Saturday at my house usually looks like this: smoker going since sunrise, a couple of home brews on tap, friends and neighbors hanging out in the backyard. I figured out a long time ago that the best homes aren't the ones with the corner lot or the granite countertops. They're the ones people actually want to spend a Saturday in.

That's why I sell houses. And it's why I sell them the way I do.

I've been a real estate broker in Washtenaw County for almost a decade. In that time I've helped first-time sellers, downsizing empty-nesters, investors, families upgrading homes, and a handful of people who needed to make a deal work that nobody else could figure out. The throughline isn't the price point. It's that I think about every transaction the same way I think about everything else: as an architecture problem. What are the moving pieces, what's the optimal structure, and what's the cleanest path from where you are to where you want to be?

I run my business on two ideas. We call them Block Parties and Deal Architecture. Block Party is the relationship side. Real estate is the most personal financial decision most people make, and the way you treat someone on their block, in their kitchen, and at their closing is the whole job. Take care of everyone in the room and the rest follows. Deal Architecture is the math side. The contract terms, the offer timing, the tax angle, the structure that makes a hard transaction close cleanly. The difference between a fine outcome and a great one almost always lives there.

That second part matters more than people realize, which is why I built the most transparent transaction process in Michigan. I'm the state's first crypto-certified broker, and we run every sale through Propy. Every offer arrives in a shared, verified dashboard, so you see what I see the moment it lands. We still do everything a traditional sale requires (title company, county recording of the deed, the works), and on top of that we record each transaction on the blockchain as a second layer of protection against fraud and human error. The technology is part of how we get there. The bigger part is just being upfront about everything, all the time.

When I'm not at a closing or a kitchen table, I'm probably at the smoker, on a bike, brewing something, or building a side project. I run a small online business called SchoolCollector. My wife Tara runs the brokerage with me. Our kids are the loudest part of any Saturday in our backyard. And yes, I went to U of M.

Selling a home with me comes with one promise: what I know, you know. Where every offer came from. What your home is actually worth. What the next step is and when it's coming. If you're in Washtenaw County and thinking about a sale, let's talk.

Let's talk. 734-274-9521 or gerrit@theblock.realestate