Mercury Michael, Charter Real Estate - Bainbridge Island, Washington

Howard B.

I first met Mercury through my cousin who had a long standing relationship with him selling his custom built homes. At first I thought he just sold new homes but I soon found out how wrong that perception was when I called him about a property on the Island that had potential but required some necessary additions. This is how I learned that Mercury knows about zoning laws, utilities availability septic systems and of course, the history of that particular property because he knows everybody. When we found a possible property to buy Mercury provided a wealth of information regarding comparable sales, background information about future development, suggestions of other similar properties to check out to make sure we knew what our alternatives were and strategies for our offer. What could have been a perilous journey was actually painless thanks to his knowledge and experience. Mercury was always available to us to provided counseling, knowledge and insight whenever we needed it. He has remained a trusted friend now that we are living here and we recommend him highly.

Meghann R.

Mercury was nothing shy of fantastic. He’s thorough, honest, clear, kind, and very easy to work with. We had a wide range of potential home ideas, from securing a turn-key place to purchasing land for a build, and Mercury helped talk us through the risks and rewards of the entire spectrum. He has built and remodeled homes himself, so brings an extra layer of knowledge to discussions of remodels and builds. When we finally found the right spot, Mercury was totally fair and professional with the negotiation. We can’t recommend him highly enough!

D M.

I've had the pleasure of getting to know many facets of what makes Mercury an incredible broker, agent, and business owner. His depth of knowledge in real estate is flat out unrivaled. Combined with tremendous work-ethic and a big heart, his clients are looked after like family. Awesome to see his brokerage, Charter Real Estate, take flight and offer the same level of commitment Mercury gives his clients to the brokers that work under his roof.

Woody U.

I purchased a home on Bainbridge Island, WA with Mercury's help. My goal starting in Late 2017 when starting to price/evaluate homes. I wanted to work with absolute best buyers agent possible who's sole expertise was Bainbridge Island. I analyzed all information I could find for real estate agents on BI using zillow, google, refin and others.. All of the metrics I collected lead me to Mercury in Late 2018. I was very impressed by him at our meeting. Mercury is a very busy person, yet he is a devoted family man to his young children and wonderful wife. Unlike other agents I've meet, Mercury was honest and ethical in all of his recommendations for homes on Bainbridge. He helped us to avoid dishonest sellers and identify red flags that zillow/redfin had no evidence for. We looked at multiple homes and he did not pressure us in anyway to buy when we were unsure or if he suspected we were not up the the task of taking care of our purchase (Remember that farm house Mercury ?).

I cannot say enough good things about Mercury other than he is a master of his craft and a true gentleman.

Thank you for helping our family find our home Mercury !

Kate R.

We found Mercury Michael to be incredibly knowledgable, dedicated and extremely responsive thru the entire process. He and his team at Charter Real Estate, are the quintessential 'Johnny on the spot’ consistently quick on the callback efficiently taking care of any task at hand. We appreciated Mercury's sincere desire to fully understand our goals and concerns and making the extra effort to take good care of us. His depth and breadth of knowledge, is astounding. A smart guy who loves to learn was refreshing and our inquiries were meet with a solid explanation and/or advice.

Naturally very personable and a Bainbridge Islander for decades, Mercury's well connected and seemingly some how, knows everyone (btw, the best referrals to boot)! Being the consummate professional, there's an ease with other agents assisting when needed so that interactions and deal making run smoothly … but is firm; protecting our best interests especially when it came to negotiating price.

A true veteran of the real estate process, we had great confidence in his analysis and guidance each step of the way. We love our home!
Mercury Michael brings to his clients, the qualities that make him a trusted partner and well deserving of a '5 star' review.

Chris P.

Listed my house with him to sell. Kept pushing to lower the price to get a quick sale.. We wanted top dollar and told him that.. The estimate before we did any work to the house 998k.. The estimate after putting over 30k into the house? 998k.. So we listed higher. Kept nagging us to lower.. Settled on 1,098,000. Finally got a buyer who loved the house, but our situation had changed, and we had communicated that Jan 1st we would be pulling off the market. It was not pulled off market, and then for a week Mercury worked with another realtor to get an offer, which was lower than they were actually willing to go.. Mercury pushed us to quickly sign and accept, not giving us the time to review with an attorney because we might lose out on the deal because Mercury told the buyers agent we had an offer coming (which we did not - never got another offer).
He did not communicate that the quickly signing of this E-doc was legally binding, and we were locked into selling the house... The other realtor even stipulated that he was surprised that we did not counter..

This is all because Mercury goes off of volume.. Does not care that his customers lose out on 100k or so (thats only 3k in his pocket). He wants to flip deals and flip em fast.

He mislead us on the value of our home, had we known he would have listed at 950k or less as-is, we would never have moved forward.
He did not communicate with us regarding what we wanted over the 5 days he negotiated with the buyer's agent. And also made the unilateral decision of what offer would be good. He also instructed us to not counter with a pushed out closing date and allowing us to keep a container on property for a few months. He said he would ask the realtor first before submitting.. He did do that.. Then submitted ANYWAY without letting us know.. We thought he was just using our signature as a 'hey my clients have signed, but really want to have a pushed out close date'..

Yeah, so now we have sold our house (for a decent amount), and Mercury made his 3%.. He does not care at all about his clients.. He makes you think he does, but every single thing he does is to maximize putting money in his pocket quickly..

We wanted to back out of the deal, and his first question - who is going to pay me the $10k for marketing? So it was quite obvious his only concern was about getting money in his pocket.. Stay clear.. This is the worst financial decision I have EVER made.

Dan V.