Team Reba Real Estate

This article from CoStar group is excellent in laying out the new rules banks must follow regarding commercial lending.  Not only did the residential real estate marketplace get rocked by loans built on less than stellar financials - so did the commercial world.

We’ve been supporting Treehouse for a couple of years now and now that we’re getting into the holidays we’re here to help out by supporting and promoting the:  Joy of Giving Holiday Donation Drive.

It may look like a warm jacket or a bright new toy, but to a foster child it’s so much more: it’s a message that someone cares. That’s something every child deserves.

Find out what foster kids want this holiday and get started on your Joy of Giving donation drive today by contacting the drive coordinator at (206) 267-5109 or drives@treehouseforkids.org.

Click HERE to see a list of items that a hopeful foster child would like to find under the tree this Christmas.

Foster kids come in all ages and sizes so gifts appropriate from newborn to teenager are useful and appreciated - and that makes gift giving to the Treehouse Wearhouse easy!  It would be hard to go wrong with any kind of item.  Items can be dropped off at Treehouse directly at their location in south Seattle.

Treehouse Wearhouse

*Enter the parking garage from the alley behind the 2100 building (off

As the REALTOR(R) convention continues in Las Vegas we’re getting updates on speakers and what’s being covered at the convention.  According to this article, Lawrence Yun, chief economist for NAR, says that Seattle will continue to be a bright light in the darkened national real estate market.

While he doesn’t have everyone joining him on that bandwagon of thought I think it is interesting how we are compared by Yun to other world-renowned cities (of the US) regarding our good mix of economic factors and quality of life. Yun has had more than one instance where he’s stated Seattle is a stand-out in the real estate crowd.  It will be interesting to see what he has to say as 2008 begins and we move into another year’s cycle.

I try to keep up with what’s going on in the market, the NWMLS, and the national real estate scene in a few ways to make sure I keep abreast of changes.  One of the things I’ve watched with interest over the past several months on the MLS is how many new listings are coming on the market daily and comparing that to how many older listings are marking price adjustments (up or down).

Lately it seems that price adjustments for older on market listings are on a downward trend with almost as many price adjustments as new listings on a daily basis; this has been going on for a few weeks.  Today’s numbers include the following as of the writing of this article:

Numbers are down for new listings on the market today most likely due to the upcoming holiday since we’d been seeing numbers in the 600’s for these figures up till this weekend.  I will also mention that these numbers reflect the entire area covered by the NWMLS and fewer than 10% of these were Seattle listings. A large majority of the price drops have been occurring in outlying areas and also in much higher priced homes for those that were within Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland.

Anecdotally, I have noticed that sellers I work with that aren’t hugely motivated, but who still want or need to sell, will price a little high and expect buyers to come in with low-ball offers.  Personally, I’m not a fan of this strategy although I do know some marketplaces where this is a common arrangement - particularly in the mid-west.  Of course, when this happens this same seller will wonder why someone didn’t put an offer in the first week and they’ll start to fret or ask if there isn’t something I can do to change it. 

Hmmmm, let’s see… how about putting the price where it had been recommended to you before we went on market?

Realistically, a home needs at least a couple of weeks to good market exposure to the group of buyers that are in the market at the same time you put your house up for sale. If you are over-priced you run the risk of stigmatizing your home artificially and then after 3-5 weeks the price drops start happening and either agents/people think, “well, it’s about time” but you’ve by this time you’ve likely lost the buyers that were all available at the time you went on market if they’ve already moved on to something else (people who are ready to buy don’t sit and wait and hope your house price drops).

Then it becomes a waiting game.  And, I can tell you, most people/sellers hate the wait.

Very rarely does anyone mention that being a seller is a lot more difficult than being a buyer.  As a seller you’ll worry that if your house doesn’t sell right away that people “think your baby’s ugly” so to speak and you’ve loved your house so much that you can’t imagine that other people wouldn’t love it just as much as you did.  Well, they don’t.  At least not yet.  Or, just the right person that will love it hasn’t happened along - yet.

Much like the dating game, selling a house is all about having the right timing of a buyer and a seller finding each other.  I wrote a similar article about this a long time ago on Rain City Guide where I compared selling a house to dating on Match.com.

We met these folks via the Rental Housing Association of Puget Sound (www.rha-ps.org) but we hadn’t really been able to test their services out till just recently.  My own home in Seattle is for sale and one of the things I had to do to prep it for sale was to get the carpets cleaned.  The good news for me is that the builder used high quality nylon carpet so it could have been dyed if necessary, however, the folks at Crew Inc did such a great job that wasn’t necessary.  Small spills and stains that I thought might not come out did.  I’d suggest them to a client in a heart beat.  I also learned a little about carpets.  One reason some carpet becomes what most of us would call “dingy” is because the natural color of nylon is grey.  So, over time lighter colored carpet will revert to its “original” color with heavy wear as mine had started to do.  But, the cleaning made the color brighten back up to what it looked like when I bought the house 5 years ago.  Thanks, Crew Inc!

Crew, Inc

Scott Weigel

Phone: (206) 242-3767

Fax: (206) 242-0053

P.O. Box 88102

Seattle, WA 98138

http://www.crewinc.com

Email: service@crewinc.com

When I first moved to the Seattle area back in late 1989 my first home was in Renton.  Back then it seemed a sleepy enough little place and the downtown area was not my favorite place to hang out because it was a little on the “low brow” side of things; which meant I drove into Seattle a lot to see friends and to try new places for entertainment, volleyball, restaurants, etc.

