MARKETING INFORMATION Keith Cook Managing Broker (360) 739-5600 RE/MAX Whatcom County, Inc.
913 Lakeway Drive Bellingham WA 98229
OVERVIEW Marketing
Getting your property sold:
Online Advertising •
Websites See all the places online where your property will be advertised
Client Partnership What we can do together:
Seller Communication •
Keeping you updated on the activity and status of your property
Print Marketing •
Flyers
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Postcards
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Harmon Homes
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Echo Ads
Networking •
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Feedback
Improving your property’s market appeal through constructive feedback
Optional Marketing Strategies •
Client’s Choice Marketing emails, print marketing, open house, etc.
Agent Networking
How your property will be represented to local agents and brokers
Reports
Client Participation •
Preparing Your Home For Sale Maximizing the visual appeal of your property
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ONLINE ADVERTISING
BuyerMax.com Our BuyerMax website caters personally to interested buyers, sellers and agents. By reaching out to our online audience, we can maximize the possibility of your property finding the perfect buyer.
Marketing Features Registration Interested buyers can sign up for alerts
on the listings that appeal to them by saving properties and searches. Map Search Our map function helps people locate
listings in the area they’re interested in. Featured Listings When your property is listed, it will be
showcased on the front page for a period of time. Blog Along with market statistics and articles
on the ins and outs of real estate, we post your property on our blog.
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ONLINE ADVERTISING Realtor.com
Featured homes, a paid service, places your property in front of thousands of potential buyers.
Your property profile includes images, a virtual tour and detailed information that helps attract buyers.
Hit statistics are sent to you monthly, showing you how many people have viewed your property online.
REMAX.com As the third most popular real estate search engine, thousands of people start their real estate search at REMAX.com. REMAX.com features many tools for buyers and sellers, including tools to locate agents, offices and properties across the country. RE/MAX is a trusted name in real estate. As the leader in the United States real estate sales, the average RE/MAX agent outsells the competition by an incredible 3 to 1. RE/MAX is a real estate world leader with over 6,600 offices in 65 countries on six continents.
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ONLINE ADVERTISING Online Exposure The BuyerMax team is consistently developing and increasing our online presence. With the growing number of tablets, mobile phones, and apps, the internet has become the most popular way to search for homes and has changed the way we conduct business. The great news is that you can help promote our team online in order to increase the exposure of your current and future listings. Here are a few of the websites where you can do just that.
Zillow
Zillow is the most popular tool for potential home buyers and sellers. With their effective apps and network of real estate professionals, millions of people are looking for a local agent on Zillow.
Realtor.com
Realtor.com has quickly become a popular and helpful tool for listing searches and advertising listings. These days many buyers use multiple real estate sites to search for properties.
Yelp
Many people use the reviews on Yelp to choose who they are going to do business with. Yelp has strict standards for publishing reviews and only shows unsolicited, honest reviews.
A quick 5 star review will inform all of these websites’ users of our teams expertise and trusted relationships with our clients. Your review will boost our ratings and could be the determining factor for online users. Take a few minutes to write a review about our agents once they have showed you homes or helped you buy or sell!
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ONLINE ADVERTISING Harmon Homes
Homes.com
Craigslist
With both online and print advertising, Harmon Homes allows us to reach buyers looking for homes online and those who enjoy looking through classifieds and other print advertisements.
Homes.com offers many convenient resources for buyers & sellers during the home buying or selling process, making it a popular website for buyers to browse for their next home.
Craigslist is still a widely used site for buyers to search for homes. Each of our listings are posted on craigslist and stay on there until it sells.
Secondary Advertising •
Backpage.com
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CLRSearch.com
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Estately.com
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HomeDebut.com
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HomeFinder.com
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HomeSnap.com
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HotPads
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HouseLocator
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Oodle.com
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PNW WA Homes
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PropertyShark.com
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The Real Estate Book
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Trulia
...and many more!
Tour Factory Virtual Tours TourFactory.com is a website that creates a virtual, walk-through tour of your property. We arrange the photographs of your property in an order that gives the viewer the experience of walking through your property. To the left of the tour there is a menu tat gives the viewer the option to view property information, send to a friend, see area and school information, contact the agent & more! The tour begins with an opening photo that we select for the property. From there, viewers can watch the tour as it navigates through the layout of your property. As the seller, you will have the opportunity to review the tour and will receive marketing updates regarding how many views your listing is receiving.
