Now you can Text your Sequim real estate agent to ask for more information about a listing, to ask about real estate issues, and to communicate while your transaction is pending.  Texting has become a favorite method of communicating, and it is convenient and fast.

Sequim Real Estate Agent Resources

If you’re at your computer with Internet access or on your laptop at Starbucks with wireless, you’ll find many powerful free Internet resources for buyers on the numerous websites and blogs of Sequim and Port Angeles Real Estate, and you’ll find many of those resources available right here on this blog.  If you’re on your smart phone (iPhone) or your iPod or iPad you’ll find a mobile app in the iTunes store for searching the Sequim MLS.  These resources include a powerful Sequim MLS map search feature, foreclosure search, a Sequim real estate market report of listed and sold properties with lots of data, a weekly real estate newsletter that is delivered to your email, a real estate law site, a real estate blog with over 1,000 articles specifically written about Sequim real estate, buying and selling, negotiating the best price, foreclosures, lots of videos produced specifically for buyers of Sequim real estate, and a lot more.

This Sequim real estate agent gives all his clients a book about Sequim real estate, Buying and Selling Real Estate in the Rain Shadow, written by Chuck Marunde, local real estate attorney and Sequim real estate agent.  This is also available as an eBook download in the Apple iTunes Bookstore.  There is a free eBook for sellers to download to help them understand the selling process and what works.

All of these resources have allowed Chuck Marunde to become the number one Sequim buyer’s agent in 2011.  Why?  Because buyers appreciate free online resources that don’t require them to register their confidential information.  They appreciate the many resources that give them information they can’t find anywhere else, and buyers appreciate the professionalism and experience of someone who has been in real estate for 37 years and who is completely dedicated to the best interests of his clients.

Sequim Real Estate Agent Service

Offering a texting service for clients is simply another way that this Sequim real estate agent continues to demonstrate with action that his clients come first.  “I serve my clients with every ounce of energy that I have, and I bring technology to the table to serve my clients in the same way.”

Sequim Real Estate Agent Text Number 360-775-5424

Chuck Marunde is a Sequim real estate agent, hopefully your buyer’s agent, and can be texted anytime at 360-775-5424.  Put that number in your cell phone contacts list and text Chuck anytime you have a question or want to know the status of a transaction.  This Sequim real estate agent never stops working for you.

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A Realtor will often refer to himself as a listing agent or a buyer’s agent.  A listing agent is often called a seller’s agent, and a buyer’s agent is often called an exclusive buyer’s agent.  There are distinctions to be made between all of them, but the purpose of this article is to challenge your thinking on what a listing agent does when he or she lists your home for sale and how that compares to a buyer’s agent.  This article might have been titled, “Listing Agent v. Buyer’s Agent.”  I’m going to make an argument you probably never heard before.  My argument is that today a homeowner who wants to sell their home should be listing their property with a Buyer’s Agent who is actually making a direct connection with buyers and not with a Listing Agent who simply lists property and puts it in the MLS.  Follow my argument, because the role of Realtors has morphed into something quite different than the traditional listing agent of the past couple of decades.

The Traditional Listing Agent

A traditional listing agent of the past two decades would list lots of properties.  That was the name of the game.  Agents around the country were taught to “list list list.”  The top producing Realtors for decades have been listing agents.  They didn’t care which Realtor sold their listings, because they got paid half the commission every time one of the listings sold.  All they had to do was list it and put it in the MLS.  Some Realtor would sell their listings, and they would then claim that they had, “sold another house.”  Actually, it was the Buyer’s Agent who sold the home or some other agent who connected with the buyer directly.  (more…)

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Sequim Realtor Chuck Marunde went jogging in Las Vegas on a beautiful sunny day, albeit 96 degrees.  Here is Chuck out having fun to Vegas and back to Sequim.

Sequim Realtor out for a jog.

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Real estate brokers are discovering that their entire industry is changing.  The real estate recession has certainly been a major factor, but the underlying tectonic forces have more to do with changes in consumer preferences.  Consumers are using technology to find their homes and their real estate brokers.

Consumers are no longer willing to be sold with obnoxious advertising and told what to buy and when to buy it. Consumers are sick and tired of interruption advertising, of billboards, of high pressure salesmen, of telemarketing, and of misrepresentations and boldfaced lies. Real estate brokers are right in the middle of all these changes.  I believe it was Seth Godin who first coined the phrase, “interruption advertising.” It’s a very descriptive phrase of traditional advertising that interrupts your favorite movie with an ad for a product you don’t want and don’t care about, or a large obnoxious page in a magazine or newspaper that interrupts your reading experience.

Real Estate Brokers – Not Business as Usual

Consumers have also had it with professional conflicts of interest, especially with real estate brokers. They’re fed up with only getting partial information upon which to base their most important decisions. Consumers want and demand freedom to control their own destiny. They don’t like being controlled. They don’t like being manipulated. I write here about changes in consumer behavior and preferences in the context of buying real estate, but isn’t it interesting that the same could be said of consumers’ feelings about politicians, Wall Street, and salesmen in every industry? This tectonic shift in consumer behavior is changing the world.

The catalyst that has empowered consumers and is forcing these changes that are the death knell of traditional real estate brokerage is . . . advances in technology. (more…)

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Sequim real estate broker Chuck Marunde (yes, that’s me) is a geek of the first order who loves to write and who loves to figure out how to use effective marketing techniques to connect with clients around the country.  I’ve spent my life in real estate, including 18 years in Sequim real estate, but the key to a successful business is great marketing.  Okay, now I’m switching to first person.  I do love this stuff, and I’m very excited to share some good news.

