When Liberty Lake real estate agent Julie Anne Young takes potential homebuyers around the Spokane area to see real estate listings, she no longer strays far from her office. As of last month, Youngs office is never farther away than the curb.


Young and her husband, Joe, both of whom work for Windermere Real Estate/Cornerstone, recently bought a 21-foot recreational vehicle and outfitted it with all the equipment they need to use it as a mobile real estate office. Rather than beds, their Holiday Rambler Augusta Touring Sedan is equipped with a leather couch, barrel chairs, a small table that serves as a desk, and all the electronics youd expect in an office, from computer to coffeemaker.


Young says the mobile office is ideal for serving clients on a busy schedule.


I can meet a client at their office during the lunch hour, and the client can look over the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) listings while were driving and decide which ones to look at, she says.


Though Young and her husband sometimes work as a team in real estate sales, she says shell be the primary user of the mobile office. Often, her husband will drive the vehicle while she meets with clients in the office portion of the RV. When Joe Young isnt available, she says, shell ask a co-worker at the Spokane Valley agency to drive the rig as she works with the clients.


Creating a mobile office wasnt a cost-cutting move. Young still has an office space at Windermere Real Estate/Cornerstones office at 1420 N. Mullan, where she can have face-to-face communication with fellow agents and the broker there.


I want to offer a higher level of service at no extra cost to the client, she says. I think that brings a lot of excitement, and people will trust that its not just a gimmick. You cant gimmick service. You either have it or you dont.


Inside the RV, Young can sit at the desk with a client and use a computer, equipped with a high-speed wireless Internet connection, to search the MLS listings. The computer also is wired to a 20-inch flat-panel TV screen thats mounted above the cab and provides a better view of listed homes for clients to view.


The client can submit a written offer directly from the mobile office, Young says.


She also has real estate-related documents at hand, although 75 percent of the forms she uses are stored in electronic form on her computer and can be printed out on the on-board printer.


The vehicle, just like other office equipment, is a depreciable asset, meaning she can write off as a cost of doing business a certain amount of the decline in value as it ages.


One of the greatest challenges of having a mobile office is the fuel cost, she says, noting that the RV gets about 12 miles per gallon.


Gas prices are huge, but everything is relative, because we can do everything right here, she says.


Parking usually isnt much of a problem, although she is more selective about what spaces she can use compared with when shes parking a car.


It fits exactly in a city parking space, but it fits from line to line, she says. So we have to look for something we can drive into. We might have to walk a little farther after we find a place to park downtown.


The outside of the office is a rolling billboard, thanks to a promotional advertising wrap that features bigger-than-life likenesses of Young as Your Realtor Concierge.


Young says the mobile office is the first vehicle that Seattle-based Windermere Real Estate has authorized to have such a promotional wrap. Windermere has offices in nine Western states, Hawaii, and British Columbia.


Beyond the real estate transaction, she says she can help clients find loan officers, home inspectors, appraisers, house cleaners, moving companies, remodeling contractors, furniture stores, and other merchants and service providers they might ask about.


Young says she doesnt seek a commission from her referrals.


Its just a free service for people who have a busy lifestyle, she says.


Buying a house is the biggest investment most people will make in their lives, and for some people, its their only investment, Young says.


They deserve to be pampered, she says.


Young says she has had the idea for a mobile office for some time. She had looked into bus and van conversions, but found them to be too expensive. One conversion van, for instance, would have cost more than $200,000, she says. The Augusta Touring Sedan listed for about $81,000.


She says that before she set up the mobile office, she scoured the Internet and asked real estate executives for information on how to go about it, but no one had heard of any other real estate agents who had done what she was planning.


There was nobody out there even to ask how they did it, but people were telling me to go for it, Young says.


She stops short of saying hers is the first mobile real estate office in the country, but asserts, Im sure its the first one in the state.


The Youngs spotted the Augusta model at the Inland Northwest RV Show, which was held in January at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center.


We were looking for something with an office feel, and that doesnt have the stuff that doesnt belong in the office, she says.


They debuted the mobile office at the St. Patricks Day Parade downtown, and Young just last week began meeting with new clients in the mobile office.


She says it has already drawn attention from other agents, who have asked to see how its equipped.


Mac Matta, salesman at RnR RV Center, in Liberty Lake, who sold the vehicle to the Youngs, says its the first Augusta Touring Sedan hes seen outfitted as a business office, but adds that the idea is already sparking interest.


I consider it a great idea, Matta says. I took pictures of it and mailed them to Holiday Ramblers factory representative, and the company is going to mention it at the next quarterly meeting.


He says the Youngs vehicle has inspired another party who might buy the same model of RV for use as a mobile medical clinic that would focus on providing services for people with diabetes.


I think this idea is going to fly, he says.


Contact Mike McLean at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at [email protected].