Love Camano Island
Seattle Real Estate | Gerhard Ade
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.
Little did I know that a Boeing Engineer was about to contact me about wanting to buy a vacation home on Camano Island. He had found my website where I featured the Pleasant Lane home. Yes, I did get some of my first clients via the World Wide Web, as we called it back then. In June of the same year, we closed on a home with a view of Port Susan on Rainbow Lane.
It took eleven years before I listed another home on Camano. Among the many friends my wife and I had made was a couple who had moved there and lived year-round in a vintage cottage. We visited them at different times of the year and even spent one magical Christmas with them.
I last visited their Camano Island cottage in 2016. For the second time my stay included the Fourth of July, (watch my video) but this time I had not come for the fireworks. I was there alone and on business. It took three days to find a buyer. It was a happy and a sad day all at once.
We had lost our most cherished Camano connection and a place to stay. Little did I know that it would not stay that way. One of my best friends and his wife who were living in Seattle had set their sights on a northern destination. Among the areas we explored was Camano Island. After several house-hunting trips, we found it. With my help, they sold the condo in Maple Leaf and bought the home on Walnut Court. That was in November of 2017.
My wife and I visited them after they had turned a nice house into a beautiful home on a bluff above the Saratoga Passage. From their balcony they can see eagles who do the same thing every spring.
If you guessed that Camano Island has become more than a vacation home destination you would be correct. Because it can be reached via a causeway west of Stanwood, it is increasingly the home for many who can work from home. If you guessed that my work on Camano is not done yet you would be correct again.
Update:
The love affair continues
My latest listing on Camano Island came on the market on Thursday, March 4 at 5 pm. The first agent came to show the home on Friday at 8:30 am. That same agent submitted an offer that afternoon and we had a mutual agreement on Saturday, March 6 at 3 pm.
That’s 45 hours from listing to contract.
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