Penny McLaughlin is the owner of Penny's Team, two busy offices in Bainbridge Island and Poulsbo, Washington, serving the Puget Sound area. She got her start in the early 1960s as an assistant in her mother’s real estate office. Before opening her own, Penny took time off to raise a family and run a group home for adolescent girls.

Advertising and information flow are central to Penny's business. Buyers flock to her successful website and office thanks to her policy of providing them all the information they need. Her aggressive advertising brings in phone call after phone call. Last year, Penny closed 100 transactions and had a sales volume of approximately $30 million.

www.pennym.com

www.pennysteam.com

www.talktopenny.com

Penny McLaughlin is a familiar face in the Kitsap County real estate community. Over her multi-decade career in real estate she’s worked for Windermere, John L. Scott and RE/MAX. She owned the RE/MAX office in Poulsbo, and shared ownership of the RE/MAX office on Bainbridge Island.

Two years ago this fall McLaughlin moved away from the big name chains and opened her own real estate office, Penny’s Team.

“The reason I went out on my own was service to clients,” she said. “I like to offer special programs to my clients. I want to make sure their interests are thoroughly represented.”

Working for the large corporations sometimes made it difficult for her to offer the service she felt her clients deserved, she said. For example, there were conflicts about the moving truck that she makes available to her clients, as well as to charities and service organizations, and the buyers’ agent, listing agent structure that she employs. There were challenges such as when the corporations affiliated with specific lenders or title companies, but McLaughlin felt her clients would be better served if they went to a different service provider.

McLaughlin sees the move to independence for real estate professionals as a growing trend, both nationally and locally.

“As corporations impose higher fees on the agents, top-producing agents are forced to go out on their own,” she said. “The only question I have is ‘why didn’t I do it sooner?’”