Happy New Year and thank you for all the well wishes for the coming year! 
Time flies the older I get and I am amazed once again at how fast the year went by!!!! 2010 was a great year for Cooper Jacobs Real Estate. I have considered myself to be one of the luckiest people alive with my choice in careers anyway and have had such a great time for over a decade of selling Seattle homes to some of the most interesting people on earth.
2010 brought big growth for my little company which started with the basic business model of just doing things differently than I was able to do as a Realtor at my previous brokerage Windermere. My focus became client focused rather than company focused and I was able to have the freedom and agility to do so much more for the benefit of my clients. My old broker used to tell me to “be real, don’t be virtual”. That was back when the internet stats on how many buyers started on the web to search for a home was only about 65% – still nothing to sneeze over and a big chunk of the market.
Obviously more Seattle real estate brokers have jumped on the internet bandwagon – especially since that stat is hovering around 95% last I checked. Agents will try everything from blogging to Trulia, Zillow, and facebook fan pages and more brokerages are okay with this method now. They are still drinking the koolaid, though, and being incredibly “salesy” as they begin the process of going online. It is a hard pill to swallow for most real estate agents, but you truly do get a better response when you share info that is useful and relevant rather than just saying “call me”. The old mentality is so centered around guarding that info to try and not go extinct as the info is more and more out there, but the fact of the matter is it is out there. Consumers can find ANYTHING on the internet, and they have gotten pretty gifted at skipping all the salesy call me ads disguised as blogs. I am not without fault on this one myself. I left my old brokerage with the same mindset and my earlier blog posts reflected it. They are historical and will stay put:)
As we approach the milestone of 30 extremely talented Seattle area real estate brokers (and wonderful people, too, BTW), the biz model has changed somewhat to encompass the enthusiastic trailblazers who came on board with Cooper Jacobs to do things differently, too. The basic concept, though, remains. We are working towards our clients’ goals and dreams and best interests, and we are able to do that without the constraints of a larger company which is not able to make changes as fast as we can. The real estate market is ever changing and we are able to change quickly with it for our clients’ benefit. This ability to quickly adapt while being ahead of the game technologically is paramount, but the freedom to promote them in ways that we could not before is key.
Seattle real estate in 2011 will be tricky as it has been for the last few years, but it is not impossible and if you need to buy or sell a home, you still can if it is the right time for you. Having someone on your side is important. If you want to meet our wonderful and talented real estate brokers, please visit the Seattle real estate brokers page. We have people that work and specialize in different areas of Seattle neighborhoods and Seattle suburbs (even Seattle houseboats!). We would love to show you how we work and look forward to seeing what we can do to help you!
PS – If 2011 is going to be your year and you feel like you want to break free of your chains and are a creative and enthusiastic real estate broker, I would love to talk to you! courtney@cooperjacobs.com
