Troy Anderson, CEO and Managing Broker from Team Troy, was recently interviewed by Nick Neal and Shelley Dudley from Real Estate Radio Northwest, KKOL AM 1300. Just in case you missed the broadcast, we have the interview here for you to listen to. Alternatively, you can read the transcription of the interview below. Troy Anderson discussed current trends in the Seattle real estate market, like the increased home prices in Wallingford, Green Lake, Queen Anne and King County in general, as well as the low inventory. He also discussed Team Troy’s investment division, and some of the recent projects we have worked on in West Seattle and Woodinville. Troy Anderson also discussed some recent client success stories, like the coordination of a transaction in Edmonds and Green Lake, and he discusses what services Team Troy offers to those selling their Seattle home. At the end of the interview, we hear from Courtney Theis, Marketing Assistant from Team Troy, with information about Team Troy’s social media, blogging efforts, and our website. A great interview, packed with tons of Seattle real estate advice.
Interview with Troy Anderson: Aired Saturday June 1, 2013 on KKOL AM 1300
Nick Neal: We’ve got a great team of people that make sure your loans close on time every time. If need a preapproval, if you are looking to purchase a home, or if you are looking to refinance, that’s what we what we are here to answer questions about. We also have our team of people from Realtors to CPAs, Financial Advisors.
We have a whole list of past shows have other people that we’ve had on that can help you with other financial matters. If you need help with any financial or legal matters, we can help you out with that. Or you can go to realestatenorthwest.com and find a past show that pertains to something in your life. Real Estate Radio Northwest is a part of the Real Estate Radio Network, a national network of radio hosts, dedicated to the delivery of timely, balanced truths about local real estate markets, and current financial matters in an effort to help American maintain good credit, minimize debt and achieve the dream of homeownership. We are doing this one family at a time, and we are doing this for you. We want to help you with your situation and answer your questions. Just be sure to give us a call. I’ve got Shelley Dudley, my co-host and right-hand woman with me today. How are you doing Shelley?
Shelley Dudley: I’m doing great today, how about you?
Nick Neal: I’m doing really good, it’s a nice day. I’m hoping to have some nice weather this weekend through today and tomorrow.
Shelley Dudley: It seems like you are over your cold now.
Nick Neal: I am, I got my voice back. It was a little rough there for a while. Well, that’s Troy Anderson in the background, he is managing broker from Keller Williams Greater Seattle and he’s the leader of Team Troy, hence the name. How are you doing today?
Troy Anderson: Pretty good. It’s a great day. It’s a great day to be in Seattle.
Nick Neal: It’s great to have you, it is fun to have you join us. You’ve got a lot of neat things going on there at Keller Williams. We are looking forward to find out more about what you do, and excited to hear more about what’s going on with you and your team and how you’re helping people – it’s a little unique, a little different than just an individual agent. Before we talk about real estate and stuff, let’s find out about you, Troy. Where are you from? Tell us a little bit about your background.
Troy Anderson: Well, I grew up in Snohomish, a little town north of Seattle, about an hour away. Snohomish is a pretty big area. The town itself is small, but if you have a Snohomish address you could be 45 minutes away. Right now we live in Woodinville.
Nick Neal: Did you go to school in the area?
Troy Anderson: I did, I went to Snohomish High School, graduated from there, moved to Tacoma for a while. I went to the University of Puget Sound, then I went to Northwest College.
Nick Neal: Then did you go right into real estate? Did you do other things before?
Troy Anderson: In my previous life, I managed a Shucks Auto Supply Store. Then I went to the Acura Car Dealer in Southcenter, and eventually ended up being a parts manager out in Bellevue at the Acura Dealer. It was while I was working there that I first got introduced to real estate.
Nick Neal: So you’re a car guy too then?
Troy Anderson: I used to be more of a car guy. Now I’m an open the door, put the keys in the ignition and drive away guy.
Nick Neal: Yeah, you don’t have to change the alternator every week.
Troy Anderson: Yeah. I used to work on cars, but not anymore.
Nick Neal: Are you a family man?
