Seattle Real Producers Feature Article

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CARRIE FREEMAN

Carrie FREEMAN interior feature

LEARNING SOMETHING EVERY DAY IN THE BUSINESS SHE LOVES Written by Barbara Pearson

“I am so agent Carolyn Photos by Pics By Pix Photography Black with her fortunate remarkable client that I have service and organizational found the job I am skills and was invited to work as meant to do,” says Carrie a site agent at the Murray Franklyn site Freeman of John L. Scott, Snohomish. “I in Bothell. It was there that she gained invaluable new love what I do every single day — and I think construction sales experience. “I discovered that selling new construction is very different from resales,” that makes a real difference!”

Carrie’s real estate journey began when she was quite young. She owned an interior design company and started staging. “I had no formal training, but I’ve always been good at design,” she explains, “and I landed a project with Mark von der Burg, staging a gorgeous full water view house in Bellevue. I remember watching him — he was great with his clients — and I thought I could do that, as it looked a lot more fun than what I was doing!”

Three years later, Carrie obtained her real estate license and joined Windermere Mill Creek. “From the get-go, I was able to attract clients,” she says.

“I was just good at it, and people trusted me,” she continues. When she sold a house at a Murray Franklyn new construction site, she impressed

Carrie explains, “and I learned to work successfully with many different types of people.”

When the recession hit in 2008, Carrie moved her license to John L. Scott Mill Creek and also joined Sundquist Homes, a local family-owned new home construction builder, whose management created a new job in internet sales specifically for her. “I survived the recession. I was doing internet sales for Sundquist, which was a fairly new concept in real estate at that time; continuing to sell real estate with John L. Scott; and helping Kristi Sundquist with creating all the interior design for Sundquist’s model homes,” Carrie says.

“And Larry Sundquist, who is the most intelligent man I’ve ever met, was a really great mentor. He understood the whole business from every perspective, and although he is not a real estate agent, he taught me so much. He is a wealth of knowledge.”

Just as Carrie was thinking that it was time to return to resale, her pivotal point came when Sundquist sold to a national builder, Century Communities, and she had to make a hard decision to stay with Century Communities and go the secure route or to go back to fulltime residential resale where she knew the opportunities are limitless. It came down to believing in herself and taking that big leap.

“I was a single mom managing everything on my own, and it was very important to me that my older daughter was able to attend college at San Diego State University. She was about to graduate high school, and I had to be able to afford it!”

Carrie continues. So she went straight back into sales with John L. Scott. “I had no choice but to sink or swim — so I swam!” she quips. Her explanation for her success? “I had the experience, I had the skills, I had the ability, I had the faith in myself.

I’m proud of myself for how much I achieved in a short time period,

showing my daughters that you can do whatever you want when you put your mind to it.”

Carrie credits much of her success to the more experienced agents who initially mentored her and whom she looked up to, including Frank Sargent, Darren Munson, Jennifer Reyer, Jennifer Kuhlman and Carolyn Black. “Sometimes, when people are really successful, they have the mindset that there’s nothing new they can learn,” Carrie explains, “but I don’t think that’s true at all. I don’t care how long you’ve been doing this or how successful you are; you can learn something new every day.”

For a long time, Carrie was a solo agent, but she later realized she was way too busy to manage around 12 deals a month on her own. “Although I had systems in place because I am extremely organized, I needed to do something differently because my work was starting to affect the amount of time I was able to spend with my daughters,” she explains. So she added Joann, her transaction coordinator, and then hired a showing agent and a buyer’s agent. “Having just two to three people on a team is a really good number for me,’ Carrie says, “as I still always want to have that personal touch with all of my clients — this is extremely important to me.”

During COVID-19, not seeing anyone except her immediate family left Carrie feeling somewhat isolated. “It felt to me that life had almost stopped for two and a half years, although I was busier than ever during that time with my business. I needed a reset, to see people again, and to interact,” she says.

Although it was a difficult decision, she moved to

I am so fortunate that I have found the job I am meant to do.

John L. Scott Snohomish, where there are both experienced agents and newer ones too. “I have my own office there, but I love to come out into the main office area,” Carrie explains, “because I want that energy, I love hearing the newer agents talk and understanding their fresh perspectives, and I also love helping them.”

Carrie sets personal goals and consistently hits or exceeds them. “I receive a lot of referrals, do plenty of listings and have a huge buyer side, so with this market shift, I’m not concerned,” she says, “because whatever is going on in the world, there will always be people

wanting to buy and sell — and it’s my job to help them and to educate them as much as possible on the market.”

“I adore all my clients, especially my first-time buyers. It’s fun to help people make something they have been dreaming of come true. There is nothing more satisfying than giving someone the keys to their new home.

But the best part of my job is that I have the flexibility to balance work and family life,” Carrie concludes, “and spending quality time with my daughters means more to me than anything else.”

CARRIE FREEMAN Carrie Freeman Real Estate 206.355.6230 carriefreeman@johnlscott.com www.carriefreeman.johnlscott.com