Team Reba Real Estate

How to get your trolley on in South Lake Union

Filed under: Uncategorized — Reba Haas @ 2:26 pm

The wonderful folks that help promote South Lake Union as a good place to live, eat and shop do a fine job of showing some of the cooler aspects of being in this revitalizing area of downtown Seattle. To wit, a little 4 minute or less clip on “how to ride the streetcar” shows not only how to have a smooth riding experience, but some of the cool technology behind it along with its European pedigree.

Enjoy!

Comments Off

A cool, new Higher Hanger idea for your closet… found on Twitter!

Filed under: Uncategorized — Reba Haas @ 8:17 am

Talk about using viral and social media marketing successfully, a young entrepreneur named Drew Cleaver from Arkansas has developed a new style of clothes hanger called Higher Hangers after getting frustrated with the micro-space allotted in a traditional dorm room. What’s fun to watch is this person is using Twitter to get followers for his product but not only to let them know what’s going on with the development of the business plan for the business, but to actively seek out start up funding.

I think these hangers could be a hell of a good deal. I like the idea of pulling clothing up higher toward the closet bar, I think it would also lessen the frequency of hangers getting tangled, for longer items, such as dresses, it will help prevent them from laying on the floor where they’ll get wrinkled, dirty, or worse (if you have pets).

Another way they can be used better than a traditional hanger is in those instances where a second hanging bar has been hung/used in a traditional style one bar closet. I have this situation in my building/apartment that I keep as a 2nd home in Wichita, KS, where I don’t want to go to the expense of building in an elaborate closet organizer - or least not yet - since I don’t know how long I’ll keep the building. To make extra room in the closet I have one of those hanging 2nd bars and also a sectioned hanging cloth shelf system where I can put sweaters and others items that can’t be hung. The problem with most of the hanging bars is that because of where the initial bar is hung there is always a likelihood of some clothing either overlapping, or on the bottom section perhaps having clothes draping down on the ground. Again, I don’t like the idea of dirt getting on my stuff. So, these hangers would most likely eliminate that problem because they pull the clothes up higher toward the bar instead of having that wasted space of several inches.

I also like that the product is being made from recycled plastics. Since we’re all about looking at “green” products of all types, this falls into my list of “I want to have some” when they start getting produced and available out here for sale. I can seeing this product being quite useful in older homes with small closets, studios and other small apartments & condos, and also overseas in places like London or Paris where the centuries old buildings in the old neighborhoods are quite small and could use any kind of space saver possible.

Comments Off

People are asking if short sales are better than foreclosure or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure

Filed under: Uncategorized — Reba Haas @ 2:50 pm

A recent post on Zillow has many people commenting on this topic. I did too but because Zillow limits you to 2000 characters or less, I’m going to flesh out my answer here on our site. For those readers who don’t know yet, a short sale is a real estate transaction where the house being sold has more debt against it than what it is being sold for. Therefore, the house is selling for short what is owed.

There is no one, single best answer for everyone. Typically a short sale has less effect on your credit score than “deed in lieu” or foreclosure but not all short sales are successful and they often depend on the between what is owed and what someone’s trying to pay for the property - as well as whether additional liens are posted against the property. Appraisals can also derail a sale if the appraisal comes in above what is being offered and the bank won’t budge. For them, depending on their financial evaluation of what they’ll eventually lose when comparing the short sale acceptance over a BPO (broker price opinion) that states the house is worth more, might lead them to not close the deal and force the foreclosure. It’s really necessary to sort out why the person is in default and then start looking for what will be the best remedy. If the seller has other assets other than the house, it might be harder to get a short sale approved. Bankruptcy for some is an option, but also can cause some issues that are long term like foreclosure.

For some people it is detrimental to their job to go the route of foreclosure, many companies do credit checks on potential employees and it could limit someone’s future employment opportunities to go this route. Other people can lose an existing job because of foreclosure; such as bank employees, jobs that require security clearances, and other financial services employees.

Loss mitigation departments are typically separate from foreclosure and even short sale departments. Each tends to be its own silo within a bank and often are in different states. Welcome to the world of call centers. We’ve been working with many short sales in our area and it is imperative that people understand what is needed to get the bank’s attention. When the financial storm hit the banks laid off employees, so staffing is short. Then the banks got hit again with the recent refinancing wave with not enough staff to handle it, and now the short sale and foreclosure waves are hitting. Working these kinds of deals requires a lot of patience and due diligence on the part of the seller, buyer, and agents (or others) involved.

An attorney and an accountant should be consulted. In some states there are taxes due on the forgiven debt, even if the IRS has the debt relief act in place for national taxes and extended it through 2012. WA State just had their REET (real estate excise tax) on debt forgiveness removed for this year with the Dept of Revenue (DOR) only just making the change last month. It will likely be reviewed annually.

Bottom line, be sure you’re working with someone who understands and can navigate the process.