Troy Anderson: Yes, I am married with two kids: a son that just turned 6 and a daughter who turning 8 in the next couple weeks.
Nick Neal: I don’t know your age, but did you started a little late? You’ve got some distinguished grey coming in.
Troy Anderson: That’s one of my profiles – turned grey prematurely. It is starting to wave goodbye also.
Nick Neal: Yeah, I’ve got a 9 year old and an 11 year old. I did the same, I’m 49 and we got started late. I feel like I’m a lot better parent at this age than I would have been back in my 20s
Troy Anderson: Yeah, I feel the same way. Our first was born when I was 35.
Shelley Dudley: I know Keller Williams keeps you busy, but what kind of hobbies do you have?
Troy Anderson: I took up golf last year, late in life. It is absolutely frustrating, but I love it.
Nick Neal: Do you like to travel and stuff too?
Troy Anderson: We do, we like to travel. If I am going to travel, it’s going to be to someplace warm with a beach and a pool, and then I’m good. Right before Christmas we went to St. Thomas as a family.
Shelley Dudley: That sounds like your trip to Cabo last year.
Nick Neal: Yeah, we do that just about every year we have a place we go down there with the kids. We are at a point now where it’s actually fun to travel with them. You don’t have to take care of them like you did when they were little babies.
Troy Anderson: Right, they just run off and you can play with them, or you can just sit there and read a book.
Nick Neal: Haha. Exactly. Well, from Keller Williams, we’ve had Shari Jansen, the CEO and Team Leader, and a couple of the other agents too.
Shelley Dudley: Our listeners may even remember Team Troy because we had Justin Mitchell on the show
Nick Neal: Yeah, one of your right-hand guys. Or is he your left hand?
Troy Anderson: Depends on the day, depends on what I need him to do.
Nick Neal: He was really neat. The theme that we get from that office, is that you guys really got something different and kind of magical going on over there. You’re like family more. You really seem like you’re connected, everyone wants to help one another. You’re trying to work towards a common goal and focus on the strengths of individuals. It’s just a neat team.
Troy Anderson: Yeah, Keller Williams is kind of geared that way. Our team motto is to add value to everyone we meet. So, we do that internally and externally with our clients as well.
Shelley Dudley: Yeah, I think that’s a good way to describe the theme we have seen from Keller Williams people that we’ve had on the show.
Nick Neal: Yeah, to be able to support people and look for their strengths, instead of poking at the things that you think they need to fix. When you match those up, it’s really awesome. To see someone who is strong in technical stuff, or a good sales person, then you put them together and they just become a real strong team.
Troy Anderson: Right, and that’s what our team concept is within Keller Williams. We focus on people’s strengths to be able to serve the client better.
Nick Neal: So, how many people do you have on your team?
Troy Anderson: I’ve got 5 brokers including myself. Darren, Justin, Angela and Susan. Then, I’ve got an office manager: Andrea, and two marketing people.
Nick Neal: I’ve been over there, do you guys still have your own door?
Troy Anderson: Yep, we do. Team Troy
Nick Neal: And if it’s closed you don’t go in right?
Troy Anderson: It’s right off the kitchen, so we keep it closed because of the noise, and you know, we want to get things done.
Nick Neal: So, what do you do behind the doors as a team? We will get into it in more detail later, but give us an overview with the different people and parts that come together and get houses purchased and sold.
Troy Anderson: So, we embrace the team concept, and I basically focus on business development and listings. I help the other brokers with all their transactions and negotiating, etc. and also developing the business and finding clients. Susan is my listing specialist. She works with the sellers as soon as they decide to list. She takes care of all those details. If a buyer wants to work with us, depending on the type of buyer, Justin handles most of the leads that come off the Internet or sign call inquiries, and then we have an investment division that Angela heads up.
Nick Neal: I know we talked about this before the show, it sounds like the investment side of things is really busy.
Troy Anderson: The investment side is really busy right now. You can tell when the economy is turned around when investors get back into the market.
Nick Neal: Yeah, so people are buying properties to flip or keep and rent or both?
Troy Anderson: Both. We’re working with both types.
