and earn 100% of their income from real estate commissions to support their family? Here again, I’m guessing that 35 agents is the answer. It’s a small town and a small market, so to have 35 agents earning full time incomes to support their families is probably about right.

The Sequim Association of Realtors is one of the best managed associations in the state. It has been for years.

I raised my own family in Sequim and in my strong opinion, it is one of the best communities (all things considered) to live in anywhere in the country.

Courtesy Sequim & Port Angeles Real Estate, LLC

Possibly Related Posts:

• Real Estate Agents – A Dime a Dozen?
• Real Estate Marketing
• The Curse of a Referral: Referrals Are Supposed to be Reliable
• Wanted: New Sequim and Port Angeles Real Estate Agents
• Who is this Sequim Realtor?