When Kirkland resident Chad Storey sold his software company, Lockdown Networks, in 2004 he decided to buy some real estate. But as he was in the process, he noticed his real estate agent, Jeff McDonald of Windermere, was unable to quickly inform him of good deals. It wasn’t McDonald’s fault, nor was it the other agencies Storey went through. There simply wasn’t a technological tool that could instantly deliver deals.

So a year later Storey, along with his two programmers, designed the software, hired McDonald as managing broker and called his new business Asset Realty Group.

“It seemed easy enough to build an alerting software,” Storey said.

Now, the company has expanded across Puget Sound and hopes to hire 40 new agents in Pierce County. Storey said they have 12 already.

While expansion is definitely a good thing, he said, it is also one of their challenges.

“My agents have too many customers to service, more than ever before,” said Storey. “Usually real estate agents are comfortable with 10 customers at a time, but now, the company is handling thousands of customers.”

Executive Director Michelle Wilson claims there are about 50,000 to 70,000 active users in their system with 2,687 current Kirkland buyers.

Storey and Wilson both concur that Asset Realty is recruiting approximately 10 to 20 agents a month and that there are roughly 140 total agents at the moment.

Asset Realty Group was just honored as one of the top 50 fastest growing Eastside companies by the Puget Sound Business Journal.

It works like this:

When clients want to buy or sell their home, they simply need to register with AssetRealtyGroup.com and make a profile. Asset does the rest.

“We hyper-profile and predict what they’re going to do next, all based off of their habits and what they’d be interested in,” said Wilson.

She explained that their system checks the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) every several minutes “for every update, every new property, every status change, every price reduction, everything that happens.”

Skylar Agnew, director of customer service, explained when a seller’s listing matches a buyer’s criteria, which can include price, size, location, or other features, agents communicate that information to the registered user through email or a phone call.

Agnew said Asset Realty has amassed a large buyer pool, which can often be a problem for other real estate firms.

Wilson said real estate agents have a likely opportunity to flourish at their agency because of the software’s ability to provide a high volume of customers.

“It’s all about supply and demand,” she said.

And Storey’s hope to “organically grow” as a company may seem like a beacon of light to the jobless.

“I feel really proud,” he said. “We’re putting people to work and consumers are getting a good deal.”