Gayle Rich-Boxman

Broker with Vernonia Realty

website:www.lakehomesatfishhawk.com

Your Gateway to Fishhawk Lake!

It feels sort of self-serving to put that down for the world to see, but after seven+ years of doing this successfully in spite of the economy I can honestly say business is still happening and I LOVE WHAT I DO.
After living here fulltime for over seven years and being an avid weekender prior to that for several years, my husband and I are definitely here to stay. It will eventually be our “retirement home” in the far-off future. My husband has been a past Board President of our Homeowners Association and helps me with questions that he is better equipped to answer having had that position and I also am a volunteer for the Firewise committee. We have been  given an award for being the first Firewise Community in the Pacific Northwest to be presented by the Oregon  Department of Forestry.

My main support of this community is to bring  people into it as new homeowners and/or owners of lots as well as list most of the properties here at Fishhawk Lake.  We’ve had interest from all over the country (and outside of it!) because of my website and daily blogging on ActiveRain, a real estate social network, I  reach far more people from out-of-state than any other kind of marketing I could do and I’ve had several sales/offers happen with folks from California, Arizona, and I’ve even had a fellow from Indonesia who has been e-mailing me for two years now and is trying to get here to take a look at our beautiful and unusual community. We do get lots of interest from people in Portland, too and they either have been told about me through my past clients, my neighbors or friends that have come up here to visit and find out how exciting it is to discover a private lake community only 90 minutes from their home with lots of choices in both price range and style of home or vacant lot and a local realtor that can show them around while they’re here! I’ve had many drop-ins, or we may be walking our dogs around the lake and someone will stop us and ask about property and pretty soon I’m doing a tour of the lake! I’ve managed to create prosperity for sellers and match the right property at the right price for buyers during a time when other realtors who’ve been doing real estate for ten+ years are getting out of the business. This is my specialty, my niche and I’m not going ANYWHERE. One of the biggest compliments I’ve had is that realtors who own property up at Fishhawk Lake and want to sell have used me as their listing agent. One seller was actually a family of FOUR realtors and they had tried on their own to sell their listing and after many months, they turned it over to me and I got it sold in August of 2010. I have a seller, Mary Norquist who is a realtor in Portland and  is getting ready to retire and travel the world and this is what she had to say recently,  “I defer to your knowledge of how the market works up there” when we were discussing a price change and where  and how to market her property.  That speaks volumes coming from someone who’s been in the business for many years.

I just read part of an article in Active Rain  written by Larry Bettag on how to prepare your financing and then what to look for in a realtor. I’ve included part of it below:

• Get with a REAL realtor!  What does that mean?  It means get with someone who’s doing this as a profession, not as a side job.  Not as someone who’s moonlighting to pick up a few extra bucks.  After you meet with your licensed loan officer, have them refer you to someone who’s known in your community for really working for their clients.  They have to be knowledgeable.  So many folks work with their neighbor who has a license.  That’s OK if the realtor is serious about this business and has demonstrated a history of success in this business.  If not, run for the hills!