Comments (0)

Let’s sit down over a couple of beers from Two Beers Brewing Co.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Reba Haas @ 1:07 pm

Last weekend, Michael and I went to support a friend’s appearance with his band, Ambience, at a South Lake Union event that was sponsored by the SLU Chamber of Commerce and promoted by the folks at Vulcan who would love for you to buy one of their condominiums in this up and coming downtown area. At the event several local vendors were displaying information about their businesses to those attending with the biggest focus being on the Arthur Murray dance school who was hosting the space. One of the vendors we met was Joel VandenBrink of Two Beers Brewing Co, a Seattle based brewer who is just beginning to reach out to the local pub communities to distribute product.

According to the gentleman we spoke to, their beers are in several north end Seattle pubs such as 74th Street Ale House, Sully’s Snowgoose Inn up in Phinney Ridge, and more. I recommended that he head south a little bit too and hit up Whistle Stop Ale House in Renton as well as Columbia City. I was reassured that they’re going to be doing just that along with a tour of Tacoma pubs in the next 1-2 weeks with one, The Red Hot, already drafting and there is one location on the Eastside too. The link above will give you all of their current distribution spots.

We were able to sample the Echo IPA and the 20:20 Blonde, and were duly impressed. I also liked that on the little flyers that were handed out the following notes were printed:

Take some time.

Look at the world.

Gain a new perspective.

Along with those great tag lines, when I asked Joel about where the name came from, he said, “it’s the idea that anyone can sit down across the table from another person over a couple of beers and talk about anything.” Now, that concept is something I can drink to. Cheers to you, Joel, and good luck with your budding brewing business!

Comments (0)

Is it possible to be too fruity? Local program helps share the fruit tree wealth in Seattle.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Reba Haas @ 2:14 pm

Today we have a guest post from Julie Kadingo, a member on the Georgetown Yahoo Groups site. This program is pretty darn cool and a great idea for sharing the wealth of all the fruit trees in Seattle that go underutilized each year. It was fantastic that this program reminder came out as I’ve been considering putting together a fruit tree and garden goodies exchange in my own residential area so that lots of neighbors can benefit from a wider variety of plantings and any excess can make it to local food banks instead of in the compost pile or rotting in the garden plot.

Hi Everyone,Last year, I worked with Solid Ground’s Community Fruit Harvest. Many homes in the Greater Seattle area have apple, plum, or pear trees that can produce hundreds of pound of fruit. Owners may turn a pound or two in pies or jars of applesauce; however, since a tree drops its entire yield in a matter of days/weeks, most fruit turns to waste, either as “car bombs” or “lawn carpets.”

In 2008 volunteers from the Fruit Harvest Program collected 18,000+ pounds from seven neighborhoods. The fruit was donated to food banks, meals programs, shelters, residential facilities, programs for children and youth, and senior programs.

If you are interested in helping this year:

**as a tree owner who’d like your tree to be on this years map for donating all or some of the fruit.

**as a tree owner who’d like to attend workshops on caring for trees (pruning, planting, managing pests.

**anyone who’d like to learn how to can, make jam, dry fruit, participate in community kitchens where everyone brings what they have and makes meals that can be frozen for your family or donated.

**anyone who’d like to volunteer to pick fruit in the Georgetown area, store fruit, donate a ladder for other volunteers who are picking fruit…

**anyone who is curious

For more information:
Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle

http://www.gleanit.org/Solid Ground Community Fruit Tree Harvest
http://www.solid-ground.org/Programs/Nutrition/Lettuce/Pages/TheCommunityFruitTreeHarvest2007.aspx

Thanks.
Julie

And, thanks to you too, Julie, for sharing such a great program!

Comments Off

Definition of business relationship between inspectors and real estate agents is overly broad

Filed under: Uncategorized — Reba Haas @ 5:29 pm

Back on Jan 31, 2009 I submitted a post that let everyone know that WA State would be requiring real estate agents to disclose if they had a familial or business relationship with a home inspector. In the other post I noted that it’s not uncommon for this kind of requirement to also impact title, escrow or other types of ancillary businesses to our industry. What’s different here is that the definition of “business relationship” is meant to include whether or not an agent and an inspector worked together - even if it didn’t include property inspection.

“308-124C-050 Home inspector referrals. Each licensed designated broker will establish a written office policy that includes a procedure for referring home inspectors to buyers or sellers. The policy will address the consumer’s right to freely pick a home inspector of the buyer’s or seller’s choice and prevent any collusion between the home inspector and a real estate licensee.

If a licensee refers a home inspector to a buyer or seller with whom they have or have had a relationship including, but not limited to, a business or familial relationship, then full disclosure of the relations must be provided in writing prior to the buyer or seller using the services of the home inspector.”