Sequim Real Estate Resources

I am always trying to create more free resources for buyers.  I know that sounds contrary to running a profitable business, but I have operated my businesses my whole life based on first giving, then receiving.  So I give away a lot of information, articles, books, videos, checklists, tips, and a lot of my personal time to my clients at no cost.  I earn my commissions from sellers even when I am acting as a buyer’s agent.  Yea, I love that, but so do my clients.

Today I am announcing another first for Sequim real estate.  I now have two books in the Apple iBookStore, and one is about real estate.  It is entitled, Buying and Selling Real Estate in the Rain Shadow, which has been available in the Amazon bookstore as a paperback, but is now available as an eBook in the Apple store.  This means you can download this book from the Apple iBookStore directly to your iPad or other mobile apple devices, and you can also read this same format on the Sony Reader, Amazon’s Kindle, and Barnes & Nobles’ Nook.

Sequim Real Estate eBook for Buyers and Sellers

The book is all about buying and selling real estate in Sequim and Port Angeles, and includes a lot of what I call “insider tips” that Sequim real estate agents may know but do not readily share with the public.  I believe that clients should have all information at their fingertips so they can make wise decisions for themselves, and I believe that there should be no conflict of interest and that clients’ interests should be at the center of everything that is done in a real estate transaction.

The paperback version is 310 pages long, and this eBook version on eBook reader is less or more, depending on the size of the fonts you select.  One of the reasons so many of us love reading books on eBook readers is because we can chose the size of our font for easy reading.  If you want larger fonts to make reading easy, you just chose a larger font.  You can’t do this with a paperback.

Sequim Real Estate on Mobile Devices

I was also first to have an Apple App for searching Sequim real estate in our MLS.  If you do a search in the Apple App store for “Sequim” you’ll find the app called, “Sequim and Port Angeles Real Estate.”  It’s a free download.  But these resources are not about me being first, even though that is newsworthy.  These resources are more about giving consumers what they want and need in the Sequim real estate market–valuable and useful information for buying and selling. 

I hope you enjoy this eBook now available for your mobile eBook readers.  Another first for Sequim real estate.

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Sequim real estate agents are much better equipped to represent buyers than agents from outside the area.  That’s not a sales pitch as much as it is a very solid truth.  I’ll explain why hiring an agent from outside the area could cost buyers money or create serious problems in the due diligence process.

Sequim Real Estate Agents

I am a Sequim real estate agent, and I received a call from two couples who were driving around and wanted to get inside several homes.  They asked if I would show them some homes.  Of course, I was delighted to show them homes.  I enjoy being a buyer’s agent.  This is how I make my living, but I also love what I do.

After looking at several homes and answering questions about the homes, about the neighborhood, and about the types of inspections that would be wise to get done, as well as what we do in Clallam County on several issues, they told me they would like to make an offer on the last home we looked at.  That sounded good . . . until they asked me, “Shall we have our agent call you?”

Sequim Real Estate Agents or Agents From Outside The Area

The question took me back a little, because  I was their buyer’s agent.  At least that what I thought.  When buyers call an agent and ask to see houses, it is generally accepted that they are hiring the agent and if they buy a house, he will earn a commission.  It turns out they were being coy with me and had a relative who is licensed far away.  I noticed a week later that the sale was pending.  It doesn’t feel good to know that someone used me.  That’s life.  I can take it, but there’s a bigger lesson here for buyers.

Sequim real estate agents are better equipped to represent a buyer than agents from outside the area.  Why?

1. An agent from outside the area doesn’t know our market, which means he doesn’t know prices and how to best negotiate for his buyers.  Any offer he writes is just a guess, but he could cause his clients to overpay.
2. An agent from outside the area hasn’t looked at hundreds of other local houses (and maybe none at all), which means he is quite unprepared to make comparisons on many details.
3. An agent from outside the area doesn’t know what local issues could trap his clients.  He doesn’t know about particular neighborhoods either, and how some areas have high iron content in the wells, or where septics have common problems.  He doesn’t know local builders and the construction quality, or lack thereof, of the home.  He doesn’t know which neighborhoods has a history of stable prices and which neighborhoods are not.  He can’t answer questions about snowfall at certain elevations above Sequim, and he can’t answer questions about water levels or tides on the waterfront.  There are a thousand things a non-local agent simply does not know.
4. An agent from outside the area doesn’t know how to handle his client’s due diligence on the properties, because he doesn’t know the best home inspectors, well inspectors, or septic inspectors, and he most likely is not going to travel all the way here from Isaaquah (or wherever he is) to attend the inspections and do his follow up.

Buyers who think it is a good idea to hire that relative or good friend who is licensed from outside the Sequim or Port Angeles area are asking for trouble.  And it could cost them a lot of money or a legal nightmare later.  Whenever a client tells me they have decided to buy a property outside the area, I always tell them to hire a local real estate agent in that area.  I think it’s a matter of integrity for Sequim real estate agents like me, and I think it is in the client’s best interest.

Sequim Real Estate Agents Are Experienced With Local Issues

If you’re a buyer who has a friend or relative who is licensed, do yourself a favor and look to hire a buyer’s agent among the Sequim real estate agents.

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