DAVID GOODEN

David holds the prestigious Luxury Homes Certification (LHC) through the Residential Real Estate Council, the premier business development organization for global residential real estate professionals, making him one of only 14 real estate agents in the state of Minnesota with this distinction. This certification underscores his commitment to his clients and expertise in the luxury home market – equipping him with advanced skills in pricing strategies, negotiation tactics, and market research tailored to upper-bracket properties. By completing this certification, David has demonstrated a mastery of the critical elements of luxury home marketing, valuation techniques, and effective strategies for standing out in a competitive market, ensuring unparalleled service for his real estate clients.

David also holds the Resort and Second-Home Property Specialist (RSPS) certification from the National Association of Realtors. As the co-founder of LakePlace.com, the largest and most visited lakeshore real estate platform in the Midwest, David’s career is grounded in decades of experience helping clients navigate the unique dynamics of buying and selling lake homes. This certification is the only one offered by NAR that has a specific focus on lake properties, covering everything from lifestyle and recreation to tax implications and real estate investment strategies. Out of more than 22,000 real estate agents in Minnesota, fewer than 70 hold the RSPS designation, making David part of an elite group with the specialized knowledge to assist his lakeshore real estate clients with confidence and expertise.

As a United States Navy veteran and seasoned real estate professional, David understands the unique challenges faced by military service members and their families. Using his own VA loan benefits to purchase his first home, David developed a deep appreciation for the transformative power of homeownership. To better serve active duty, reservists and his fellow veterans, he earned the Military Relocation Professional (MRP) certification from the National Association of Realtors. This certification equips real estate professionals with specialized knowledge to help current and former military members navigate their housing needs while maximizing their benefits. Regardless of price point, David is deeply committed to making every military veteran’s home purchase or sale as smooth and rewarding as possible.

David Gooden is a proud United States Navy veteran (where he learned “attention to detail”) who served as a Radioman, now known as an Information Systems Technician, aboard the USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20). This advanced Command, Control, Communications, Computer, and Intelligence (C4I) ship was stationed in Norfolk, VA, during David’s service and served as the flagship for the U.S. Second Fleet and the command ship for NATO’s Striking Fleet Atlantic. Today, the Mount Whitney operates out of Gaeta, Italy, as the flagship for the Sixth Fleet and continues to support NATO as part of Naval Striking and Support Forces.

While a bit dated now, it was a distinct honor for David, and his business partner Cameron, to be named alongside industry giants as finalists for the 2017 Inman Innovator Award – Most Innovated Brokerage in America. Inman News (“NY Times of real estate”) put it this way at the time: They are the visionaries, the forward-thinking, the stubborn, the obsessed, the tech-savvy, the creative minds always pushing boundaries. They are entrepreneurs pushing the old ways aside, data scientists discovering new ways to examine behavior, marketers inventing new ways to showcase properties, agents developing new ways to reach clients, companies building new technologies, brokerages creating whole new ways of doing business. They are the Inman Innovator Finalists, and they’re leading us into the future of real estate.