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ONLINE ADVERTISING
Social Media Social media has become a very powerful marketing tool for businesses to reach and engage with hundreds of consumers. Our network of buyers, brokers and industry professionals gives us an unique opportunity to get maximum exposure of our listing. Social media allows us to spread the word about your listing quickly and efficiently to a large number of people. Sharing links from BuyerMax.com also drives up traffic to our website, which in turn gets your property more views on our featured listings page. As the seller, you can help increase your property’s visibility by following or liking our pages on social media and sharing your property from BuyerMax.com to your own personal Facebook and social media networks.
The audience of our BuyerMax page increase with every “like”. If you have a Facebook account, you know the wide range of capabilities and potential to reach large audience quickly. Not only do we post every listing to our Facebook page, but some listings get selected for paid advertisements. So take a minute out of your day to like our page.
We tweet about your property on our Twitter page! This gives our 500 + followers notifications about your listing. Each tweet has a direct link to your property’s page on BuyerMax.com. To keep your listing in front of our followers we tweet every time we; adjust the price, update pictures and change information.
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ONLINE ADVERTISING
People love looking a pictures, thus why Instagram is such a popular social media network. Each of our listings are posted on Instagram with a direct link to the property’s listing information page on BuyerMax.com. Instagram links with Facebook, so any paid advertisement that we run on Facebook will also be seen on Instagram.
Google+ has a reputation as a being a professional network. It helps raise our search engine visibility and allows Google to recognize us as a business., allowing our profile to appear on the right hand side of Google search results. Posting on Google+ helps maximize our online presence and increases your listings online exposure.
We create a unique YouTube video for each of our listings. Our YouTube channel has had over 400,000 views and have over 800 subscribers. YouTube is a great channel to use to get your property a lot of exposure. To further increase visibility we share our YouTube videos to our Twitter and Facebook accounts.
We “Pin” your property. We create a Pinterest board for each of our listings.. Many people use Pinterest to get DIY, home decor and home improvement ideas. Your property could serve as inspiration for someone else’s home improvement project. Our most popular pins have received hundreds of saves.
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DIRECT MARKETING
Marketing Emails Emails are a great way to make your home visible to the public. Upon listing your house for sale, we will create an email containing links to various websites as well as an email packet. These sites feature tours of your house and more detailed information about your listing. We encourage you to forward this email to everyone in your address book— you never know who might be a potential buyer! The email includes links to your property’s; •
Virtual Tour on Tour Factory
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YouTube Video
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NWMLS Full
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Zillow Posting
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BuyerMax Listing Page
When we receive inquires about your property we send the potential buyer or agent a PDF packet that is specific to your property. This PDF includes; •
Custom Flyer
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NWMLS Full
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Property Profile
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Legal Description
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Maps/Blueprints
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Form 17 & More!
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BUYERMAX E-NEWSLETTER Our e-newsletter reaches readers in Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and extends nationwide. Our audience includes past clients, real estate agents, online leads and more! Along with our featured listings, the newsletter includes market stats, community events and DIY or home improvement tips.
Listing Advertisements Your Property will be featured in the newsletter under the featured listings heading.
Real Estate Statistics We include local real estate market statistics so our subscribers can stay informed about how the market is doing.
Community Events Each newsletter features seasonal events and activities happening in and around Whatcom County.
Featured Topics Each newsletter has a specific theme, usually centered around a holiday or special announcement. The featured articles in the newsletter are related to that theme.
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PRINT ADVERTISING
Flyers We design a professional, custom flyer for each of our listings. These flyers are posted at the property, posted in our office, emailed to interested buyers and distributed at open houses. All the flyers feature hand edited pictures taken and arranged to highlight all of the best features of your property.
Postcards We design and mail out at least 60 postcards to the owners of the neighboring properties. Not only does this spread the word that your property is for sale, but it gives potential buyers our information in case they would like to make an offer or get more information about your property.
Print Marketing Although internet marketing is much more effective and more widely used by buyers, we do advertise in several well-known print books including; Harmon Homes, The Real Estate Book, Pacific Northwest Homes, Echo Ads and more!
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SPECIALTY PROPERTIES Not all of the listings that we sell are residential. In fact, many buyers look for vacant land to build or commercial properties to start a business. Here are a few ways that we go about marketing your vacant land or commercial properties.
Vacant Land
Aerial shots of your property with will be taken and labeled with street names or any nearby stores or businesses to show the relative location of the land. We also use the plat map to show the dimensions of the lot.
Commercial Property
We use the Commercial MLS and Loopnet in addition to other marketing websites to market your commercial property. Loopnet and the Commercial MLS are specifically for commercial listing so they provide more detailed information and give your property exposure to buyers who are interested in commercial listings.