Now, so many years later, I am a Renton resident again having just purchased a home in the Talbot Hill area. Downtown is still sometimes a little sleepy compared to downtown Seattle but there are definitely a lot more cool places to go hang out for dinner.  Recently we spent some time at the “new” location for Armondo’s, Whistle Stop Ale House, Vince’s Italian (ok, that’s up the hill on Sunset/SR900), and a Japanese/sushi place on Benson called New Zen Sushi (Benson Hill).

I’m happy to say that so far we’ve been pleased with the gastronomic results. A few folks with even more insider info gave us a hot tip that we need to get to the ”Red House” and we soon will.  After reading up on their website what they have to offer I’m sure we’ll be there within the next few weeks, as well as getting to Fin N Bone and Melrose Grill (owned by the same folks as Armondo’s).

A friend of mine is a very talented potter (not Harry, or hairy for that matter) and is part of a local community of artists.  As they do each year there is a pre-holiday show where their collective talents will be put forward to the public for purchases as gifts.  There are some inventive and beautiful pieces so if you get a chance to check them out, I highly recommend it!

Dates for the events are as follows:

Sunday: November 25th, 10am-6pm

Wednesday: November 28th, 11am-8pm

Moshier Community Art Center

430 S 156th St

Burien, WA 98166

206-242-7752

Directions: West into Burien on I-518, South on First Ave, East on 156th St, North on 4th Ave S. The Art Center will be on your right - look for the bright yellow doors.

For show details or questions, contact Dana Lasswell, 206-947-9479.

I’ve been offering staging services for a long time but I only just recently got the “official” stamp of approval by being given the designation of Accredited Home-Staging Specialist (AHS).  Actually, quite some time ago I took the class from Andy Capelluto but it only recently was created as a competing designation to Barb Schwartz’s “Accredited Staging Professional” designation.

Andy and I met when I took her class and we’ve been in contact with each other ever since.  She appreciates my approach of providing staging services to all my clients who request them.  Granted, each one will have a different need and some barely need help at all - but I have yet to find a house that the owners knew everything they needed to know to prep the house.  I appreciate Andy’s no-nonsense approach and her very keen design sense.  She is also able to convey the right messages in a class she’s teaching on this subject despite the occasionally obvious “pooh-pooh” attitudes of some of the people in the class (typically from men but I don’t want to start a gender war here).  She uses realistic tools to help her class attendees sort out ways to incorporate the new information into their business and she also provides some great resources - a must for anyone teaching a subject.

My background for staging comes from the fact that very early on in my career I worked in the retail sector as the manager of 3 children’s furniture stores in the Greater Seattle area.  As part of my job I was responsible for purchasing soft goods (bedding sets, wall decor, and lighting) and ordering hard goods (furniture pieces) that were to be used for our showroom floors.  This also meant being able to do the merchandising set up for the displays.  Little did I know way back almost 20 years ago that I’d be doing this again in a new career.

As Andy moves on from staging homes for clients to teaching agents how to do it on a national basis - I applaud her and I wish her well!  Agents out there, I really recommend her class. You’ll get plenty from it and spend less doing it too!

Recently I was contacted by an agent from half-way across the world.  She had read about me in the RE/MAX article that I remarked on a while back which was distributed in September of 2007.  In the article was I was interviewed about the large amount of online writing and blogging that I do and I provided tips to other agents on how to get started and what kinds of things to do, and items to avoid. I’ve had several people reach out to me from that article but this one is the furthest away - in South Africa.  I’ve enjoyed the chat so much with Brenda that I’m posting it here to help out anyone else that might come to view the blog and to learn more about setting up a similar kind of online educational forum for real estate.Dear Rebecca

Which site is best to use for blogging? - start looking online and see who has the blog sites you like best and then research them to see what they cost, or what kind of technical background you might need to use them.  I personally use WordPress as my blog site product of choice.  Don’t be conned into the sites that are really expensive.  The whole appeal of blogging is that it shouldn’t be expensive.

Is it as simple as registering and then having your say?  I guess you mean if you reply to someone else’s blog posts.  In that case, yes, it’s that simple.  If you want to be the “star” of your own site you’ll need to begin your own.

How would I market my blog? emailing to clients, advertising it on my own website? You pretty much answered your own question here but I would add things like putting on your marketing materials, business cards, house flyers, etc.

How did people find out about your blog? The product you use to start up your own site should have a tool for you to track stats and track things such as this.  Be sure to check for it as you shop for your own site.

What would you suggest to be a good introduction to my blog? Again, I’m not sure exactly what you mean by “introduction” unless you mean as the content that will describe who you are and why you’re writing.  This should match your business style and philosophy as well as your interests.  Is there a particular market segment you work within?  Well, writing something that ties you to that target market would be appropriate.  If you already have some marketing materials that cover this kind of thing well for you it is possible you could just reproduce that or somehow tweak it to be more approachable via a blog.

Bankrate.com posted a recent article that may be of interest to people that are concerned about the possibility of a foreclosure looming in their near future.  Check out the story here.