Trendsetters

  • Pat Grimm
    President, Windermere Western Washington Services
Pat Grimm is responsible for directing the operations of Windermere Western Washington Services’ administrative arm, with a primary focus on consulting with office owners on financial and business operations. A real estate professional with nearly 20 years of experience in the Puget Sound area, Grimm served as general manager for Windermere’s Bellevue Commons and Builder Services operations for more than ten years. He has also served as chairman of the board for the Northwest Multiple Listing Service and chair of Windermere’s Eastside Standards of Practice Committee. Grimm received bachelor’s degrees in business administration and humanities from Seattle University.

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The Internet has given rise to many different business models, but Windermere has remained true to the traditional full service broker model. Do you see that changing in the future?

No, we believe in full service and fully responding to the needs of home buyers and sellers. We actually foresee the expansion of the definition of “full service”. Many of the different business models that are popping up are very one dimensional in their approach. I.e. the value model assumes that if you know the value, then you have all the value. Nothing can be further from the truth. The process is actually becoming more multifaceted. Windermere’s mission is to deliver an excellent experience at every step of the process.


Zillow™ recently announced a major upgrade to their website, allowing homeowners to post their homes “For Sale” with a sale price or a “Make Me Move™” price. How do you think this is going to affect the industry?

Most notably, the industry needs to pay attention to what they’re doing. The latest upgrade to Zillow is an attempt to engage/attract buyers earlier in the process, which would be important for their business model. They have probably concluded that most of their traffic comes from sellers and real estate agents and see the natural limitation.

I believe that Zillow’s mission is to make all information related to a property transparent and available to the public. I don’t disagree. But I think they’d like to see that information be property-centric as opposed to being listing-centric, which would provide them more control and a more viably economic business model. Their goal would be to capture the eyeballs and attention of the consumer.


Do you foresee Windermere participating with Zillow, as you have with Google Base™?

No. Agents and sellers are free to do what they want, but I don’t foresee a relationship with Zillow along the lines of Google. Google is a portal and Zillow is a destination. We want consumers to be directed to their best source for relevant information, results and wisdom … a Windermere agent.


Since the beginning, Windermere has been on the cutting edge of technology. You were one of the first brokerages to embrace the Internet and implement a searchable database of homes, interactive mapping searches, the ability to post multiple photos, set up email alerts, etc.. In your opinion what is the next online technical innovation?

Creating an exceptional experience online for the consumer that effectively culminates in a naturally and smoothly handed off lead to a real estate professional. No one is doing that well and it is the key to leveraging the Internet.


In almost every major industry there has been innovation and improvements in delivering good customer experience. How is Windermere meeting that challenge, particularly with online consumers?

Technology can facilitate, but will never replace relationship building. Windermere has partnered with Most Home Real Estate Services, to provide a dedicated customer service team to manage our online inquiries.


Has incorporating Internet lead response and qualification to your online marketing strategy helped support your business goals?

The partnership has been a great fit.  With our full service, high impact customer service philosophy and the lead response and lead management services that Most Home provides, it allows us to apply our customer service values to the Internet and our online marketing strategy.  It has been a great vehicle for brand enhancement, recruiting, customer satisfaction, expanded core business, and increase in ancillary business.


The demographics of real estate agents are changing. REALTORS® are now younger, more tech savvy. What is your strategy to recruit and retain these agents?

X & Y generation agents want what they want, when they want it. Give them something that provides results and you’ve created attraction as well as gotten their attention. Our strategy is to provide our agents with systems, tools and processes that help them create a terrific experience at each and every step of the real estate transaction process.


Windermere does a great job of supporting the communities it serves. Can you share with us some of the community initiatives Windermere has been involved in that improve the quality of life for local neighborhoods?

There are too many to cover them all. The Windermere Foundation alone has raised $2.2 million dollars in 2006 to be distributed in communities throughout the West. A large portion of these funds are targeted for the YMCA after school program, but an equally large portion is distributed at the discretion of local offices to local charities and support groups focused on homeless domestic violence victims. In addition, there are literally thousands of Windermere agents and brokers who donate their time and money outside the Foundation in giving back to their local communities.

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