Exit makes entrance in Ephrata

Millet opens real estate office

EPHRATA — Joyce Pugh Millet's name wasn't yet on her door last week, but there's plenty of advertising for her new Exit Realty office in Ephrata.

At first, Millet didn't think much of the company name when she joined. But a company training seminar changed her mind.

"When you realize it's the most advertised word in the world," she said with a large smile. "I may not have signs in my office yet, but we have one (at both doors). When you go down the highway, what do you see? Exit signs, anywhere you go. You go to a movie, you're sitting in the theater and there's two exit signs. Once you get into the Exit mode, you realize the sign is everywhere. It's probably the most perfect name ever thought of, and all this advertisement is paid with someone else's money."

Broker-owner of the Ephrata office, Millet is the lone worker.

Millet moved to the area from Lynden three and a half years ago to be near two of her children.

"When I first moved here, I was just recently separated from my husband and trying to figure out what I wanted to do," she recalled.

Her son asked her what she'd always wanted to do.

"I said, 'I think I'd like to sell real estate,'" she said. "I've always been a salesman; I've always enjoyed selling things and always been very successful in sales."

So Millet enrolled in a class and became a realtor, getting her broker's license in February. She opened the office in mid-to-late March.

Millet liked the Exit model because of its commission structure benefits to the agent and its sponsoring-mentoring program.

She covers the Grant County area. While there are many Exit locations in Spokane and along the East and West coasts, Millet said her office is the first in Central Washington.

The office is full-service, so Millet offers homes, vacant land, commercial property, farm and ranch and business opportunities.

"I enjoy meeting the people, I enjoy the product," she said. "Houses have always fascinated me."

Millet enjoyed showing people through manufactured homes for several years. People come to the lot for manufactured housing, but in real estate, Millet runs all over the place, she said.

"Mostly what I love about it is the product — I love homes, I love land, I love working with people," she said. "I think that's the best part, seeing someone in need of a home finding a home they really like and going through the process of helping them to get it."

Millet hopes to fill her office with agents, established or new. She would like to bring 10 agents in during the next year.

The move to Ephrata proved beneficial in another way. Millet was looking for some sort of activity to keep herself involved.

While she found it in real estate, often a 24 hours a day job, she met her current husband, Ed, a retired physics professor from Chico, Calif., on the Internet through a "very safe" Web site for singles in the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints.

"That was probably our best real estate transaction — we sold his house in California and he moved to Washington," she said with a chuckle. "He's excellent, he does come and help out and he's very good about pounding signs and doing that kind of thing. He's very supportive."

Millet's office is located at 935 Basin St. S.W. For more information, call 509-754-3948 or access the Web site at http://www.exitrealtycolumbiabasin.com.