Team Reba Real Estate

Ok, all I can say is… take a moment to read through the top of the sign on down.  It’s funny as heck as soon as you put the whole scene together but you surely don’t want your residential development to become famous just because of a really bad naming job.

Ok, I’ll admit that when I first learned about ActiveRain I had some healthy skepticism for it. With so many programs within the REALTOR(R) Association where a designation gave you access to a pool of agents nationally, or a broker affiliation might provide it, or some kind of combination thereof - I thought, “what does this site have to offer me?”  Or, as it used to be put when I was in corporate work - the WIIFM factor - “what’s in it for me?”

So, I finally decided after having a relatively bare agent profile on the site for several months to go ahead and start networking on it.  I’ll say right now that so far I am relatively pleased with the results.  It seems a lot of people do read the stuff that gets written on there and now I must say my competitive side of me is kicking in and I want to be number one in the Seattle spot.  I’m pretty sure if I converted my location to Renton (where my home office is) I’d be number one at this point based on the scoring system they use.

Anyhow, another *sort of* benefit is that a new business opportunity listing we’re co-brokering with another agent in our office (Robin Tomazic) got picked up by a local blogger for the area where it is located - Georgetown. You can see the blog post here.  Hey, buddy, thanks for helping us advertise!  We’d like to find a wonderful new owner for the restaurant and bar who will be as supportive of the community as you are.

This fantastic Chancellor home has incredible space for the price. With 3220 sqft of space encompassing 5+ bedrooms, an office, bonus room, and extra finished room you’ll love it.  Thoughtful built-ins help maximize the space you get and keep clutter at bay. Easy access to transit and commuting options make this a fantastic place to call home. (Metro buses 236 to downtown Kirkland and 257 to downtown Seattle come by within a half block.) 

Relax in the large back yard on the deck, or shoot some hoops and then ease your muscles in the hottub. You can’t go wrong with this home!  To make it even more relaxing, there is a 1-year basic American Home Shield home warranty that is available to the buyer at closing to help cover the appliances and systems in the home.

A slideshow of all the photos is available here.  A total of 17 photos to be exact showing all the rooms of the house except for the garage interior and laundry room.  There is an eat-in kitchen with space for a couple of barstools and/or a kitchen table for more informal dining.

The home is located near Totem Lake, where Evergreen Hospital is growing by leaps and bounds and it is also near one of the first Trader Joe’s in Washington.  Lots of local amenities and there is a community pool you’ll have access to as well.  Better get busy before Labor Day weekend if you want to enjoy it this year!  Local park & ride nearby makes the possibilities of reducing your carbon footprint easier.  Easy access to Eastside companies and employment centers(Bothell, Bellevue, Redmond) such as Microsoft, Expedia, and Overlake Hospital.

We’ve even got a great offering from Eric Aasness (one of our co-contributors) that if you use his office for the financing portion, they’ll offer 1% of the loan amount toward your closing costs!  With 10% down, the loan amount will still be under the new, temporary increased level of conforming loan limits - which is $567,500.

Come swing by and take a look for yourself!

We’ve been getting some good news from many of our past clients in the last several weeks and I must say that it’s really nice after reading so much of how the media slams our industry and the gloom and doom news that abounds. 

One of the stories I love is about a client who moved to Costa Rica a couple of years ago.  We originally met this clients as she prepared to sell a long time family owned property that sat in L3 zoned land in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle.  Because of the size, location, and level aspects of the site she was able to get much for the single family home than she might normally get in residential zoning. 

Since moving to Costa Rica, she has been sending me updates about her adventures and now the house she is having built.  Just this week I received several photos of which I am thrilled to view and share here.  It’s also intriguing to me to see how construction is handled in a country other than the USA. Check out some of these shots….

Joan and her builder, Richard, walking by Nispero lumber.

Temporary power set up

House view to the north

View east to the garden

Congrats, Joan, on making your dreams come true!  It’s a ton of work, I’m certain, but it’s great to see you putting together what you planned and watching it come together.