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NETWORKING It’s just as important to share the news about your property with agents as with prospective buyers—you never know who might have the perfect match for your property. Depending on the listing, we implement strategies like open houses, caravans and tours to get our fellow agents interested.
Broker’s Open Houses and Caravans We locate the properties in the same areas as yours that are listed by other agents. Each broker agrees to go on a tour or hold their listing open in return for viewing all of the other properties involved. Inviting local real estate agents to visit properties that we’ve listed spreads the word and interest about your listing.
Virtual Tours We showcase our new listings to the entire RE/MAX Whatcom County office using TourFactory.com. Agents then provide constructive feedback on price, exterior and interior appeal which we then forward to you.
Public Open House Although this is optional, we recommend holding at least one open house, we make ourselves available to host. We work with you to get your home ready and determine the best date. As well as advertising on over 10 websites, we will send postcards to the surrounding neighbors inviting them to the open house.
Physical Tours If the virtual tour cannot do the property justice, or the circumstance requires we will occasionally hold a physical tour of the listing for agents from the RE/MAX office that want to see the property.
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SELLER COMMUNICATION Reports We prioritize transparency in our business practice—that means you have access to a history of all our marketing efforts towards getting your property sold. Along with the content below, we will be touching base with you at the end of each month to review price and to remind you or marketing efforts.
Realtor Once a month you will receive an email that informs you how your property is performing online. Part of the email will have a direct link to your property’s listing page on Realtor.com along with some statistics about how many times your property has been viewed.
Tourfactory Tour factory statistics will also be included in the monthly report email that we send you. You will be able to see how many views your tour has gotten and on average how many views your tour gets per day.
MLS Hit Counter Another statistics that will be included in the email are MLS Hit Counters. This report tells us how many clients have viewed and saved your property as well as how many agents have view and saved you property.
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SELLER COMMUNICATION Feedback Virtual Tours Every Tuesday, we showcase our new listings to the entire RE/MAX office using Tourfactory. Agents then provide constructive feedback on price, appeal, and market analysis which we then forward to you. Keep in mind that these are simply suggestions from other industry professionals. We often send an email with an attachment of agent feedback.
Showings “We noticed you showed our property at 3311 Bennett Drive the other day. We are hoping to get some feedback we could pass along to our seller. Any comments/critique from you or your clients would be appreciated.” Thanks! Keith Cook
“The property has a great view and is in a very good location. He did, however, feel that the price was somewhat higher than we would expect our clients would desire” “Your listing is beautiful, no question. A bit too rich for my clients blood as they are just looking for a second home.” “Best of luck with the property and I’ll of course keep it in mind for my other clients.” “Great house… Shows very will, nice and clean. Price correctly.” “My clients were a little disappointed with the powerline view but other than that the house showed well.”
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SELLER COMMUNICATION
Online Marketing Updates Property Updates Every month we will re-evaluate your property’s price, the marketing being done on the property, and will consider any changes that need to be made. Sometimes we need to change the price or extend the expiration date of your listing agreement—no matter what the update is, you will always be the first to know.
Authentisign Authentisign is a secure online document signing service that allows us to exchange and sign documents with you, such as price reductions, electronically. Its easy to use and provides simple instructions for every step of the signing process. Signing electronically allows us to make changes to your property’s status quickly and efficiently.
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COOPERATING BROKERS We will assure that your property listing will be placed on as many websites as possible, including marketing your property for sale on our cooperating brokers’ websites. Your listing will be on local independent brokers’ websites as well as national major websites including Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Keller Williams, Preview, Sterling, Fairhaven, Follis and many more. Here are a few:
Windemere
John L. Scott
Muljat Group
Redfin
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MARKETING STATISTICS Where are buyers searching for homes? Internet Real Estate Agent Yard Sign Open House Print Newspaper Ads Home Builders Home Book or Magazine
100% 89% 53% 46% 28% 17% 19%
The internet and real estate agents are the most popular recourse for finding homes for sale.
Where are buyers finding the home they purchase? Internet Real Estate Agent Yard Sign Open House Print Newspaper Ads Home Builders Home Book or Magazine
Although we commonly market your home using print ads, most buyers do not purchase the home they see in a newspaper, book, flyer or magazine.
What websites are buyers using? Multiple Listing Service REALTOR.com Real Estate Agent Website Search Engine Social Network
42% 34% 10% 6% 5% 1% <1%
54% 51% 47% 19% 6%
Despite their popularity, social networking sites are rarely used for home searches. Instead, buyers use sites like the MLS, Realtor.com and an agents website.
