Terry Eccles-Pettet

Broker/Owner
Imagine Homes Realty, LLC
360-433-2599
www.ImagineHomesRealty.com

How long have you worked in Real Estate?
I started in Real Estate in 1999, just after we returned to Vancouver. My husband had retired from the Marine Corps and we decided to bring the family back home. Since the Marine Corps had moved our family 13 times in 22 years I had first-hand knowledge of just how stressful moving could be so helping families find a new home was second nature. Real Estate quickly became my passion so much so I became a Real Estate Educator for the State, and in 2015, opened my own Real Estate School, RealtyU, and started Imagine Homes Realty, LLC.

What is your specialty?
My specialty is what the industry calls The Move Up. It’s when a family needs to sell their current home and move to a larger more spacious one or downsize now that the kids are gone off to college. The moment in time when a client is fearful they might end up owning two homes or scarier yet, no home, that’s when all my experience and attention to detail comes into play. My secret is preparation and information.

What is one tip you have for someone looking to buy or sell a home?
Find a Realtor® who doesn’t just agree with everything you say, but will be truthful and honest. Just listing your home for the price you are hoping for only gets your home listed, not sold. Buyers the same, you need someone looking out for your future, not someone who will sell you any house. I can’t imagine anything more important than Family and Home Ownership, and neither should be taken lightly as you are making the largest financial decisions of a lifetime.

What is the most unique property you’ve listed or sold?
I’ve never forgotten my very first listing, where the chickens and ducks running through the yard chased off more agents than the price tag. Or the 3 pygmy goats that roamed the basement. But my advertising touted the granite counters, the central vacuum, marble bathrooms and the square footage which brought buyers by the truckload. I got calls every day that home was on market from agents asking if I was crazy. We sold it and the new buyers asked to keep the chickens and the goats.

What is the most challenging/gratifying aspect of what you do?
Handing over the keys. This is the single most gratifying thing about this career. After all the stress, the worry, the paperwork and the awful waiting – seeing their eyes a little teary or that warm smile, knowing this is now truly their home. Best day ever.

What do you see in the future for real estate sales/prices?
I think Clark County’s real estate is still moving in the positive. Prices are holding for the most part. Interest rates are still favorable for Buyers. Economists are forecasting for more of the same in 2016. With the cost of rent skyrocketing, now may actually be the best time for some families to make a purchase.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not working? Hobbies, volunteering, family, fun?
Family always comes first, and this year I was blessed with my first two Grandbabies. When I’m not with my family or my clients, I believe in giving back – I have served on the Clark County Association of Realtors® Board of Directors as President in 2013 and currently serve on Washington Realtors® Board of Directors as VP of Education. I love staying current on the issues and advocating on behalf of Washington Home Owners.

What do you like about living in this area?
I have lived all over the world and have always been proud to call Vancouver home. We are minutes away from all things cosmopolitan, a car ride to mountains, rivers, even the beach. My children thrived in the schools here, and both my husband and I have businesses here. Clark County has so much to offer families.

Anything else you would like our readers to know about you and your company?
I opened my own brokerage this year because I believed it was the best way to ensure my passion for doing Real Estate with my client’s best interests would always be first and foremost. We use the Realtor® Code of Ethics as our road map to practice real estate. At Imagine Homes Realty, LLC our first objective is to serve our community through our integrity, high principles and the ability to obtain the best results in all Real Estate matters. We focus on the needs of every person who walks through our doors so that every Broker and each Client will be able to say at the end of a transaction, “and they lived happily ever after.”