Merrianna McCully

Let Me Introduce Myself…..

My name is Merrianna McCully and I was born and raised in Eastern Washington. I'm retired from a 37.5 year career in the newspaper business and have always had dreams of living near the beach. Years ago I visited Ocean Shores and saw a growing coastal community that was far from reaching its full potential. For probably 20 years, I had told relatives, friends and co-workers that I was retiring early, was going to move to the beach, buy a cabin, and then eventually sell Real Estate. Apparently no one took me seriously because they were totally dumbfounded when I did indeed sell my home, packed the cat in the car, headed due west, purchased a home near the beach and I'm now selling Real Estate.

The day after I moved into a duplex, I found my dream home in the early stages of construction on the shores of Duck Lake just one mile from the ocean. Three months later I moved in. That was in 2001. In 2003, after a 4 year vacation from the working class, it was time to finish the last stage of my retirement plan. I got my RE license and hung it at Realty World. I was thoroughly impressed with the very young couple that owned the office. They caught my eye simply because they thought outside the box and had plans for the future that I considered showed commitment to the industry, the community and to their agents. Realty World eventually change franchises and we are now Coldwell Banker Ocean Beach Properties, with a huge state of the art new building, 20 some individual offices with an art gallery and a popular café/bistro.

I've have enjoyed a very interesting life indeed. From the ages of 15 to 45, my passion was horses which I raised and showed all over the Northwest. I had every intention that I was going to make a fortune with these animals, but as those of you who have dabbled in the horse business know, that doesn't happen very often. In fact, they are a money pit!

Then I fell in love with major league baseball in 1985 and took that to a level higher than I could have ever imagined. Ironically, this hobby ended up being very profitable and eventually allowed me to retire early. More about this below.

I love to fish and travel and I very much enjoy living in a resort town. This town of Ocean Shores is so cool. I can come to work and be in the hub of some 30,000 plus happy tourists on any summer weekend or I can retreat to my home on the lake where it's quiet and peaceful and the only tourist is those that are lost.

I've collected antiques for many years and now very involved with the Ocean Shores Annual Antique show. My job is to create and place all the advertising for the show. The love of my life is Jeter, my female Aussie. What a pooch! And yes, she is named after the Yankee shortstop. Why you ask? Well she's very pretty, very athletic, loves to play catch and no ball can get past her. This dog would kill for me. Well, maybe not kill, but she protects with great enthusiasm and passion..........since she has no sheep to protect, I am her entire flock. However, she does her best to herd the barn swallows that feed on the lake.

Three Up – Three Down…..

I have to talk about this because it's such a rare accomplishment that I'm very proud of. As far as I know, I'm the only female ever to do baseball stats professionally. I've been called the female version "Bill James" who was just recently featured on 60 minutes. I'll try to make this as short as I can since it's is a very long, book length story.

I had always loved to play baseball as a kid. Right in the middle of McKinley Avenue and we only broke one window that I can remember. My father was a BB fan and he often took me to the Yakima Bears games in the 1950's. Who knows what future greats I saw play on that minor league team.

Let's fast forward to 1985 when I got interested in BB again. Like the song says, I saw it on the radio, since the Mariners were not televised in the Yakima area. One thing lead to another and the stats fasinated me. I bought my first computer and taught myself how to build spread sheets and started my own calculation of nothing but pitching stats. Then I became involved in a Mariner fan magazine. That led to an involvement with the Bill Games group. That led to an arbitration case for the agent of Mark Langston. In 1989, I heard a question being asked by one of the Minnesota Twins announcers, Jim Kaat. He was kicking around that fact that the Twins were not winning their share of low scoring games. So I wrote him a letter and told him why. Four days later he called me.

Now let's fast forward to 2005. That spring I told Jim Kaat that I was doing so well selling Real Estate and that I was ending our partnership as I just couldn't do both jobs any longer. I worked with Jim for 15 years and several different networks. Four years with CBS, 1 year with ESPN, and the last 10 years for the Yankees both with MSGN and the Yankee YES network. I've done work for Andy MacPhail for both the Twins and the Cubs. Andy once told me that I could more information on one spread sheet than MLBB could put in a whole ream of paper. I wrote 3 major magazine articles under Jim's name for Inside Sport. ..........and I made enough money doing my baseball business that I felt safe in retiring early. I don't hesitate to say that I personally had a better handle on the state of MLBB pitching than any other source in the country and my numbers were trusted by the pros.

Why I became a Realtor…..

It's quite simple. Some time back in the 70's, I had a piece of property on the market. A Realtor had called to show it and had asked me if I minded talking about the property to her customers as she was not at all familiar with the listing. That was back when we sellers were not asked to get lost when the property was being shown. I agreed, and after her customers was settled in the car ready to leave, the Realtor came and thanked me and then said, "You know girl, you're very good and you should be selling Real Estate!"

Well I had a career at the Yakima Herald-Republic Newspaper, but the compliment was never forgotten. It's amazing how a perfect stranger can seed an idea and how it can finally blossom some 30 years later.

My career at the newspaper served as a great training ground in customer relations as well as sales. The two areas that are so essential in the success of a Realtor.

I started out as a receptionist and ending my career as the Prepress Manager, as well as managing the National Advertising Department, the Dispatch Department and the paper make up Department. In a plant with over 200 employees, I was a rare liaison between sales, news, circulation and paper make-up. Those that have been in this business know that lines are drawn in this industry and each department has an attitude about their importance. In my function, I successfully crossed those lines every day to get the daily paper on the streets. All the departments had to be in sync and deadlines were essential in daily production. It was a fine line to tread without ruffling feathers. When you think about it, the same applies to buyers and sellers and meeting deadlines that are so important to closing a sale in a timely and orderly manner.

In my many years at the newspaper, on going training was mandatory and much of that training had to do with the same things that we deal with in the Real Estate business. Ethics, public relations, time management, self improvement, etc. etc. So it's quite easy to see that all this experience has prepared me to make a fairly smooth transition from one career to another. My only regret is not making a career move sooner!

I've always said that it's easy to sell if you believe in what you sell. I love where I live and my enthusiasm for my product shows. I want my clients to find the same joy in their purchase here that I have enjoyed since I've moved here.

Area of Expertise:

Water front land and Homes

Bay Front Bulkheads

Dock Building Requirements

RV vacation lots

The city and surrounding county and what it has to offer.

Community Club Memberships

First time Buyers

Market Reseach

Past History and future development.

Association Memberships:

Grays Harbor Association of Realtors GHAR

Washington Association of Realtors WAR

National Association of Realtors NAR

Northwest Multiple Listing Service NWMLS

Ocean Shores Action Committee for Tourism ACT