About Ken Switzer

EXPERIENCE AND PROVEN RESULTS FOR CLIENTS

Ken Switzer has been active continuously in local Santa Barbara-area real estate for more than 32 years.  As one of the top-producing local real estate agents, Ken has been involved in over 1,000 successfully closed sale transactions, with an emphasis on multi-family and other types of investment properties.

Ken combines his extensive investment real estate experience and achievement with an analytical background as an engineer from M.I.T, and a straight-forward warm demeanor, all serving to provide the highest level of marketing and negotiating advantage for his clients.  An honest, smart and relaxed professional approach makes the real estate process pleasant and successful for Ken’s clients.  This approach to real estate has also earned Ken the respect of his peers in the local real estate community, translating to positive results for his clients when the time comes to negotiate the transaction with another agent.

As testimonial to his success and client appreciation, many of Ken’s clients have used him for multiple transactions, including several clients who have bought and sold between 5-10 properties with Ken during his career.  Ken’s commitment to client service includes paying forfull-time exclusive and dedicated support employees, and sparing no expense or effort to ensure the optimal results are obtained for his clients.

SELECT ACCOLADES

Chairman’s Circle Diamond Award designation in 2025 and for several consecutive years prior, the highest award in the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network. This award represents the 0.5% of all Berkshire Hathaway agents worldwide.

Top 25 Award for achievement in 2023 & 2021, ranking as the #17 & #22 individual agent in sales production for all of the Berkshire Hathaway network throughout the country and world those years (out of over 50,000 agents).  

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Lifetime Legend Award winner for consistent Chairman’s Circle designation for 23+ years.

Jack Kelly Award for most challenging investment real estate transaction of the year; this award is the most prestigious commercial real estate accolade in our area.

INDIVIDUAL AGENT, TEAM-LEVEL SUPPORT

Your real estate experience will be aided by Ken’s experienced full-time employee associate(s)and network of vendors.  Dedicated and exclusive administrative and marketing employees ensure a high level of organization for a hassle-free transaction, as well as expert presentation and outreach to ensure the best results for property listings.  While investing in robust team-like support, Ken’s real estate office is not a real estate “team” with multiple agents.  Ken is an individual agent who always makes himself available as the primary point of contact for all his sellers and buyers, as well as for other real estate agents.  

1031 EXCHANGE KNOWLEDGE

Ken has a thorough knowledge of and experience with 1031 tax-deferred exchange rules.  This experience includes the representation of several closed transactions with reverse exchanges and improvement exchanges when necessary.  The ability to craft and negotiate creative deal terms with the many variations possible with 1031 exchanges, can be vital to obtaining the best results for Ken’s clients, as well as ensuring the 1031 exchange is completed properly.

CUSTOM MARKET OUTREACH

For every Seller’s investment property listing, Ken approaches each listing as its own mini-enterprise, worthy of its own custom business plan.  In addition to standard channels of marketing outreach such as the Multiple Listing Service, Loopnet/Co-Star and Crexi, Ken has developed custom in-house e-mail and direct mail lists which target the real estate agents and investor principals most likely to be attracted to the specific property.  Since many buyers of our local investment properties are from out of the area, the custom target lists include top commercial agents and principals throughout Southern California and other parts of the state, and beyond.

Depending on the type and size of the investment property listing, other custom outreach channels can include local trade and other publications such as the Santa Barbara Rental Property Association magazine, the Pacific Coast Business Times, and The Independent real estate section.  We work hard to thoughtfully and creatively craft a marketing plan and outreach strategy which is best for the specific property’s attributes, to ensure the highest and best buyers know about the listing, and in a timely manner.

CUSTOM MARKETING COLLATERAL OF UNMATCHED QUALITY

Presentation matters!  Reaching the right potential top buyers for an investment property is only one part of the goal – equally or more important is to convey the property in the best possible light in front of those potential buyers.  Ken and his marketing support people invest in the expense andeffort to produce the finest marketing materials, in order to elevate the Seller’s property to its highest possible perceived value.  These materials are carefully developed to highlight clearly and in a graphically-pleasing manner a property’s best attributes.  

The key marketing collateral piece is the Offering Memorandum, which is the hub summary of all information a buyer would need to understand the full potential value of the client’s investment property.  Sections of the Offering Memorandum can typically include but are not limited to: an executive summary, current financials, financial projections, captioned photos, color-coded floorplans, vicinity maps to show proximity value, nearby points of interest, local demographic information to buttress the economic potential of the property, and zoning information.  The Offering Memorandum can also include hyperlinks to videos, condition reports, government codes, economic reports, etc., which may be too detailed to include in an Offering Memorandum of 10-25 pages, but vital to support the value of the property. 

Every Offering Memorandum produced by Ken to market his investment property listings, is fully customized in order to convey the highest value possible of the client’s specific property, while still providing a consistency of graphical presentation and quality.  The Offering Memorandum is linked to by a dedicated URL for each property listing, and this URL web address is prominently noted in every channel of marketing outreach.  Printed copies of the Offering Memorandum are made available for use during property showings or agent/buyer meetings, produced on thick glossy photo-quality paper and spiral bound with covers.  Some examples of recent custom Offering Memoranda produced by Ken to promote his clients’ listingscan be viewed as PDF files by going to www.OfferingMemoranda.com and selecting individual URL’s from which each listing’s PDF file can be downloaded and viewed.  

Other marketing collateral includes high-end professional brochures to use for direct mail and property showings.  The brochures are full-sized and fold-out, printed on thick glossy paper stock, and the graphics and layout are expertly designed for clarity and attractiveness.  E-mail campaign pieces are graphically pleasing and easy-to-read, and with links to important reference materials. 

The effort and expense invested by Ken in the marketing collateral not only serves to raise the perceived value of the property due to the quality, proper emphases and clarity of the information presented, it also helps Ken’s clients during negotiation.  The strength of the marketing collateral provides an aura of professionalism and authority, which in itself can tilt the negotiation table to the Seller’s advantage.

THE BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE ADVANTAGE

Ken’s clients all benefit from the advantage of expert regional, national and international network outreach through the Berkshire Hathaway Commercial Division, a critical leg up in finding the highest-paying buyer, and not available with local or regional commercial brokerages.  With so many out-of-area buyers for our local investment properties, this advantage can be significant, along with the universally-known prestige and brand awareness of the Berkshire Hathaway name association.