Nick Neal: Yeah, I guess people want to see property values kind of turn a little bit before they say, “well, we might be at the bottom now, now is the time to invest.” Do you feel like that’s kind of what has happened?
Troy Anderson: Yeah, you can never really time the bottom.
Nick Neal: Yeah, it’s like trying to catch a tennis ball on the court; it can always bounce another way.
Troy Anderson: Yeah, as soon as you realize it’s bottom, it’s starting to go up again.
Nick Neal: Exactly. Well, we are just about to head into a break. So, it’s great to have you here today. When we get back we will talk more about what’s happening in Seattle and what’s happening in the market. Thanks Troy, thanks Shelley. This is Real Estate Radio Northwest on Money Radio, I’ve got Troy Anderson from Team Troy at Keller Williams Greater Seattle in Wallingford. We will talk more about the Seattle real estate market when we get back.
Nick Neal: This is Nick Neal from Real Estate Radio Northwest, I’m your host, and you‘re listing to KKOL, AM 1300. And I’ve got Shelley Dudley, my right hand woman. And we’ve got Troy Anderson from Team Troy, Keller Williams here as well. That sounds so daunting, like a Greek/Roman kind of thing. Team Troy.
Troy Anderson: Haha, yeah. We try to work that in.
Shelley Dudley: I have not found your team to be Spartan. In fact, I think you bring great value to the table.
Nick Neal: Well, we are Sound Mortgage. That’s where Shelley and I are from. We are a team that works together with Marta Carpenter. We gave a shout out to her earlier in the program. Our goal is to provide you with good service as far as loans go. That is what we do. We’ve got other aspects to our company; we’ve got Fairplay in association with Hometown National Bank. Fairplay helps with investments and investment opportunities in real estate. The idea is that we’ve got this group of people here, whether that means they are with our company or sponsors that are here to guide and give you good information. We’ve got financial advisors, CPAs, even bankruptcy attorneys. Hopefully, you won’t need that. A list of people that are in our past shows and are a group of trusted advisors that we can refer you out to.
Shelley Dudley: All areas financial.
Nick Neal: Yeah, and if you’ve just got a question about something, or need mortgage advice, give us a call or go to our website.
Shelley Dudley: And if you go to our website, go to the Facebook link and “Like” us.
Nick Neal: There also is a section in there where we will feature information from Troy Anderson, our guest today, maybe some pictures or other activities. Look on our realestateradionorthwest website and we have a Feature of the Week. Now back to Troy from Team Troy. So, what’s going on in Seattle? The buzz is that business is a bit busier. With your team as far out as you work in the city, you’ve probably got a pretty good idea of what’s happening out there.
Shelley Dudley: Yeah, tell us, are some neighbors hotter than others. Not NEIGHBORS, NEIGHBORHOODS!
Nick Neal: There are some really hot neighbors out there!
Troy Anderson: Some neighbors ARE hotter than others.
Shelley Dudley: Okay, open mouth, insert foot. I’m very red-faced right now. So, who has hot neighbors here in Seattle?
Nick Neal: Yeah, tell us where the hot neighbors are!
Troy Anderson: We’ve got hot neighbors in Wallingford, Green Lake, and Phinney Ridge. I’ve been running market analysis for homes in that area, and they are up about 20%
Nick Neal: 20% business wise?
Troy Anderson: No, values
Shelley Dudley: Now, is that over last year?
Troy Anderson: Yes, over last year. Yeah, it’s a little subjective, but collectively the market is definitely hot. Queen Anne is doing good, they are up about 17%. The northeast Green Lake, Maple Leaf area is up about 11%.
Shelley Dudley: Yeah, those are some big numbers
Nick Neal: Can you give us some ideas about prices. What are some of the median prices in those areas? What kind of range are you seeing? I know that differs from area to area. Some of the agents have talked about when they have someone come in from another state, they may know where they want to live, but there can really be a large variation in prices. So that is something you want to pin down beforehand.
Troy Anderson: The median pricing in Wallingford, I ran it by zip code, 98103, is $525,000 as of last month. Queen Anne is 713,000.
