Emily Cressey

My father and grandfather were both real estate investors, so it's in my blood! After college I worked for a real estate investment education company from 2002-2008, coaching adults who wanted to learn about creative real estate investing (Lease/Option, Subject-To, Short-Sales, Rehabs, Flips, Landlording, etc.) We studied and taught Negotiation, Sales, and Marketing. I am also a founding member of a company called Grassland Investments, LLC which sponsored syndications of commercial property (apartment buildings, raw land, commercial/manufacturing space, retail shopping centers, etc.). The company is no longer active in acquisitions, but I have an ownership interest in the properties my partners and I still hold. I first got my license in 2008 after moving back home to Seattle, WA with my husband and young son. The market had changed, and I was in a different part of the country, so I was looking forward to doing something new!

I studied Economics and earned my BA cum laude from The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where I was studying with a full-ride merit-based scholarship. I was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and also Delta Epsilon - an honor society for top Economics students. I have completed and taught advanced classes in Negotiation, Marketing, and Sales.

I encourage all my home buyers to take their time and look at least 10 properties before they get serious about putting out an offer. This allows you to learn the market, and how far your dollars will go in the current marketplace. I am a “no pressure” real estate professional. My goal is your complete satisfaction with the process of buying a home, and whether that takes you 1 day of touring, or 6 months (I’ve had both!), I’m with you the whole way. Also, we don't have to limit the search to *JUST* what we see on the MLS. If you like an area, but aren't seeing the inventory you want, we have a number of methods for searching for off-market deals so you can have more options to choose from. When you find a home you love, we’ll pursue negotiations… whether that means negotiating $113,000 off a million dollar condo (like I just did for some client buying in Edmonds), or using price escalations and waiving our protections to win an offer in a competitive market, I’ll walk you through the process and help you understand the risks and rewards of using different strategies.

When it comes to selling your home, one of my biggest tips is to start working with your real estate broker early in the process. Take that time to PREPARE your home so it looks great - we want it to look like the "dream home" your buyer is looking for. If you need to do major repairs, we can help finance that for you. If you don’t have the time or inclination to do any fixups, that’s fine, too. An as-is home can sell quickly if the right buyer sees it. Next, focus on PRESENTATION. We often invest in your home by paying for staging (if it's vacant) or professional cleaning and completing that honey-do list, if it's still occupied. We want your home to look (and smell!) its best when buyers walk in. PROMOTION: To help get buyers in the door, we also put our dollars into professional photography, videography, 3-D Matterport Tours, Floor Plans, and even drone footage. Then we pay to advertise your home on multiple online platforms, including social media sites like Google, Facebook, and Instagram. Making sure a lot of people see the home, and it looks great when they come across it online, is imperative to get it maximum exposure and showings. No discussion of home sales would be complete without touching on PRICING. No matter how bright and shiny your home looks, if it’s overpriced it won’t sell. Market research and interpretation of feedback in the marketplace is crucial for getting the home priced correctly to build momentum and attract the right buyer.

I love working with clients of all types. From first-time home buyers, move-up buyers, investors, and older folks who are downsizing or selling estate sale property. There’s nothing more rewarding than helping people accomplish their real estate goals. Whether you are young or old, experienced or buying your first home, a skin-flint investor, techie, or more of an artist… I am happy to help you Find and Buy, or Market and Sell your home, condominium, or investment property. LGBTQ-Friendly.

I recently helped a family in Kenmore sell their home (in a hurry) because they were already under contract to purchase their next larger home. When a home is vacant, I love to pay for staging to make it look awesome, but in this case, the family was going to be living in the home, so we talked about which of their personal items and furniture to keep, how to arrange them (and what to put into storage) to make their home spacious and appealing. Then I had my cleaners and window washers come through so things would look their best on the big day of launch. In order to price the home correctly, I went out to visit all the nearby homes for sale to get an idea of appropriate pricing and market trends. Because they wanted to sell quickly, it was important that we not overprice the property. The happy result was that we were able to have several open houses, attract multiple offers, and sell the home for well over asking price. We were able to negotiate with several of the interested parties, to get the best price possible for the home.The sellers were thrilled with the speed of the transaction, as well as the end result, and are now happily enjoying their new home a few miles away.