Realtor That Gives a Damn
In addition to working as Realtor for over 16 years, I’ve studied urban planning, historic preservation and equitable development as a graduate student at UW. I continue to explore the complex role of real estate in our lives.
I am conscious of the inherent conflict of being a broker that will always seek to obtain the greatest value for my client’s home and investment, and being an individual that cares deeply about the health and inclusiveness of my hometown.
I am looking for clients who share the vision of a healthy and equitable Seattle.
For clients who share this vision, I am offering to contribute a share of my net commission, in your name, from a successful closing to one of the organizations below, or your chosen neighborhood organization.
Friends of Little Saigon
Seattle Chinatown Preservation and Development Authority
Chief Seattle Club
Artist Coalition for Equitable Development
El Centro de la RazaFor other ideas on similar groups to support visit the City of Seattle’s Equitable Development Initiative.
These great groups are doing the challenging work of trying to balance prosperity and displacement.
Further thoughts…
If you have found this page, you may have received a postcard from me, or seen my advertisement online. Specific details are best discussed in person, but I’ll take this opportunity to explain my motivation in greater detail.
This was a result of a lengthy brainstorm, and some soul searching, on how I could best translate my passion for the health of the city into my professional work as a Realtor. I am fortunate in many ways, but specific to my work I am in an industry that essentially has a built-in cost-of-living adjustment as property appreciates. Said another way, while housing gets more expensive and out of reach for many, my own housing cost has been mostly stable, it feels right to me to support groups working to combat displacement with the extra income due to the market.
In essence, being in the for-profit world of real estate, while caring about displacement and gentrification, while also believing that healthy communities have a complicated mix of prosperity and preservation, is at best complicated. One thing I realized I could do is to make a linkage between the action of the buying or selling and supporting groups that are doing challenging work in our city.
The above organizations are ones whose mission I support—however, I should add, they are not necessarily endorsing me as a broker. A client is also more than welcome to select a non-profit not listed—it is ultimately their choice.
A few disclaimers and further clarifying details. This is a personal issue of my own, not necessarily other Lake brokers—although each broker has their own interests and passions as varied as you’d expect from the 90+ Realtors in my office, and each prove their own value.
Potential tax benefits would be determined by individual circumstances and the chosen organization, and a CPA should be consulted. My non-expert (I am not a tax expert, but I can Google things) understanding is that if I make the contribution in a client’s name, I would gain the potential benefits, while the client would get recognition from the chosen organization. However, the purpose of this is NOT to claim deductions for myself, and thus alternate scenarios can be discussed in our meeting.
Finally, if you are already in a listing agreement or a buyer agency agreement with another broker, this is not meant to be a solicitation for that business.