Silverbeachhoot digitaledition

2 | The Silver Beach HOOT

Paul Balzotti360.920.5901www.PaulBalzotti.com

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The Silver Beach HOOT | 3

Some things are destined to be, like Paul Balzotti becoming a Real Estate Broker. The only minor surprise about that truth is WHERE he chose to become an agent.

He thought it would be Seattle. His parents thought it would be in Seattle, where his father owned a Real Estate agency with 80 agents, and his mother worked as both an agent and then in the title insurance business.

Balzotti said he came up to Bellingham after high school to attend college. The plan was to enroll at Whatcom Commu-nity College and get his first two years at a discount before transferring to West-ern Washington University to finish his degree.

“I was about to take out student loans to finance the Western years, but my parents starting talking to me about staying out of debt,” Balzotti said. “They said if I al-ready know I want to work in the Real Es-tate industry, I should just invest in some continuing education, get my license, and launch my career.”

Balzotti agreed, and in 2002, he went to real estate school, and in April 2003, he became an agent.

“Because I grew up in a family of Realtors, I always had the impression that Real Estate was a top notch business,” Balzotti said. “To find out it didn’t have quite that good of a reputation was an eye opener at the time, but I’m still really happy with my choice. “

Balzotti pointed out that most people get into Real Estate later in life, or in a lot of cases, they back into a Real Estate career. “I’m one of the few people that was al-ways going in that career direction.”

Balzotti said like his parents, his busi-ness practices have always been of the highest possible code of conduct, and his excellent reputation with both clients and other agents is the best evidence of that fact.

Paul BalzottiRight Where He Wants To Be


Balzotti’s first (and only) job has been with John L Scott. “My step-dad owned a John L Scott agency in Monroe, and I spent a lot time getting to know that agency,” he said. “It was so familiar, and a natural step to join them in Bellingham.”

Balzotti remembers being welcomed with open arms by John L Scott. “I was so young, but they treated me well from day one, and that’s never changed,” he said. “So even though there have been numerous offers to switch agencies, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Balzotti remembers his step-dad coming to Bellingham and helping him buy his first house at the age of 21. “It helped drive my career forward being a home owner myself. It matured me, and was really my first hands-on experience with Real Estate.”

Balzotti bought his first house off Lake-way, his college friends rented rooms and he quickly saw the power of rental income. “I still have that property to this day.”

Balzotti’s first transactions as an agent were helping his friends parents do the same thing – buy houses they’d rent to their college age kids, and hold onto as rental incomes afterwards. “And because of what I learned working with my step-

dad, I could speak the language,” Balzotti said. “Because I’d done it myself.”After living in Bellingham for a couple years, Balzotti said his roots to the com-munity continued to deepen.

“I was dating Andrea, who would even-tually become my wife,” he said. “I moved out of the Lakeway house and bought a condo near campus that we lived in for three years.”

Balzotti said the market was booming in that 2003 to 2005 time period. “I was selling houses, loving all the amenities that Bellingham and Whatcom offered,” he said. “At the same time, I noticed going down to Seattle now became very stressful. Too big, too much traffic. I guess somewhere along the way, I became a Bellinghamster. We decided this was home.”

Marriage to Andrea and the two children, Riley and Liam, that followed sealed the deal. “I can’t imagine a better place to raise a family,” Balzotti said.

Balzotti credits his career in Real Estate as the reason he was able to stay in Bell-ingham. “Lots of my friends would have stayed here if they could,” he said. “But their careers pulled them to other areas of the country. My career is all about Bellingham.”

Balzotti next bought a home in the Trickle Creek neighborhood. “It was close to my office in Barkley Village, and it was a really nice area of town.”

But Balzotti said he always had his eyes on one more move – to Silver Beach, and in 2015, he moved his family there.

“I have always been attracted to Lake Whatcom,” he said. “And I believe in the power of focusing on what you want. Sil-


ver Beach was where I wanted to be, and it happened. We’ve been there a year.”Balzotti mentions the strength of the schools in Silver Beach as a main draw, but acknowledges the partial view of the lake as a nice feature as well.

“There’s just a lot of quality people in Sil-ver Beach,” he said. “And a lot of character too. There’s one-hundred year-old homes

that are funky side-by-side to the more modern high-end builds with amazing views, and they co-exist perfectly togeth-er.”

Balzotti said he’s thrown himself into getting to know the neighborhood and the neighbors. That relationship building started by attending the Silver Beach Home Owners Association meetings,

where he immediately noticed a way he could help the community.

“Lots of neighborhoods put up a Face-book page that any member of the community can join to communicate with their neighbors,” he said. “But Silver Beach didn’t have a page, so I created one and within 24 hours of launch, we had over 130 members.”

That number has grown significantly, and the page includes home listing, rentals, local meetings, events and garage sales.