Nick Neal: Yeah, so $200,000 there just to go a couple blocks.
Nick Neal: What other areas are you working in.
Troy Anderson: The Green Lake/Maple Leaf area, the average in there is $503,000, so a little bit under Wallingford. King County from Auburn to Shoreline, Kent to Kirkland, they are up about 11%, and the median home price, if you can believe it, is $405,000. So, the market is back.
Nick Neal: Are you seeing that from the buyer’s side as well?
Troy Anderson: Yes, there are more buyers than we have inventory for. So, just imagine a grocery store with three products on the shelf and people lined up to go and get those. So, prices are up and inventory is down.
Nick Neal: I think that’s a big part of it. We’ve had people from Builder’s Association talking about the buyer’s market getting busier, but the real problem is the amount of inventory is down. Whether that is selling existing homes or new construction. New construction just isn’t anywhere near where it needs to be.
Troy Anderson: Yeah, builders are having a tough time find lots to buy. We work with investors and builders to either buy the property, tear it down and build something new, or refresh the property, kind of like the Property Brothers.
Nick Neal: Yeah, finding vacant land, a place to build on.
Troy Anderson: Vacant land in Seattle is tough.
Nick Neal: So what are some of the areas that you like to work in, and can you tell us some of the projects that you are currently working on?
Troy Anderson: Yeah, I’ve got a house in West Seattle that we bought for an investor. It is an institutional investor that does community reinvestment. We bought it as an estate; it was in really bad condition. Over the course of four months, a contractor went in a renovated it, and now it’s back on the market and we had an offer within a week.
Nick Neal: Wow, crazy! So that’s the investment side, and that’s getting hot. So, who are you working with? Is it just people off the street or people that have been investors before?
Troy Anderson: Both. There are some groups that are investing in real estate at the auction and taking some off market properties. We are working with individual investors. I mentioned the community reinvestment group that we are working with as well. Some of our investors are buying to rent, so they are buying to hold because they see the values going up.
Nick Neal: It makes more sense to do that now probably.
Troy Anderson: Yeah, so there are other investors that buy the ones in bad condition and then help the neighborhood out by fixing it up and making it pretty.
Nick Neal: That’s cool. I know an agent from your office, she said that she’s just looking around at say a duplex that’s a little rundown and giving the owners a call asking them if there’s anything we can do to help you sell and fix up your place.
Troy Anderson: Yeah, Angela, that’s pretty much all she’s doing now is working the off market properties. Find the properties that could use a refresh and approaching the owners and saying we’ve got buyers if you a looking to make a move.
Shelley Dudley: Yeah, so I wanted to circle back around to this team concept that you use within Keller Williams – Does Angela work as a buyer’s agent then. If I’m an investor and I want to flip a property, if I come and list it with you, Troy, then Angela’s got this list of buyer’s who are ready to buy this property, that seems like a great way to go there.
Troy Anderson: Absolutely. We’ve got people that stay in their strengths. Angela is primarily an acquisition agent in that she works just with investor buyers. Justin and Darren work with the buyers who may buy the property after it’s been fixed.
Nick Neal: So what you’re saying is that from area of your team to area of your team – that someone who is maybe a flipper that maybe purchased a home at an auction, had the cash to do that, fixed up the property, then you might have an investor who is looking for a nice rental.
Troy Anderson: Absolutely.
Nick Neal: Where are most of these buyers coming from? Are they local or are they out of state? What are you seeing as far as a people coming in to buy houses?
Troy Anderson: Most of the people are people that want to move up in the market. They see the low interest rates and they see house prices going up, so they better get in the market now.
Nick Neal: So that’s starting to happen again. For a long time people were weren’t really looking to move, they were worried about house prices going down more.
Troy Anderson: Right, 2010 was definitely that market
Nick Neal: We did a lot of business we refinance helping people stay in their house and fixing up their existing home. The pattern in the past had been to buy the most expensive house you can afford until you can buy the next most expensive house you can afford. Just kind of step and up and hopefully get appreciation along the way.
Shelley Dudley: Yeah, for a while there, people were looking to stay in their home. And now it’s come back around again.
