Pleasanton, CA — January 31, 2020 — NextHome is proud to announce our newest addition to the franchise, NextHome South Sound, based in DuPont, Washington. The brokerage represents the ninth office location opened in Washington for the NextHome franchise.
The brokerage is owned by real estate and property management experts Sue Larsen and Kevin Burke. The husband and wife team have already attracted top-tier talent to the brokerage. Each agent brings expertise in residential sales as well as property management. Local professionals Jana Ross, Patty Campbell, Kristin Schafer, Carolyn Demaree, and Brittany Ulrich are ready to help with all types of residential transactions.
Each of these highly-trained agents are military spouses, positioning the brokerage especially well to serve the needs of families at nearby Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
“As military spouses, each agent has become very adaptable in their professional skills,” Sue said. “They are very familiar with relocation and rental properties. From helping a military client with purchasing or renting, navigating VA loans, to managing a property and picking the right time to sell – everyone is very knowledgeable about the entire picture.”
Located about nine miles south of Tacoma, Joint Base Lewis-McChord is home to more than 45,000 military members from both the Army and Air Force. NextHome South Sound will serve clients across the JBLM area, including both Pierce and Thurston counties.
After 20 years of service in the Army, Kevin knows the unique needs that military families have when it comes to relocation.
The couple’s real estate careers began shortly after 9/11 when Kevin was deployed from Fort Benning in Georgia. Before leaving, he bought a home. The process was so seamless that Sue bought another property down the street. The couple’s portfolio of homes grew and their property management career bloomed. As military life goes, Kevin was eventually reassigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord where Sue’s new-found love of real estate led her to get her Broker’s license.
After moving to DuPont, Sue began working as a marketing coordinator for a real estate company. She soon transitioned into property management and sales, eventually taking these skills to an independent brokerage.
In 2014, Sue branched out on her own and, as sole owner, opened Better Properties DuPont. For the next five years, the company would experience phenomenal growth. The property management side of the business now has 115 doors in its portfolio. In 2019, the brokerage closed 127 transactions with four selling agents.
The workload prompted Kevin to join the real estate business and help with accounting, bookkeeping, and back-end support.
However, Sue knew to continually grow, she needed the support of a franchised brand.
One of her agents knew a NextHome broker in North Carolina and brought the brand to Sue’s attention. That connection and the positive reviews she heard about NextHome prompted Sue to give the franchise a closer look.
“We were so busy, we needed a partner that could give us the tools and back-end support to take our business to the next level,” Sue said. “We had been looking at numerous franchises and NextHome appealed to me for a lot of different reasons. The company has many offices near military bases, and a lot of military-affiliated agents in their network. With our main clientele being so mobile, the ability to provide that family-like connection wherever they went was a huge attraction. NextHome also provides all the tools and support we were looking for.”
Today, Sue and Kevin have used NextHome’s tools and branding to build a portfolio of satisfied clients and they are creating a tight-knit family of agents who put service first.
“We have a great team environment here,” Sue said. “We all work to grow together, to help each other become better agents. What I love about our office is that our agents call each other, they help each other, and we learn a lot from each other. That’s one of our greatest strengths.”
The couple also enjoys the ability to fold property management into their suite of services.
“By the time the property owner is ready to sell, they have already come to know us well,” Sue said. “We are thrilled to be able to build long-term relationships with those we serve and that ability sets our brokerage apart in our area.”
When Sue and Kevin aren’t helping clients and building their business, they enjoy working with the local non-profit Patriot Baseball League. The group provides an opportunity for about 350 kids to play baseball every spring and operates entirely through volunteers. As a founder of the league, Kevin loves bringing the joy of the game to local youth.
Please join us in congratulating Sue and Kevin on the opening of NextHome South Sound in DuPont, Washington!
Interested in being a part of the NextHome Real Estate Franchise? Contact VP of Sales Charis Moreno at Charis@NextHome.com.
Each office is an independently owned and operated business.