We've got the tools
If you'd like to know a bit about my background...
Born and raised in the Great State of Washington I grew up and graduated from Eatonville High School in the shadow of Mount Rainier. One of my Summer jobs was working for a local builder which was a great experience that I would put to use later buying and remodeling homes.
After high school, way back in the early 80's, I realized that after several years of working grave yard shift at the Pesi Bottling Plant in Seattle, (hard nights in the soda mines) and working towards my engineering degree during the day, what I really wanted was to run my own business. My career in real estate began.
Getting started is always the hardest part of any endevour. In this case, interest rates were at 15.5% and peaked at 17.5%. Almost all loans were assumable and sellers would either pay "discount points" to buy the interest rate down or carry a note themselves. Creative financing was used on almost every transaction. You could buy a nice starter house for $59,950. Anything over $100k was a pretty nice house, and the there were very few over one million dollars (and those usually had their own lake!).
During the mid 80's a large part of my business came as a result of the high number of homes which were foreclosed. All those 14% and over mortgage rates became too much for many borrowers. I represented companies such as World Savings and Loan, Intergroup Management Company, Citibank, FNMA, FHLMC, and others. Listing a variety of properties for sale. There were many great opportunities to purchase VA and HUD "reacquired homes" as well.
A new type of real estate company was making it's debue which I embraced. It has helped top producing agents provide better service to their clients and customers ever since. Instead of the agent splitting all of the income they earn with the broker, some agents formed companies which simply paid a flat fee to the broker or office and recieved all the income they earned. The "100% shop" was born. This type of company is common now but there wasn't any hot air balloon ads in those days. The traditional split companies eventually offered some type of 100% program to avoid losing all of their top producing agents. This company structure allows for better service to the consumer since the experienced agent they hire is responsible for the marketing budget and following up on all leads generated. This is a stark constrast to the traditional office where an office manager writes ads and the leads are distrubuted among the most inexperienced agents.
I gained additional experience in commercial and multifamily properties during the late 80's and early 90's. At that time there was significant foreign money to be invested in our area as Hong Kong underwent govermental changes. Canada welcomed this investment and with the increased imigration into the Vancouver BC area, these "new Canadians" could invest in our market place.
As the market heated up the early 90's technology became more critical to the real estate business. Multiple offers on most properties caused rapid appreciation and required fast access to new listings and efficient negotiations.
Now it's hard to imagine life without the internet, faxes, wireless phones, PDA's, and notebook computers. At one time a pager was considered "high tech".
About eight years ago I made a switch in my business model. Most real estate licensees spend 80% of their time looking for their next customer and only 20% of their efforts taking care of those customers. Realizing that if each of my customers simply referred one (or more) customer to me then I could eliminate the less productive and more irritating methods of offering my services. Mail, cold calls, and knocking on doors didn't help my customers and wasn't that much fun.
Most people want to deal with someone they trust. To find someone they trust most people will ask their friends and family for a reccommendation before looking in the phone book, checking the 'fridge for magnets, or waiting for someone to call during dinner.
Now more than 78% of homebuyers look to the internet when beginning to think about moving. In anticipation of that I became ePro certified and developed a web presence. Now the public can access this site and search all the homes for sale in the MLS, access the tax accessors data base, check traffic cameras and more.
If you've read this far into this bio you're probably related :). Click here to drop me a note.
Best regards,
Patrick McNeley
Providing superior real estate services from Puget Sound to Mount Rainier since 1981.