Troy Anderson: So people that may have wanted to sell last year, but were underwater, can definitely sell this year with equity. That’s what we are finding.
Nick Neal: Yeah, so any out of state buyers? Other places people coming in from? For a while there were a lot of California people.
Troy Anderson: A lot of California people. There isn’t one particular area that I’m seeing.
Nick Neal: But mostly for business though? Tech companies like Amazon and Boeing are bringing people in.
Troy Anderson: Yeah.
Nick Neal: Yeah I know over on the plateau, there is a big influx of tech people even from India. Computer people especially.
Troy Anderson: Correct.
Shelley Dudley: I know we are about to go into a break, but when we get back I was hoping Troy might be able to tell us about one of the properties he had been working with recently.
Nick Neal: Okay, we are here with Troy Anderson from Team Troy over at Keller Williams Greater Seattle in the Seattle neighborhood of Wallingford. This is Real Estate Radio with Nick Neal and when we get back we will talk more about the Seattle Real Estate Market.
Nick Neal: This is Nick Neal on Money Radio, KKOL AM 1300. Eugenie Jones, great bump music. That’s Shelley Dudley, my right-hand woman and that’s Troy Anderson from over at Keller Williams Realty in Wallingford. We’re talking about the Seattle market and how things have really picked up. We are looking to talk about some specific houses.
Shelley Dudley: Yeah, during the break we were discussing a condo in Edmonds that he had recently worked with.
Nick Neal: Yeah, tell us the story on that.
Troy Anderson: Yeah, that was a really good story. We represented the seller in Point Edwards, a nice Sound view condo. We had a buyer that wanted to make an offer on the property, really loved the property, fell in love with it when they first walked in. But, they had a house to sell in the Green Lake area, and were under the impression that they had to make a bunch of repairs and get it ready for sale. So, they wanted to delay closing 90 days. Like a contingency deal, but they wanted to extend closing out. Our seller was like, I don’t think that’s going to work for us. We are looking to go now, and with the amount of interest we’ve had in the property, we can probably get it sold by then. We came back to them, and told them they probably didn’t need to fix up their house in Green Lake. The money that they would put into that property, I don’t know if you’d get a return on that. So, we were able to bring an investor to the table and get them to make an offer on their house, and get that process rolling. It made them realize that, “I can get the condo that I want in Edmonds, and not have to wait the 90 days. I can also sell my house, get out of it what I want, and not have to waste all this time.” So, we were able to orchestrate that and put that together and make the buyer and the seller very happy.
Nick Neal: I know for a long time contingencies have really been an issue. You know when the market is hot, it’s not a big deal. If you’ve got a house and maybe already got some buzz that you want to sell it, but the contingency in and you can get it done. But recently, that has kind of been a bad word. It’s hard to get a deal with contingencies.
Troy Anderson: The only way we’ve seen them go contingent is a new construction builder that has presales.
Nick Neal: So you’re looking at 60-90 day
Troy Anderson: Right, construction time anyway.
Shelley Dudley: Helping this property be moved, it sounds like it’s a good concept to work with a team instead of an individual agent.
Troy Anderson: The services we provide are the same price as an individual agent, but we’ve got nine people working for you all the time. We’ve got three people dedicated to marketing and transaction coordination. We’ve got the investment side of Team Troy.
Shelley Dudley: You get more bang for your buck.
Nick Neal: I just realized, that deal wouldn’t have happened if you were an individual agent probably. But, because of your team, you were able to provide a service that the person didn’t even know they were going to need coming into the transaction. You were saying, “hey, we can make this work.”
Troy Anderson: The buyer for the condo would have been pretty bummed if they couldn’t purchase the property because they really liked it. So, we were able to create a win-win and that’s what Keller Williams is all about.
Nick Neal: So that’s something for people to think about who are looking at moving up. That it might be easier to sell their house now than they actually think.
Troy Anderson: Absolutely. Absolutely. With the low inventory for sure. Obviously, making properties look the best is probably going to give you the most return. If you don’t have the time or the money, you don’t know if you put a dollar into the property if you will get it back at the sale or not.
