More new contributors join the Team Reba Seattle Real Estate blog!

Another warm welcome goes out to the following new contributors for our real estate blog. We focus mostly on the Seattle/Bellevue/Redmond metro area with regard to market data but occasionally you’ll see topics taken up on a broader level to provide education, understanding, and open conversation about all the areas of real estate that impact a buyer or seller. Here is a quick synopsis of the people joining us today….

Danny Tseng – co-owner and founder of First Point Financial, we met Danny about 3 years ago. His firm is defined as a mortgage brokerage, which is a little different than a direct lender. Clients can go to Danny and his team to get a view of a wide array of lending packages that may fit their specific situation. Many bilingual loan brokers are in his office so it’s also a nice option for our clients that need these types of valuable services for translation of loan documents. Getting financing is stressful enough so having the technical terms explained in a first language is a big plus.

Mark Johnson - relocation specialist extraordinaire he has worked in the moving business for some time helping clients estimate the costs of moving across town or across the world. We met Mark last year in Spring of 2006 when he helped a client undertake a huge and complicated move to Costa Rica. Joan is now happily residing in CR and emails me frequently to update me on her adventures there which include building a home and checking out the very exotic flora and fauna.

Jamie Kondo – escrow services don’t seem to leap to most people’s minds as an exciting area of work within the real estate industry but Jamie has seen enough bizarre deals to tell you that there is plenty to keep a person occupied and interested. Having grown up around real estate (her mom is an agent), Jamie got into the world of escrow not long after completing her schooling (her brother, Dylan, now does escrow too). She has worked her way up in the industry and is now a very well respected manager at HomeStone Escrow, her specific office being on Eastlake not far from my broker’s office. Jamie has worked with us for 4 years at the various offices where she has worked and she is a trusted and valuable resource to us at Team Reba.

John Lasswell of Lasswell Home Inspection - we’ve been pleased to work with, and gotten to know, John over the last 3 years. He’s saved many a client from a brush with a bad home or investment purchase and he’s also helped us – via his great inspection reports – save a lot of money for our clients in inspection negotiations. We appreciate his candor, professionalism, and ability to be on top of his industry both professionally and technically. He won us over immediately with his use of digital photography embedded in his reports and on top of it he’s just a really great guy. We’re happy to say that we’ve become friends with John and his wife – and they both play volleyball so that’s a BIG plus in my book since I play a lot too and we’ve all played together before.