Diane Whitley

The Beginning:

It all started in 1979. I was a senior in high school in the south. I went to study hall in the library, and noticed a new National Geographic magazine on the rack. It was an article all about the San Juan Islands. That was it. I “borrowed” the magazine and told my mom that afternoon, that this is where I was going to live one day.

I worked at Six Flags Over Georgia as a Character. (Yes, I was one of those people that dresses up like bears, bunnies and slices of bread!) In addition to running around the park in costume for 8 hours a day, we were also the ones that did all the production for the summer concert series. It was here I learned about of the production of shows.

I was also the mascot for two years for the Atlanta Hawks basketball team at the Omni Arena. We started putting together crews to work all the shows that came into the Omni, and various other venues around town.

The Middle:

I began touring in the Entertainment Industry as a Production Assistant. The first band I worked for was David Lee Roth in 1985. From there it just kept going. Some of the bands I have worked for include: Poison, The Cranberries, Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe, Lenny Kravitz and 15 years with the band KISS.

In 2003, my husband, Patrick and I were trying to figure out where to go on vacation with our neighbors….I knew where we were going… I pulled out my National Geographic. When Patrick and I arrived in the San Juan Islands, we knew immediately this is where we would be calling home. We visited, Orcas, Lopez, San Juan, but came back to Orcas and started searching for property. We found an amazing parcel on Buck Mountain and went back to Georgia knowing that we would be calling Orcas Island home.
In 2007 we came up to find a place to live while we built. We had decided to buy a small home to live in during the build and then either sell or keep as a rental. We just couldn’t find the right house, until the very last house we looked at 5:00 pm on Sunday night before we were due to fly out Monday morning. We went in and just knew it was the one. We made an offer at 5:30 and by 6:15 pm; we had our “Dream House”. We were downsizing from 2300 sq ft to 5000 sq ft. (Not a typo, we went the other way!)

We moved to Orcas in March of 2008, and haven’t looked back.

After having our house here, but never being home because of always being on the road, I decided to give up touring.

The Next Chapter:

I started working as the front office manager at a real estate office. Over the next two years, I was able to learn so much from all of the amazing brokers in the office, and I knew it was time to become a broker.

I have met so many wonderful people, both living here and moving to the island, and now I want to help you find your “Dream Home”.