Published May 2001

Windermere a leader
in home sales,
community service

By John Wolcott
Herald Business Journal Editor

To those who know Vern Holden -- owner or part-owner of four Windermere real estate offices in Snohomish County -- it's no surprise he chose the region's largest real estate firm. Like Holden, the company is dedicated to professionalism, community service, helping people find housing and helping agents build their careers.

"The housing industry is a great career field, and Windermere leads the field locally," Holden said. "Just think of the importance of the housing industry, with all of the builders, roofers, vendors, the Home Depots and landscape businesses, furniture dealers, appliance and drapery businesses that depend on home building and home ownership."

Today's federation of more than 200 real estate offices, with more than 4,800 agents, began in 1972 when today's board chairman, John Jacobi, bought an eight-agent company in Seattle, a small business named Windermere.

By 1975, Jacobi had bought his first satellite office, adding eight more in the Seattle area by 1983. The next year, the company established its first affiliate relationship, with a real estate office on Bainbridge Island, and held its first Community Service Day, involving employees in volunteer efforts in their communities.

By 1989, the company had established the Windermere Foundation, a nonprofit organization created to combat homelessness in the Northwest. In 1994, with 100 affiliated offices, Windermere added a health-care plan to its retirement plan, expanded into Idaho and launched a comprehensive Internet site (www.windermere.com) that continues to fuel sales growth for the company, featuring photos and descriptions of thousands of homes.

Expanding into Oregon in 1995, Windermere took another major step in 1997 when it developed an Intranet for partners and employees, the Windermere Online Resource Center, that provides agents with company information, business forms, retirement plan updates and marketing materials.

Today, Windermere's locally owned offices share the Northwest's largest real estate sales staff and spend $6 million a year in newspaper advertising to promote home listings and their services. Plus, the company publishes its own full-color magazines to promote properties in specialty areas.

Statistically, it's clear that Windermere has built a leadership role in the Northwest's real estate marketplace.

By volume, Windermere agents representing buyers sold 32 percent of all new and resale homes in the region during 2000, and agents representing sellers sold 40 percent of all of those residences, with the remaining sales in both categories handled by Re/Max, Century 21, John L. Scott, Preview Properties, Coldwell Banker, Prudential and Macpherson's together.

By number of transactions, Windermere offices accounted for 29 percent of all sales by agents representing buyers and 38 percent of all sales by agents representing sellers, with market share totaling 31 percent and 35 percent for buyer and seller representation, respectively.

For home sales of $500,000 to $999,999, Windermere reported a market share in 2000 of 43 percent, plus 40 percent of sales over $1 million.

Maintaining the company's commitment to helping the communities it serves, Windermere's agents and staff involve themselves in numerous local charitable and service organizations.

Aside from its year-around involvement, Windermere continues to focus on its Community Service Day, with each office choosing a local project to enhance its community, including cleaning, landscaping and painting senior citizen centers, low-income housing, emergency shelters and other facilities.

Employee efforts in 1984 totaled 2,475 volunteer hours, with Community Service Day involvement growing to nearly 230,000 hours of community service in 1999, the latest figures published by Windermere.

Also, sales associates contribute a portion of each real estate transaction to the Windermere Foundation, which is active in Snohomish County and elsewhere in the Northwest. Since it began in 1989, agents have contributed more than $4 million. The foundation allocates funds for each community, with less than 2 percent going to administrative costs.

Nearly half of the foundation's funding goes to homeless shelters and housing programs, with the rest going to children's programs, emergency assistance and public school scholarships and assistance programs.

Related: Broker Vern Holden says Snohomish County's market is "still strong"

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