Let me give you an example of what this means and how it compares and contrasts with other disclosures of business arrangements. I have several inspectors that I have referred over the years and they can be found on my Team Reba website. Two of these inspectors are people I’ve done business with over the years. One of them, Norm Gosslee of Seattle Eastside Building Inspection, was the inspector I used for 3 home purchases of my own prior to me becoming a real estate agent. I liked his work enough based on those experiences that I decided to use him as a referral resource for my own clients when I started in the business 6 years ago. Another fellow, John Lasswell of Lasswell Home Inspection, is someone that I met as I worked with an investor client since he was her inspector of choice. We ended up hitting it off and I really liked his reporting tools and methods so we started recommending him as well. Several years later, since he liked how I worked, he hired me to help him buy an investment property and I’ve done 2 transactions with him as a result. Even though those occurred a few years ago I will now have to disclose my “business relationship” with him.

The thing that gets me from all of this is that in other affiliated arrangements there is a specific financial interest involved such as an ownership interest or perhaps a referral fee (aka kickback) paid for new clients (not the agent or inspector themselves) which is why RESPA requires that these relationships be disclosed. But, if someone is using your services (or vice versa) for your own personal property transactions, I’m not sure why that is being considered the same. In those instances there is no requirement of me using one or the other inspector for my own personal transactions and the same is true of the other side.

What was also a bit perplexing to me was that the news of this requirement was announced to the real estate world locally via our MLS. When I went to my inspector contacts and asked if they were aware of the change, none of them knew the change had happened and that a disclosure requirement existed. Interesting….

Anyone else have a comment on this new law?

Comments (0)

For folks with lower credit scores, FHA may be the lending answer to buy a home

Filed under: Uncategorized — Reba Haas @ 12:38 pm

I’ve run across several people who would like to buy a home but who also tell me they are struggling with credit score issues. For these folks it might make sense to look into FHA financing, which has lower thresholds than conventional financing products right now for credit scores and down payments. For 2009 the minimum down payment level is 3.5%, but that’s still a sight better than many conventional products that require from 10-20% down. And, while our prices in the Puget Sound region have softened, we are still considered a higher priced market than many so coming up with those sums is quite a bit of saving.

FHA loans are good for all manner of residential financing including condos, townhomes and single family homes.

During the high flying days of strong market appreciation and exotic loan products FHA only had about three percent (3%) of loan market share and that has risen again to 30% because all of those exotic loan products went away.

Comments Off

Great Bloomberg video on how to avoid foreclosure

Filed under: Uncategorized — Reba Haas @ 3:26 pm

Comments (0)

Amazing “Did you know” video from Sony that really makes you think about technology

Filed under: Uncategorized — Reba Haas @ 2:44 pm

Having come from a tech background I am interested in all manner of technology, especially since my client base over the years prior to real estate has been in medical instrumentation, avionics, communications, software, and more. A colleague of mine who has a tech focused significant other sent me this video that Sony showed at their executive conference. Some things I was somewhat familiar with since I do a lot of reading, but it was eye opening in several areas. I dare you to not be impressed….

Comments (0)

Fin N Bone can satisfy your food and your online cravings at lunchtime with free WiFi

Filed under: Uncategorized — Reba Haas @ 12:46 pm

One of my favorite restaurants in Renton is the 3 year old Fin N Bone owned by Jerry and Yelina Jackson. As I was researching a place to have lunch with a staging/design colleague of mine, I learned that they offer free WiFi at their place. I am sooooo thrilled! Jerry brings some southern style cooking to the restaurant but it’s also married with many NW flavors. Last fall I was loving his TurDuckEn, the Turkey, Duck and Chicken dish where all 3 of them are stuffed inside of each other along with stuffing. It was wonderful and some of the best comfort food I’d had in a long time.

They’ve got meeting spaces that can be rented, but I’m excited to hear that WiFi is there so that I can have smaller luncheon appointments where we can access internet as needed. Today I’ll be coaching this colleague/friend on how to use social media networking to promote her staging classes. Andy Capelluto of School of Staging, also an AR member, has had the benefit of title companies helping to promote her classes and staging designations in the past but that has changed some with the title companies altering how they offer courses. So, she’s soon to learn tips and tricks of the trade.

Comments (0)

March 24, 2009

How to get your trolley on in South Lake Union

March 20, 2009

A cool, new Higher Hanger idea for your closet… found on Twitter!

March 18, 2009

People are asking if short sales are better than foreclosure or deed-in-lieu of foreclosure

Let’s sit down over a couple of beers from Two Beers Brewing Co.

March 17, 2009

Is it possible to be too fruity? Local program helps share the fruit tree wealth in Seattle.

March 16, 2009

Definition of business relationship between inspectors and real estate agents is overly broad

For folks with lower credit scores, FHA may be the lending answer to buy a home

March 13, 2009

Great Bloomberg video on how to avoid foreclosure

Amazing “Did you know” video from Sony that really makes you think about technology

Fin N Bone can satisfy your food and your online cravings at lunchtime with free WiFi

Twitter Updates