Nick Neal: Especially for major remodels. If you feel like you wish the kitchen was up to par. A year or so again, when it was harder to sell your house, you might need to do that extra work to make it marketable. Now, you might not need to.
Troy Anderson: That’s correct. With the lower inventories, there are people willing to take them, and for higher prices.
Nick Neal: That the thing. People come into the properties and they want to make them their own. They are excited to make it be what they want it to be. When the market is slow. People want it turnkey, we want everything, we want a car in the garage.
Shelley Dudley: Since we’ve been talking about the investment market a lot recently, tell us about an investment property you’ve worked with recently.
Troy Anderson: Yeah, we worked with an investor in Woodinville recently. He bought a rambler on a ¼ acre lot. It was a short sale, so the seller owed more than the house was worth, and it was in bad condition, really bad condition.
Nick Neal: How bad, give us an image.
Troy Anderson: Oh man, the carpets had trails through the house.
Nick Neal: So, if you needed to find the bathroom just follow the trail.
Troy Anderson: Yeah, just follow the dark spots all the way to the bathroom. It had gorgeous hardwoods underneath. We were able to take the carpets out and restore the hardwood floors, we took all the kitchen cabinets out. Picture 1977 orange.
Nick Neal: Linoleum too, on the walls. Haha.
Troy Anderson: No, the carpet was on the walls!
Shelley Dudley: Long shag!
Troy Anderson: Yeah, long shag, right.
Nick Neal: Did you redo the kitchen as well, how heavy of a remodel.
Troy Anderson: Yeah, we didn’t do any structural work. It was basically cosmetic. We took the cabinets out, replaced those with nice new cabinets, put in granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, and put some nice tile in the kitchen and bath. We put all new paint in there. The electric and plumbing systems were in good shape, so there wasn’t any work that was needed there.
Nick Neal: Bathrooms?
Troy Anderson: Yeah, bathrooms were updated. Every room was touched. New paint throughout, and a new roof.
Shelley Dudley: So, how long did that take, that refurbishment.
Troy Anderson: I think two months.
Nick Neal: Wow, that’s fast. You’re just like the guys on the TV shows
Troy Anderson: Yeah, Property Brothers.
Nick Neal: Well, that’s cool – to think that you could do that so fast. Do you guys have relationships with builders?
Troy Anderson: We used licensed and general contractors with all of our investments. That way it is warrantied.
Nick Neal: To get all that work done in a couple months, you must have had some good people.
Troy Anderson: Yes, definitely. It takes a lot of work to establish a good team.
Nick Neal: So, where is that house at right now. Did you guys sell it?
Troy Anderson: Yes, it is just under contract. It went through inspection yesterday and passed with flying colors.
Nick Neal: They made an obscene amount of money so you didn’t want to disclose that.
Troy Anderson: Yeah, these investors have lost money and made money. So, it all kind of evens out.
Nick Neal: But this one worked out for them
Troy Anderson: Yeah, they did pretty well.
Nick Neal: That’s what happens when you have a busy market. When you have enough money to buy a place, and fix it up, and then turn around and sell it at a profit. That’s great, that’s everybody’s dream right?
Troy Anderson: Yeah, that’s what late night TV is about, right?
Nick Neal: Let’s go buy a house and sell it and make millions of dollars. There are opportunities for that still? The inventory is there for that?
Troy Anderson: There is some rough or shadow inventory out there that has not come on the market yet; I wish it would. There are some opportunities for investors there. I think it’s great for the neighborhood as well. It is great to see houses that have been sitting vacant and in really bad condition, to have someone come in a refresh it, it can turn the neighborhood around.
Shelley Dudley: So, where are some good areas to find investment properties in Seattle?
Troy Anderson: Pretty much any neighborhood in Seattle. Wallingford, Green Lake, Phinney Ridge, West Seattle. We are finding a lot of good deals up on Capitol Hill right now.
Nick Neal: There is so much diverse property in Seattle – we’ve got such a long history. Maybe in a neighborhood that is mostly remodels, you’ve got some crusty places still.
