Gerhard Ade covers Real Estate around Seattle and more.

Many times my clients become my friends. It happens when we share the same interests such as creative marketing and when we discover that we are kindred spirits. Despite very different backgrounds and ages two decades apart, we have much in common. In this case, we both value creative expression of any kind in any form.

Creative Marketing: The best commercials are no longer on TV.

This time, it was a commercial my friend wanted me to see. It wasn’t for a major brand or made for TV. Created for a video game, it was the official live-action cinematic trailer for Warpath. It is over five minutes long. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg would not mind having it on their resumes.

In the February 28 News from the Street newsletter, I confessed my love for Camano Island. Today, a month later, I can disclose to have not only listed but sold another home there. This time on the eastside in a neighborhood called Camano Country Club.

It came and went quickly. Listed on Thursday, March 4 at 5 pm, the first agent came to show the home on Friday at 8:30 am. The same agent submitted an offer six percent over list price that afternoon and we had a mutual agreement on Saturday, March 6 at 3 pm. In her text message, alerting me to the offer, she said “the early bird gets the worm.” She added “nice marketing remarks.” She was correct on both counts.

Instead of mere prose, I had decided to write the marketing remarks in the form of a poem.

How I came to love Camano Island.

If you really want to get to know a city, a county, or an entire region of the United States, I recommend a career in real estate. In 2002 when I started out as a newcomer to the area I had no idea where Camano Island was. I still meet a few people who have lived in Seattle for years and haven’t heard about this special place. Somehow, it exists in the shadow of the better-known Whidbey, Bainbridge, and the San Juan Islands.

It all started in the parking lot of a bank where my wife engaged another woman in a conversation. The strangers became quick friends – it seems only women know how to do this – and sometime later her friend needed the help of a real estate agent. More precisely, her mother did. And her mother lived on Camano Island.

To my surprise, no boat ride was required. After a leisurely 75-minute drive I pulled up in front of a pleasing rambler at Pleasant Lane. I listed the home and it sold at full price just twelve days later. That was in March of 2005.