Featured Business
Lee Davies Real Estate
by Virginia Bruce

Lee Davies, one of the more prominent real estate agents in our area, is a local boy. He grew up in the area attending Ridgewood Elementary in Cedar Hills and Bethany Elementary in the Rock Creek area, and now lives in Bauer Crest Estates. He has been working in real estate for 22 years, and selling homes in this area since graduating from University of Oregon in 1986 with a degree in Psychology.

He attributes his success partially to three great mentors that he has worked for. He started out working for his father, Bob Davies, who owned the Bill Snyder Company. He says that his dad was a tough task master, who taught him to value integrity and hard work.

In 1989 he went to work for Barbara Sue Seal. He was among the “Company Top 15” from 1990-1995 and was also a Five Year Diamond Producer as part of the Forest Heights Sales Team. He says that Seal encouraged him to develop “guts and enthusiasm” and a go-for-it attitude.

From 1995-2007 he worked for The Hasson Company Realtors. When he joined the company, they had no institutional marketing program, so he created and ran their marketing department from 1996-1999, and ran the Peterkort branch, becoming a Principal Broker in 1996. From Mike Hasson, he says that he learned that the important thing is not how much business you do, but how you do it.

Lee Davies opened his new office in 2007

But Lee Davies is an entrepreneurial man, and in 2007 he broke away from The Hasson Company and founded Lee Davies Real Estate, located in a beautiful building on Barnes Road across from St. Vincent’s Medical Center. He explains, “I had successfully branded my name in the 97229 zip code, yet at the same time I was marketing the Hasson Company. Many of my colleagues at Hasson were benefitting from my efforts, and while we were at the same company, we were and still are competitors. In addition, the team I had assembled felt that we were limited as to how we could grow our own brand within the company.”

He continues, “The ironic inspiration to our leap to independence came as I drove up Barnes Road two and a half years ago and noticed that this building was for sale. I had always admired it, and saw it as the perfect landmark property to start our own business.”

14 people work in the office, including four staff support people, eight brokers, and a loan officer from NW Mortgage Group and an Escrow Closer from Lawyers’ Title. The company focuses on residential real estate. Davies says, “We are a full service boutique brokerage company specializing in the West Portland market place. We offer an aggressive marketing program and pride ourselves on exceptional representation of our clients.”

Davies and his team discuss strategy for a client's house in the conference room. Listed properties are displayed on big-screens throughout the building.

If you’re buying a home, you’ll be working with an acquisition team of three brokers, who keep a close eye on the listings and make sure you find the home you’re looking for. This team consists of the Buyer Broker plus the consulting services of Principal Broker, Lee Davies and Lead Broker, Dirk Hmura, who are on call to view properties prior to a buyer making a purchasing decision. In addition to pre-counseling on the property selection, Davies and Hmura work directly with clients and Buyer Brokers to assemble offers, present offers, and oversee negotiations. Hmura also acts as the company inspection specialist who attends each inspection and sees to it that all concerns are appropriately addressed prior to closing. Anyone who has found out too late that the inspector missed something can appreciate that.

The full-service aspect of the company is also evident once an offer has been accepted. Davies says, “Katie Reiners reviews the file to make sure it is legally compliant and will make sure everyone adheres to timelines during the escrow process. She coordinates all aspects of closing with the designated title/escrow company.” Their in-house mortgage and title people are available to help buyers with those tasks. Their company even provides a complimentary moving truck.

For selling in this difficult time, each client has a team of brokers assigned to their home. Davies explains, “The Listing Broker is the Seller’s primary point of contact from the initial home appointment through the day of closing. The Listing Broker oversees home preparation, sets the launch schedule, implements our complete marketing plan, and communicates with the seller each week.”

Each seller also has the resources of Davies and Hmura, one of whom will attend the first meeting at the home. Upon listing, yet prior to the home being placed on the market, Hmura and the Listing Broker implement a Home Preparation and Staging Plan. Once an offer is accepted, Hmura and the Listing Broker will manage the inspection process. Both Davies and Hmura, along with the Listing Broker, review, negotiate, and execute counter offer proposals.

Each property is also assigned one Buyer Broker who essentially becomes a property specialist on the home, ensuring that he/she is prepared for all buyer inquiries. The Buyer Broker represents the buyers and does not have access to confidential seller information.

Davies continues,”Our team approach allows each broker to focus on specific functions to sell the home and ensures that there will always be a knowledgeable expert available for client and realtor inquiries.”

The Cedar Mill area is “sticky!” People who grew up here tend to stay or come back, and people who find it tend to stay here even if they move from one house to another. Davies says, “Most of our clients are moving within three miles of their existing home. As a result we get the opportunity to be their experts in both their sale and their acquisition.”

But they also handle a lot of relocation business for the major employers in the area, including Nike and Intel, and they do all the relocation for Pacificorp.

Davies and his staff put together a regular Portland Real Estate Report that is distributed by email with the help of his Marketing Director, Julie Williams. Davies writes the headline article each month, and other members of the staff contribute market analyses and other useful information. You can sign up for the newsletter on their website.

Their website has many features, including virtual video tours for many of their homes, and a search function that lets you see all the homes available in the area—from all real estate companies—sorted by school, number of bedrooms, or any combination of features that are important to you.

It’s part of the company’s overall branding and marketing effort, which Davies says is his “favorite aspect of the business. I have always loved the creative side of life and thrive on looking for entrepreneurial ways to grow our business. This year we just hired a Marketing Director, Julie Williams and she has done a fabulous job of making my visions a reality,” he says.

About the state of the real estate market in our area, Davies says, “The 97229 zip code and our general West Portland market has been bucking the national trends. Due to our strong employment base, proximity to the city and the corridor, and beautiful natural surroundings, we are fortunate homeowners.” And in the future? “I believe that things are going to just bump along. There will be buyers and there will be sellers. The difference today is that we all have to work hard to earn a living. Fortunately for me, that is right up my alley and I thrive on the challenge.”

He and his wife Lori have five children attending five local schools—Natalie at Sunset; Sydney at the International School of Beaverton, Michael at Terra Linda, Joey at St. Pius, and Owen at A Child’s Way Preschool. They are a skiing family and have a second home in Utah where all seven of them love to hit the slopes.

Davies loves the area for its views, great park and school districts, but, “most enjoyable is our access to everything within 10-15 minutes. Our location cannot be beat.”

He feels that the demographics of our residents could support a better retail selection, but he understands that these are tough times for businesses to try and grow. “We are so thrilled to see the Murray, Cornell, and Saltzman improvements and know that it will make our community a better place to live, work, and play,” he adds.

The company joined the Cedar Mill Business Association a few years ago, mostly to get the advertising discount in The News. But this year, he has delegated Dirk Hmura to start attending meetings so they can make the most of their membership by being involved in the networking and community improvement activities of the organization.

Lee Davies Real Estate is located at 9200 SW Barnes Road. Their phone number is 503- 292-1500 and the website is www.leedavies.com.

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