Troy Anderson: Sure. Old Federal style houses that were estates for example have been coming around. So the investor comes in and turns it into a million dollar property.
Nick Neal: Do you have much bank-owned still?
Troy Anderson: There are some bank-owned properties. We have an account with HUD. The inventory is dwindling with HUD. I think as the market improves people are able to fix their problem, so they aren’t going into foreclosure as much.
Nick Neal: So, that was my next question. On the short sale side, what is that like?
Troy Anderson: Short sale still pretty strong. We still haven’t fully recovered. There are different kinds of short sales now. It is not just distressed homeowners. It is people getting job transfers and they can’t sell their house. The lenders that we have worked with lately have streamlined the process. They understand that they don’t want the property back in foreclosure. They would rather make an exit strategy that is going to be beneficial for everybody.
Nick Neal: We’ve heard this referred to as haunted houses. When you have a house that is sitting vacant, and the yard grows up, it is literally like a haunted house. It’s not good for the lender because it is going to be hard to sell, and it’s not good for the neighborhood because of values. Well, we are about to head into a break.
Nick Neal: Welcome back to Real Estate Radio Northwest. I am Nick Neal, your host, and I’ve got Shelley Dudley here as well, my right-hand woman. We’ve been talking to Troy Anderson from Team Troy from Keller Williams Greater Seattle over in Wallingford, and we’ve also got Courtney. She has been here in the studio with us and we were just talking about what we wanted to cover in the next segment and she was so good about sharing those details with the Internet and technology stuff going on over at Team Troy that we just said, “Get over here and get on the mic.” How are you doing Courtney
Courtney Theis: Hi, Good. Thank you for having me.
Nick Neal: And you are the marketing assistant
Courtney Theis: That’s right. I focus on Internet marketing for the most part.
Nick Neal: So, the technical stuff, that’s cool. Is she good?
Troy Anderson: Yes, yes.
Nick Neal: Are you a real tech guy? Do you get the tech stuff too?
Troy Anderson: I do, I feel like the technology is passing us old people by. Sometimes I’m like what do I do with that. Tweet what?
Nick Neal: It is a different language isn’t it? But you got to have it in today’s market
Troy Anderson: Yes, totally. I would consider myself a geek guy. I’m pretty much all Apple or Mac.
Shelley Dudley: Well, we had fun with Justin Mitchell, because he’s a major gadget guy.
Nick Neal: Can you tell me a little bit more about your team concept and a then Courtney was going to tell me more about the tech stuff.
Troy Anderson: Sure. So, I talked about it a bit earlier. So, when you work with an individual agent, it is hard for them to do everything. With us we have people that specialize in different aspects. There are a lot of people involved, over 150 people, in each individual real estate transaction to get it closed. We bring complimentary services to the table. We call it our No Fuss Home Marketing System. This is for sellers. For sellers, we have free home staging. What that means is that we come in a make it look pretty with your furniture or if it is vacant, we bring in our own furniture. We offer free landscape maintenance, so as soon as the landscape is up and ready we maintain it until it’s up and sold. We offer house cleaning, we offer professional HDR photography.
Shelley Dudley: Tell me about this house cleaning, so you’ll come over and clean my house.
Nick Neal: You have to sell your house, Shelley.
Troy Anderson: We can get that listing agreement signed right now.
Nick Neal: I guess that’s some amazing stuff though. A lot of agents charge extra for this, or they put it off on you. You know, you might want to do this to get your house up to par.
Troy Anderson: Yeah, we partner and we’re flexible. There was one seller that needed to carpet an area, but couldn’t afford to do it. So we paid for it, and then it came out of the proceeds at closing. So we’re really flexible with how we do things. That leads me into our flexible commissions as well. So there’s really no risk to hiring us.
Shelley Dudley: It sounds like a person gets really great value for coming on board with this team concept.
Nick Neal: Well, and then you’ve covered all the bases. You take the guesswork out of it. You’ve got all the people and resources that someone would need. What about from a buyer’s side?
