Windermere's Historical Timeline
| 1972 | John W. Jacobi founds Windermere Real Estate with the purchase of an eight-agent office in the Seattle neighborhood of Windermere. This area still serves as the company’s headquarters today. |
| 1975 | Jacobi purchases the first Windermere satellite office in Seattle. |
| 1983 | With nine offices in the Seattle area, Windermere Services is created to provide marketing, legal, financial and technology development services for the Windermere network. |
| 1984 | Windermere pioneers a sliding commission scale, giving sales associates as much as 80 percent. Windermere establishes its first affiliate relationship with a one-office company on Bainbridge Island, WA. Windermere conducts its first-ever Community Service Day. |
| 1987 | Windermere begins its sponsorship of the annual Windermere Cup crew races. |
| 1989 | The Windermere Foundation, a nonprofit organization designed to fight homelessness, is created. |
| 1990 | The Premier PropertiesTM program is created to give agents special tools to market luxury homes and estates. |
| 1992 | Windermere adds its first affiliate office in Eastern Washington to the group of 77 offices. Windermere is the first real estate company to offer a system-wide agent retirement plan. |
| 1993 | Windermere grows to 100 offices. |
| 1994 | Windermere expands to Idaho and Western Canada. |
| 1995 | Windermere expands to Oregon, adding offices in the Portland metro area and Oregon coast, and later moves into southern Oregon. |
| 1997 | Windermere develops an Intranet site called Windermere Online Resource Center (WORC). Agents can access business forms and retirement plan updates, create marketing materials and more with this online tool. Windermere expands its presence in Oregon and Idaho. |
| 1998 | Windermere redesigns its Web site, www.windermere.com, and adds a new e-mail notification feature that automatically sends new home listings to prospective homebuyers. |
| 1999 | Geoff P. Wood is named president, ensuring the future of the family-owned Windermere. More Web site innovations include Photo Gallery and daily mortgage rates. The Sea, Sun & Snow program is developed for marketing vacation and second-home properties. The Family Enterprise Institute presents Windermere with the “Best in the Northwest Family Business Award.” |
| 2000 | Windermere launches its Contact Management System, a Windermere-developed customer management tool enabling agents to manage client contact information using various marketing and communication tools at the click of a button. |
| 2001 | Windermere opens its first offices in Arizona, California, Montana and Nevada, bringing the system-wide network to more than 200 affiliates. |
| 2002 | The first Windermere Index, a leading index of local residential real estate activity, is published for the Puget Sound Region. |
