Pleasanton, CA — August 2, 2024 — NextHome is proud to announce our newest addition to the franchise, NextHome Puget Sound, located in Tacoma, Washington, The brokerage joins the growing NextHome franchise which currently has over 600 active office locations across the country.
NextHome Puget Sound serves clients throughout Tacoma, Gig Harbor, Port Orchard, Bremerton, Silverdale, Poulsbo, Kingston, Belfair, Bainbridge Island, and the remainder of Pierce, Kitsap, and Mason counties.
NextHome Puget Sound is owned by Catherine Ecker, a Gig Harbor local who has been a real estate professional for more than 20 years.
Raised locally, Catherine began her real estate career in 2002.
“After graduating from Western Washington University in Bellingham I was really interested in a home-building career,” Catherine recalled. “But I quickly realized that my heart was in helping people buy and sell houses.”
Catherine’s love for real estate led to roles with luxury home builders, national builders, and new home construction.
Catherine developed a talent for staging and property marketing, skills that led to the seamless sale of her client’s homes. She has been the recipient of various brokerage awards, highlighting her high sales volume and unstoppable work ethic. A sought-after name in real estate, Catherine has helped many families sell their homes.
Eventually, Catherine joined Westsound Realty, where she continued to build a thriving residential real estate portfolio. Westsound Realty is owned by Catherine’s partner, Justin, who is looking forward to joining Catherine’s NextHome Puget Sound office along with his team of knowledgeable agents.
Throughout 18 years, Westsound Realty developed a reputation for excellence working with banks, investors and listing renovated homes. While there, Catherine also developed her own reputation for guiding clients with care, compassion, and skill.
“I love solving problems and helping people accomplish their home-buying goals,” Catherine said. “It is such a rewarding thing to walk a person through the journey of finding their perfect house and helping them overcome all the hurdles along the way.”
As Catherine thought about the next steps for her career, NextHome’s marketing caught her attention.
“I have known Staci Ryan (Owner of NextHome Northwest Living) since I started in real estate,” Catherine said. “When she opened her office, I saw the brand and thought, ‘that is the best real estate brand I have ever seen!’ It’s beautiful. It’s modern. NextHome is really good at communicating clearly what the brand is all about. When you hear NextHome, it’s obvious what the company does.”
“After running a successful real estate brokerage for 18 years, Justin and I were excited to learn about all the incredible technology and marketing tools NextHome had to offer,” Catherine added. “We decided to shift gears by changing brands to NextHome. We are excited to share these tools with our clients!”
Today, NextHome Puget Sound is elevating real estate in the Tacoma and Kitsap Peninsula area through client-centered service combined with NextHome’s industry-leading technology.
“Being able to stay at the forefront of real estate technology and marketing will help our clients reach their goals,” Catherine said. “We can walk them through the whole process because we have the tools to do that. But importantly, this technology is centered on NextHome’s mission of putting Humans Over Houses®. All of these things will help every client have a great experience.”
Catherine has always been passionate about serving others in her hometown.
“I really enjoy walking a person through the journey of finding their house and helping them get through all the hurdles to close on the house,” Catherine said. “That’s always been such a rewarding thing. And as a broker, I think it will be even more rewarding to help agents learn how to do that and help serve the community. I just really enjoy helping people.”
Catherine and Justin are the proud parents of two children. Catarina (14) is a competitive gymnast and Owen (12) enjoys computer science and technology.
Please join us in congratulating Catherine on the opening of NextHome Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington!
Interested in being a part of the NextHome Real Estate Franchise? Contact VP of Sales Charis Moreno at Charis@NextHome.com.
Each office is an independently owned and operated business.