“Any member can post,” Balzotti said. “Including other realtors in the area. It’s a Silver Beach community page.”

Now that he’s settling into the Silver Beach community, Balzotti said he is much more focused on becoming the Silver Beach real estate go-to, learning as much as he can about the area.

Balzotti said he specializes in helping move-up and move-down buyers. “There is an art to timing a sell and a buy, and pulling off everything smoothly, and I love the challenge of helping people make that happen successfully.”

Balzotti said another of his strengths, and the feature he likes the most is putting together the marketing plan unique to each individual property.

Balzotti said the next 10-years in Bell-ingham will be exciting. “The waterfront development is finally happening, and other areas in town will create their own Urban Villages.”

As happening as these new develop-ments will be, Balzotti said he’ll be happi-ly watching them from his home in Silver Beach – right where he wants to be.


What would you do if you were a professional mountain biker, pushing the free ride boundaries, and you realized there wasn’t a bike that would hold up to your skill set currently on the market?

In 1999, Lance Canfield found himself liv-ing that scenario. His solution, along with his brother Chris, also a professional rider on the circuit - start making the bikes they wanted to ride themselves. Soon after, Canfield Brothers Bikes, a free ride downhill bike company, was born.

Vin Quenneville, long time friend and current Director of Sales for Canfield Brothers, remembers Lance and Chris handcrafting bicycles by themselves for four years, 1999 to 2002.

“They completed two bikes in 1999,” Quenneville said. “Their very first frame was called the Big Fat Fatty Fat, a 12-inch monster.”

By 2002, Quenneville said they were up to 12 bikes, but they realized that kind of production wasn’t a viable business, so in 2003 they decided to get manufactur-ing help, and by 2004, Canfield Brothers moved their manufacturing operations to Taiwan, where they were able to produce 50 bikes the first year. It was the step in the right direction they needed to stay in business.

“It’s the number one place to produce high-end bicycles,” Quenneville said. “The quality is excellent and the costs manage-

CanfieldBrothers

In The Mecca of Mountain Biking



able. Most of the high-end players produce their bikes there.”

Even with the outsourcing of production, Quenneville said Lance and Chris continued to run every other facet of the business themselves for 12 years.

“They are VERY hands on. Lance designs the bikes and does the 3D Cad work, then sends the designs to the factories where they get built,” Quenneville said. “Chris spends six to nine months a year in Taiwan overseeing production and quality control of the bikes.”

Finally, in 2011, the brothers hired some sales support, and a year later, brought on Quenneville as their Sales Director.

“I had 15 years experience running a sports retail shop in Vermont, and had been traveling out to Whistler, BC every year to ride, and by the time they hired me I owned 10 Canfield bikes,” Quenneville recounts. “I knew them well, and they knew me.”

Quenneville said he and his wife made the move from Vermont to Bellingham happily, and it was conversations he had with Lance and Chris that helped convince the brothers

to move from Layton, Utah to the Belling-ham Irongate area in 2012, where they now have offices, a warehouse and a small showroom.

“The Pacific Northwest is such a hub for biking,” Quenneville said. “The riding in Van-couver and all the Whatcom trails is amaz-ing, and Whistler is really where our genre of riding is at its peak – so being this close and in the middle of it all is really beneficial.”

Quenneville explained another huge ben-efit to being located in Bellingham, is the year-round testing Canfield Brothers Bikes has access to – something no other location offered them.


“Bellingham has become a real mecca for mountain biking,” he said. “People have started to move here for the local trails and mountains and the easy access to Vancou-ver and Whistler.”

Quenneville said they often get calls from a riders heading through Bellingham on their way to Whistler that want to stop at the Canfield warehouse.

Canfield Brothers Bikes remains a small company and every model they produce are at small-run productions. From design and concept to shipping is generally a two-year turnaround. “We’re a high-end boutique mountain bike,” Quenneville said. “We’re not an entry level product.”

He’s not kidding. Frames start at $650 and their flagship frame is $3100. A full build runs between $4000 and $12,000.


Quenneville said while they do ship bikes worldwide, 80% of sales are to the U.S., and Whatcom is a big market for them.

“Most riders need two or three different bikes for the various styles of riding – cross country, all mountain, enduro free ride and downhill, and while we produce different style bikes, everything we make is for an aggressive rider.”

Quenneville said a distinction that sets Canfield Brothers apart is the fact they are a “rider owned company.”

“Riders designed these bikes, riders built these bikes, and as riders, Lance and Chris always know what bikers are looking for next.”

Quenneville said they’re already working on bikes that won’t be released until 2017, and Canfield Brothers Bikes are moving more towards the “All Mountain” style.

“Lance and Chris will keep pushing the designs forward. They build bikes they want to ride themselves – and everyone else benefits from that enthusiasm.”


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