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WHAT’S YOUR EQUATION? At BuyerMax, we pride ourselves on our energy and focus. We want to listen to your personal needs and expectations when it comes to selling your property. Each home selling equation is unique to every individual home owner. We are the solution to your unique real estate equation.
TIME If time is an important factor in selling your property, you may find yourself pricing your home more aggressively. Selling your home for a higher price relates to longer time on the market whereas lower selling prices tend to sell quicker.
ENERGY Sweat equity is an efficient and rewarding way to get a house sold. Spending less money on pre-listing punch list items equates to more time on the market and more inspection negotiations. If you don’t mind the labor, focusing on restoring your house and spending money on remodels and updates leads to shorter sell time and more money back in you packet.
MONEY What selling price are you comfortable with? Money that you spend or save drastically effects the time and energy that you spend when selling your property. It is important to think about how the pricing of your property will effect the other factors in your real estate equation.
All of these factors add up to create a personal equation that you are satisfied with. There is no wrong or right way to sell your home—it al depends on the decisions and choices you make when selling your property in a way that works best for you. Help us know how we can facilitate your needs.
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MULTIPLE LISTING SERVICE Getting Started The Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) is the most important part of marketing your listing. It is a cooperative database used to introduce buyers and sellers. Agents who are members of the NWMLS are committed to finding their client the perfect match for their needs. With over 20,000 members accessing the most detailed information and 25 hand-picked photos that highlight the best features of your property for their clients, your property gets maximum exposure to help you find the ideal buyer.
Listing Input Sheet Filling out a Listing Input Sheet is the first step towards selling your home. We will compile the information on your completed forms to transfer raw data to the MLS database. From here, other websites such as Zillow or Homes.com can easily use information on your property’s MLS to update your listing’s information on their page. There are different forms for each kinds of listing, including: •
Vacant Land
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Residential
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Multi-Family
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Condominiums
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Commercial
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KEITH COOK I joined the US Army in 1986 intending to check out the world and get some money for College. The summer after I graduated, I was off to basic training: Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas. It was 113 degrees the first day I arrived! Wow. After Advanced Individual Training, I was stationed at Ramstein Air Force Base, West Germany. My job classification was 16-H, Air Defense Artillery â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Operations and Intelligence Assistant. Call me crazy, but I really enjoyed the Army. Living in Germany was an awesome experience. It was a completely carefree time of my life and the military structure was great. After receiving an Honorable Discharge from the Army at the ripe old age of 20, my Grandfather landed me a job working in a fish cannery in Port Graham, Alaska. Port Graham is a friendly small town (population 200!) located on the tip of the beautiful Keani peninsula. Remote as can be, Port Graham can only be accessed by boat or small plane from Homer, AK. During salmon season, I was hired on as a deck hand on a 32-foot local Native fishing boat, the Tianna Lynn. What a summer! I worked with a great crew, saw a lot more than I expected and saved some more money. Alaska is incredible. Though I decided to go back home to return to school, later in life I went on to work on a few other fishing boats: the Northern Glacier in the Bearing Sea, AK, the Mary Jo, in Bristol Bay, AK, and the Nancy Anne, out of Bellingham. While not at work I enjoy playing, woodworking, yard work, travel, camping, quading and skiing. I earned my Real Estate license in 1991, my Brokers License in 1994, and joined RE/MAX in Bellingham in 1996. As far as real estate success goes, I've been lucky from the start. I've consistently been a top producer in Whatcom county and the top-selling Real Estate Agent in my office since I joined the team.
