“When I moved here I knew there weren’t IT jobs here locally,” she said.

Unwilling to spend hours a day commuting across Puget Sound, Foote decided to pursue real estate. She was somewhat familiar with the industry, since her mother had at one time owned a real estate company.

“I thought, ‘I can do that,’” Foote said.

Real estate and information technology might not seem, at first glance, to have much, if anything, in common.

“I had to learn a lot,” she admitted.

Still, she continued, “Real estate is exactly like project management.” Both jobs require coordinating teams of people and tasks and “meeting lots of deadlines,” all challenges she had mastered in her previous career.

Foote has been with Windermere since she began selling real estate. She is an agent, as well as a relocation specialist with Windermere Relocation, and is only a test away from obtaining her broker’s license.

“I’ve taken all my broker classes,” she said.

As with many real estate professionals, working with people is one of Foote’s favorite aspects of her current career.

“I love working with people. It’s rewarding to help people to find homes,” she said.

Buying and selling a home is a big life change for homeowners and it can be challenging and unsettling, she said. As an agent, she feels it’s important to be there to support her clients during that time.

“You end up taking care of them,” Foote said. “I think if you’re a good agent you have to care. It’s a personal relationship.”

Foote’s degree in IT and statistics — before relocating to KC she was the director of field technology for Coldwell Banker — still serves her well in her role as realtor liaison to the Kitsap County Homebuilders Association (HBA). Originally appointed to a one-year term as liaison by the president of the Kitsap County Association of Realtors (KCAR), Foote came to enjoy the volunteer job so much that shortly before her term was up she approached HBA Executive Director Art Castle to ask him to allow her to keep the position permanently. He agreed and they created a new volunteer position for her that she’s held ever since.

“It’s my favorite volunteer job,” said Foote.

In her liaison role Foote attends the HBA board meetings and provides them with an update on the real estate market in the county, giving them an overview on the “pulse of the market.”

When she originally started the position, Foote provided the reports in the same format as previous liaisons had. But she soon saw room for improvement.

“I thought, ‘these guys need more information,’” she said.

Now the HBA is armed with a wide range of statistical data that was not previously available to them.

The HBA even asked Foote to speak at the first Kitsap County Housing Summit, an all-day meeting with community leaders, including the county commissioners, to talk about the current realities of the housing market in the county.

“That was a great honor,” she said.

Foote’s take on the current market is that, although it has slowed down a bit compared to the last couple of years, it is still a seller’s market. “The military has kept our market very strong,” she said.

There isn’t a large number of houses available for sale in Kitsap County right now, Foote said, perhaps two and a half months worth of inventory at any one time. This translates to about 750 houses, or 300 houses a month. That’s significantly less than the six months worth of inventory regularly on the market when she began selling real estate.

“That’s a very tight market,” said Foote, noting that that inventory includes only houses, not condominiums or manufactured homes.

Still, Foote wouldn’t categorize the local market as one that’s in crisis. There are still homes to be had, particularly with more creative financing and loan programs like adjustable rate mortgages.

“In this tight market,” said Foote, “what typically happens is that people start buying in smaller, older neighborhoods, or start moving into condos. People tend to go back to that so they can own a home. It’s still a good investment to buy something; the market is still growing and it’s still a wise use of money.”.