Serving Northern Sonoma County

Meet Doug & Karen…

Former Southern Californian’s, Doug and Karen fell in love with Sonoma County in 1979 while passing through on their honeymoon. When they returned home, they packed up their wedding gifts and began a new life together full of adventures in the beautiful Wine Country. We have never regretted our quick move 28 years later.

Karen obtained her real estate license in 1980, her brokers license in 1986 and with the help of Doug (who obtained his real estate license in 1986) opened their own real estate office in 1987. Doug and Karen, who met while working at Security Pacific Bank, have always worked together.

Real Estate is not a part time job, but one which involves a tremendous number of hours both night and days, weekends and holidays, and that’s where a supportive family can prove invaluable.

Owning a business means getting involved with your community and associations, they are the arteries of your success. The Waelde team does get involved and has been an active member or director for many aspects of their community and business.

Karen volunteers her time and stays active with the Sonoma County Permit & Resource Development Department, while sitting on the Land Advisory Panel. This is where she serves as a liaison between the Sonoma County Realtors Association and the County Environmental Health Department. She was instrumental in developing the Septic Vesting Ordinance. She says this type of involvement is vital to her success as a realtor. She often sits on committees with the county when any issues involve Private Property Rights. Karen has also been appointed to the Sonoma County Dispute Resolution Panel for the Well and Septic Division.

On the LUAP, Land Use Advisory Panel, we meet with the environmental Health Department once a month to talk over some of the problems we are having, improve communications with local government, and streamline the process realtors and their clients have to go through to get sales or projects approved. That is really the only way to make the system work, by helping the government see your problems and working with them to make the whole process work more smoothly and efficiently.

“We sell a lot of country property and help clients develop their land, so we need to have the knowledge and education on items such as well drilling, water quality, percolation test, septic design, fire safety, geological testing and building.” As they say “old knowledge is NO knowledge,” The Real Estate industry is changing with the age of technology, computers and the internet. However, real estate is often the most expensive purchase a person makes in their lifetime and there will always be the need of a REALTOR and PROFESSIONAL to help get all of the facts, assist with financing, and to represent the sellers through escrow…listing and selling the right property is only part of the job. The real work begins when escrow opens and the reward is when it closes.

We pride ourselves on good client follow-up. We receive a great deal of repeat and referred business, which means that we’re doing a good job and doing it right the very first time, making sure that the client’s needs and concerns are addressed.

We welcome the opportunity to work for you!

Downtown Geyserville

Conveniently located between Northern California’s two most beautiful wine appellations, ALEXANDER VALLEY & DRY CREEK VALLEY!

The WAELDE team can organize “all the essentials” necessary for buying and selling residential and country properties .