Contact Keith
Managing Broker 360-739-5600 Keith@BuyerMax.com www.BuyerMax.com
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KEITHâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S RESUME Real Estate Experience Managing Broker ABR Accredited Buyer Representative CDPE Certified Distressed Property Expert CRS Certified Residential Specialist FSP Five Star Professional SRES Senior Real Estate Specialist 25+ years of full time real estate experience in the greater Puget Sound area. Expertise includes: single family, multi-family, condominiums, commercial, lots, acreage, seller, lender and creative financing, real estate options, deeds of trust, title insurance, escrow and property management. RE/MAX International Lifetime Achievement RE/MAX International Hall of Fame RE/MAX Whatcom County Most Valuable Team Player of the Year RE/MAX International Platinum RE/MAX International 100% RE/MAX International Executive RE/MAX International Presidents Club The Roanoke Group, Seattleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Salesman of the Year
Real Estate Education
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KEITH’S REFERENCES References David Bernstein 8124 Birch Bay Drive Birch Bay, WA 98230 (360) 739-4748
Bob Rude 2377 Coyote Creek Drive Bellingham, WA 98226 (360) 319-5573
Kelly Mielke 1212 E Victor Street Bellingham, WA 98225 (360) 571-4437
Lana Larson & Steen Willard 2440 S Bakerview Park Drive Ferndale, WA 98248 (360) 201-9453
Earl Johnson 10702 Thompson Creek Road Deming, WA 98244 (360) 223-3275
Rich Davis/Kathy Kraynak 414 Fieldston Road Bellingham, WA 98229 (360) 676-8321
Lynn & Mike Giuliani 7142 Bartlett Lane Lynden, WA 98264 (360) 733-6557
Client’s Feedback “I found Keith to be very honest & efficient! He was great at assisting me in the right price and the right sale. From the day the property was listed to the day I received the money, it was smooth sailing. I didn't get the usual anxiety with selling a property!” - Margo Dornan “Very impressed with Keith's negotiation skills. He knows Bellingham and surrounding areas extremely well. He's very good about treating the client relationship as a partnership and shows respect in dealing with others.“ - Steve Hinton “With the tight housing market, Keith had the patience of a saint!! He was quick to return the phone calls and went out of his way to support any properties we wanted to look at. It took three tries (third is the charm!) but we finally got the home of our dreams.” - Georgia Snodgrass
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SALLY WEBB I was born in Felixstowe, Suffolk, England, a coastal town in East Anglia. I went to school there and graduated from Brentwood College of Education with a teacher's degree in 1977. After spending a year in Montreal, Canada, my dream was to emigrate to North America permanently. I moved to Vancouver, B.C. in 1981 where I worked as a nanny until I gained my Canadian citizenship. I married and had four kids and we were able to move to Bellingham in 1991. I love this area and am fortunate to live by Lake Whatcom, close to the Skagit County border. Since then my life has changed in many ways! I discovered a love of real estate, which I have pursued as a career with RE/MAX since 2000. I remarried in 2002 and have recently become a U.S. citizen. I am looking forward to making new connections while maintaining a relationship with past clients and friends. My goal as a real estate broker is to go above and beyond what my clients expect. I know that buying or selling a home is a major life event and can be overwhelming so I try my best to make it an enjoyable, straight-forward process. I am a great listener and will help my clients every step of the way. I have learned during my 16 years in real estate, that a no pressure approach keeps everyone relaxed. I am always completely honest and committed to each client no matter how large or small the property. When I am not working, I enjoy boating in the San Juan and Gulf Islands with my husband and our rescue dog, Lucy, who also likes to kayak with me on the lake! We like to play golf and if I could do it more often, I might get better at the game. I feel so fortunate to have a healthy, happy life and to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I love to show off our area so let me know if you would like a tour!
Contact Sally Buyerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Agent 360-224-1270 Sally@BuyerMax.com www.BuyerMax.com
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ADAM SOELBERG My passion for real estate came from working with my dad in Yakima. He is a CPA by day and real estate investor and landlord by night. I had the opportunity to learn from him and work with many great tenants and buyers, while getting my hands dirty repairing and fixing up homes. I was born and raised in Yakima, which is located in the heart of Washington state. I graduated high school with an Associates of Arts degree from Yakima Valley Community College and moved to Bellingham to pursue my bachelor’s degree in Economics at Western Washington University. After my first year of college, I decided to pursue my love for real estate. So, I landed a job working for Keith Cook at RE/MAX while also getting my real estate broker license. I am currently licensed and still working on my bachelor’s degree at Western. My goal as a real estate broker is to make the buying or selling process as easy and pleasant as I can while creating long-lasting relationships with my clients. When I’m not working, I like to go camping and hiking with my fiance in Whatcom county and Canada. We also enjoy painting and going to art galleries in and around Bellingham. I am very excited and fortunate to be able to work as a broker in Whatcom county, and I can’t wait to share this beautiful corner of the northwest with you!
Contact Adam Real Estate Agent 360-214-0675 Adam@BuyerMax.com www.BuyerMax.com
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HOME SELLING CHECKLIST
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HOME SELLING CHECKLIST
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TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL SHOWING
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THE LAW OF REAL ESTATE AGENCY This pamphlet describes your legal rights in dealing with a real estate broker or salesperson. Please read it carefully before signing any documents.
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THE LAW OF REAL ESTATE AGENCY
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THE LAW OF REAL ESTATE AGENCY
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THE LAW OF REAL ESTATE AGENCY
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THE LAW OF REAL ESTATE AGENCY
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THE LAW OF REAL ESTATE AGENCY
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THE LAW OF REAL ESTATE AGENCY
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NOTES
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RE/MAX Whatcom County, Inc.
913 37 Lakeway Drive Bellingham WA 98229