Troy Anderson: From a buyer’s side, we offer a free one-year home warranty. So that way you have piece of mind that if one week down the road, your furnace breaks, you are covered. We have several clients use this and they love it.
Shelley Dudley: This is not just with a brand new home, this is like already existing homes. If someone else owned it before you bought it.
Troy Anderson: Correct.
Shelley Dudley: Wow!
Troy Anderson: Yeah, we provide the warranty, it doesn’t matter how old the house is or how old the system are. It just comes with the purchase at closing. We also offer a free re-key to the buyer. We don’t know how many keys are floating around. So, we re-key for you so you’ll feel safe and secure that way. We offer our concierge service as well, so that means you need something, you call us and we will track it down. About two months ago we purchased a sixteen foot moving truck. Pretty much anyone who is need of a truck can use this. You don’t have to buy or sell with us. If you need to use a truck, give us a call.
Shelley Dudley: That’s a lot of value you guys bring to the table.
Nick Neal: Well, Courtney what do you guys do from the marketing and Internet side?
Courtney Theis: One of the main things that I work on is that I update our blog many times a week. And we really try and reach out just general Seattleites. We really try to offer as many services as we can to people, whether that means recommending a great Seattle restaurant that we just found or featuring a major event that’s going on in Seattle. We just kind of want to get news out there, and offer as many services as we can.
Nick Neal: And that’s all through the blog.
Courtney Theis: Yeah, through the blog, we also try to offer up obviously real estate advice, but also fun stuff like home décor ideas, or curb appeal ideas, things you might want to do in winter, things you might want to do in spring time, we recently did a blog about Top 5 Things that Young People are Looking for in a Home. It’s a more light-hearted, fun way for us to get out there.
Nick Neal: We will have to get that link and put it on our website, so that we can get people over to your site. Can you give the address?
Courtney Theis: Absolutely. It’s www.nwhomsearch.com. Then there is a blog tab, it updates regularly about Seattle and neighborhoods especially. I would recommend anyone looking for real estate advice or home advice go and check it out.
Nick Neal: Now, is that your website.
Courtney Theis: Yeah, that’s our general website, and the blog is on there as well. We have lots of stuff on our website. Whether Troy is teaching a class, we have a classes tab on our site. We have an investments tab, we have a sellers tab, we have a buyers tab, so it’s kind of a catch-all website that people can go to. We also have a link to our Facebook page on there. We are really active on social media. We post all of our new listings and our sold properties on there, it’s kind of a running tab of what’s going on. Then if the team goes out to a happy hour or something that night, or if someone’s birthday comes up we’ll post on there. It’s just a way for us to keep connected with our clients and with one another.
Nick Neal: So, we are getting down the end of the show now, is there anything else you want to talk about? We have a minute or so left.
Troy Anderson: Yeah, you can basically find all the information we talked about on our website: www.nwhomesearch.com or call us at 206-588-8409
Nick Neal: Or connect with us through our website and our number and we can get you in touch with the people over at Team Troy, Keller Williams Greater Seattle as well. 5-6-7 people and growing.
Troy Anderson: 9 people total.
Nick Neal: Yeah, I just love the team concept. It’s like one stop shopping.
Troy Anderson: It’s mutually beneficial for all parties.
Nick Neal: Because you get people that want to sell, they look for a seller’s agent, if they want to buy, they look for a buyer’s agent. Some people might say they are a seller’s agent too, but they have sold a property in a long time. But you guys are encompassing everything. Any else you guys want to cover Internet wise or marketing wise
Courtney Theis: Really, it’s just being inclusive and trying to get ourselves on as many social media websites, Internet websites as we can and build the presence – that’s our main goal.
Nick Neal: That’s where traffic is coming from these days. For us old dogs like Troy and I, and Shelley is kind of an old dog.
Troy Anderson: Hey!
Shelley Dudley: Excuse me! Less of the old, less of the dog as well. I’ll let you get away with that.
Nick Neal: You know it.
Shelley Dudley: Well, we’ve had great guests today. Thank you so much Courtney and Troy for coming on.
Courtney Theis: Thank you so much.
Troy Anderson: Thanks for having us on.