A little about me

Real estate is good fun, most people like dreaming about homes, interiors and lifestyles… but the actual purchase and sale of real estate usually comes with other life changes and it can be full of emotions and questions. This is where I come in!

Owning my own real estate business since 2003 has been an interesting ride. I have had the opportunity to experience a major boom in real estate sales, or 'the bubble' as it has been dubbed, to the 'bust' and beyond! No matter what the state of the economy, ask me about real estate price trends or winning strategies and we can talk for hours. Ask me about Seattle’s neighborhoods and I will take you on a tour. The years I have spent in this business matter, as does my dedication to those I am lucky enough to call my clients.

I have been lovingly building my network of happy real estate clients through the following:

Honesty and Keeping it Real

This goes beyond just 'telling the truth.' I am here to protect your financial interests and to guide you with my experience to making the best possible decisions in your home sale or purchase. My business depends on future referrals, so I have every incentive to make your experience a good one.

A Strong Advocate

I am a very strong advocate for my clients and enjoy finding solutions for your real estate needs. I believe in active listening, building connections, nurturing relationships and continued learning. Client privacy is respected and personal and financial information is always treated with discretion.

Want to know more?

I was born in Helsinki, Finland and my family moved to the Bay Area in California when I was nine years old. After high-school, I moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to attend Marquette University where I obtained three degrees: International Relations, Economics and Political Science. On a visit with a friend, I fell in love with Seattle, stayed and have been here for the past 11 years. I have lived in Ravenna, Eastlake, Capitol Hill and now call Ballard my home.

Prior to real estate I worked in various sales and marketing positions, from managing folks who install those red machines that spit out coupons in grocery stores to coming up with schematics to place POS (point-of-sale advertising) in stores to draw attention to 'important' items. During the time I was working for an office systems company, making a grand effort to sell networking systems and a copier to a RE/MAX office, the RE/MAX office actually succeeded in selling me on becoming a REALTOR.

When I am not with my clients you can find me at Bikram Yoga, at the Farmers Market, cooking, gardening in my street-side veggie box, listening to music with friends, reading without moving for hours, drinking my pantry-full of tea, and most of all hanging out with my family... my other-half, Cory and our wonder twins, Nico and Luna!

I would love to meet you and answer your questions. Please contact me anytime and we can set up a casual meeting over coffee, tea, or a nice craft beer or glass of wine, perhaps?

Areas of Specialty:

Relocation
Building wealth through real estate
First time buyer education
Preparing a home for sale
Sustainable building and communities

Experience:

Licensed broker since 2003
Managing Brokers License
Real Estate Investment Advisor Certification
SRES – Senior Real Estate Specialist
VAMRES – Veteran and Military Real Estate Specialist

Languages:

English
Finnish

My clients are awesome

"We purchased our home with Susanne’s great support. We had no idea on many processes especially abou … Read More Read Less

"Buying our first house was such a big step financially… even after our offer was accepted there were … Read More Read Less

"Susanne was our real estate agent in the new home we bought in Shoreline and she was AMAZING!!! We w … Read More Read Less

"Susanne went above and beyond our expectations! She worked diligently to sell our craftsman home in … Read More Read Less

"Susanne is great! After meeting a number of other agents and not wanting to work with them, we were … Read More recommended to Susanne and knew right away (while meeting up for a beer in our neighborhood) that she was the right person for us to work with on our house hunt. Somehow, and before we were probably really ready for it, we happened on “the one” on our first day of looking at homes with Susanne. We then jumped into the deep end of house shopping drama (while finalizing plans for our wedding). At the time we made the first offer, the seller didn’t really want to sell and the seller’s agent didn’t seem to want to help her sell. Our offer was rejected, we made another offer, it was also rejected and we chose to walk away. A few weeks later and many unfortunate looking houses looked at, the seller’s agent reached out and said they would now be interested and we decided to risk it and made a new offer. Success! Unfortunately we then learned about the inspection process and the importance of the sewer scope. The house had some major issues, including a broken sewer pipe, which Susanne helped us navigate. Even though the seller refused to be cooperative, we kept optimistic with Susanne’s support hoping that we could reach a deal with the owner. She refused to work with us and again we chose to walk away from our dream home. We then paused to get married 🙂 On our honeymoon our family noticed the original house had been having work done and that it was relisted at our last asking price. Crossing our fingers we decided to make one last attempt and called Susanne back into the ring to fight out the battle. She was incredibly graceful and didn’t once say “are you nuts!” to us, but instead, pulled out her phone and got to work once again dealing with a difficult seller and incompetent seller’s agent. Something must have worked because we are now in our new home and it is wonderful. On top of that, Susanne is now our friend and we can’t say enough good things about how professional, fun and knowledgable she is. There are lots of agents out there to choose from, but Susanne is the best and she is amazingly good at helping home buyers navigate the chaos that is the Seattle housing market." Read Less

"We interviewed several agents before selecting Susanne and we were really glad to have chosen her. S … Read More Read Less

"We bought our home with Susanne a year ago, and couldn’t have been happier with her dilligence and e … Read More xperience. We were very focused in an area, and it took almost a year for us to find our little dream house she was patient, always available to show us a house (sometimes with no notice- sorry Susanne!) This is a challenging market both in terms of pricing and inventory, but over many weekends Susanne was happy to tour us around homes we found online, and would send us suggestions of homes we would consider looking at. We had a fairly clear idea of what we were looking for, and Susanne would give us realistic insight into why she thought particular homes did – and didn’t – meet our criteria. We left every house feeling like we were considering (or, more often, rejecting) it based on a good, objective understanding of its good and bad points. In particular, we didn’t have the “hard sell” experience we have heard others talk about from their “buyer’s” agent – it always seemed that she was as interested as we were in finding the right house, not just pushing any house to close a deal.Then, we found the home we wanted. For myriad reasons, it seemed to be out of reach: it was offered above our budget, it had great craftsmanship inside and out that made us wary of whether the price would be reduced further, and on top of that it was much smaller than what we initially thought we needed! We decided we wanted to wait and see and, a few months after the home was listed, the price dropped closer to our range. Susanne helped us through the contract and negotiation process and paperwork, and we agreed a price we could afford with the seller. In the next few weeks, there were tons of subsequent ups and downs and moments of drama over which we had little control – problems found in the inspection, subsequent contract changes, more negotiations. Susanne took call after call, offering advice, experience and suggesting possible paths for us to consider – always as an advisor, but leaving decisions clearly up to us. Right through the whole process we felt that thanks to advice from Susanne (and a great mortgage company who will get a separate review!) we were doing everything we could to get the deal done. She connected us to excellent professionals at various stages – never demanding that we use them, but relaying her experiences of them having worked out well on other transactions – and just generally just helped us feel really good about the decisions we were making. You will not be surprised to learn after this that we cannot recommend Susanne enough. We are sitting in a wonderful home today that we only like more every day, and that a year ago seemed might be out of reach. Much of this is due to Susanne and the her team who helped us work through the entire process, didn’t give up, and who went the extra mile for us when it counted. Ultimately the reason I would recommend her is her ability to actually get the job done, and in such a friendly, professional and supportive way. Buying and selling properties are definitely processes, and I can’t imagine more highly recommending anyone to help you anywhere along the way than Susanne Stauffer." Read Less

"We purchased our home with Susanne’s great support. We had no idea on many processes especially abou … Read More Read Less

"So fun working with Susanne! Honestly I could not have been happier as a first time homeowner. Her … Read More Read Less

"Susanne helped us find exactly what we were looking for. For some time, my husband and I could not a … Read More Read Less