So, the other day I’m posting yet another of our client listings to Zillow when I get an email telling me that I have become a Zillow All-Star.  I think to myself, “what the heck is that?”  So, in looking it up I find out that, according the notice posted on their site:

It’s kind of funny, really.  When Zillow first came onto the scene a lot of agents saw them as a horrible new type of competition.  We’ve never felt that way although we did make sure to try and understand what the online service was, and wasn’t, so that we could help educate our clients and the public on this new tool.  Being that the firm is locally based, I’d like to see them do well because it helps bring jobs to our local economy and I think the services they offer are valid.  There’s nothing wrong with wanting to get a bit of an idea of what your home value might be without having to get an agent involved, or to hire an appraiser.  If it’s just curiosity you’re dealing with and not a sale or a refinance, then checking this site out is not a bad thing.  It also helps people understand where their neighborhood values may be going too.

We’ve even gone so far as to include it in our marketing of properties when we have listings.  One of the tools I like on the site is the “claim my home” because we can do that and update the information on the site if there have been changes to a house. Frequently the info that Zillow is working from is incorrect or out of date - so this is a way to make the data that is publicly available match what we’ll have in our listing packages. It’s a good tool overall since we know a large number of people look here to compare Zestimates(R) with listing prices.

What is a Zestimate(R)?  Again, from the site:

“ Zestimate

A Zestimate home valuation is Zillow’s estimated market value. It is not an appraisal. Use it as a starting point to determine a home’s value.
Learn more

The Value Range is the high and low estimated market value for which Zillow values a home. The more information, the smaller the range, and the more accurate the Zestimate. See data coverage and accuracy table “

For people who are relocating to a new area, Zillow helps an out-of-town buyer understand neighborhood price points and values with this information available once they go home after a whirlwind trip into a new town to look for a home.

Anyhow, I guess it feels good to be an “All-Star!”

We recently went on market with a beautiful Murray Franklyn resale home out in the Snoqualmie Ridge area. It’s a lovely home with a sophisticated color palette.  The home has 4 bedrooms (all with closet organizers), a gorgeous 5 piece master bath and walk in closet, 2.75 baths and a wonderful built in buffet in the dining room.

You’ll have plenty of room to spread out in this gorgeous home with numerous upgrades (listed below). With an office, media room and a fantastic great room you’ll have plenty of good times with friends & family. Get to know the members of your community by joining the local country club with a social or full golf membership. Rest easy in the large tub of the master bath - there are a total of 2.75 baths here. Great patio and yard for summer fun.

Below are a few photos for your perusal.  You can find them all in a slideshow at this link.

The current homeowners had such nice taste in furniture we didn’t have to do too much for staging other than the usual decluttering and some color infusion.  The house is only a few years old so it is in excellent condition and there are some nice upgrades like granite counters and accents, carpet, full house speaker wiring for multi-room music enjoyment, and much more.  A list of upgrades is noted below:

Featured Upgrades

Premium Carpet, Tile Upgrades in all bathrooms, Granite countertops, and Tub Surround in Master Bathroom, Tile Countertop in additional Bathrooms, Tiled Fireplace in Family Room, Granite Countertops in the Kitchen, InstaHot Hot water in Kitchen, Pendant Lighting in Kitchen, Additional ceiling lights in Living Room, Granite Countertop Buffet with Wine Storage and Mirror in Dining Room, Rough In for ceiling Fans in All Bedrooms, Ceiling Fan in Family Room, Blower on FirePlace in Family Room, All Crown Molding, Sound System with indoor and outdoor speakers, Sprinkler System, Gas Line for BBQ, Rough in for Central Air, Closet Systems in 3 bedrooms, Upgraded closet racks in all bedrooms.

No, it’s not as iconic as the song Georgia on my Mind made most famous (in my mind) by Ray Charles, but Wenatchee is now on my mind after being introduced to a great development opportunity by a fellow RE/MAX agent in this eastern WA city.  The land for sale is actually on the East Wenatchee side of the Columbia River but it is the twin city to Wenatchee.  While not as large, there are similarities to this area and Kansas City (KS/MO) where one area of a large metro area is more of the suburban bedroom community to the next door city.

Anyhow, an article written about me in the RE/MAX Times last year introduced me to this agent, Michael Miller, who is newly transplanted to the Wenatchee area.  He and his wife, Lynn, contacted us at Team Reba to see if perhaps we could help them with promoting this opportunity.  So, here I am doing just that.  It’s pretty exciting actually.  There are several ways you can imagine this land getting developed and all of them are going to be beneficial to that area of the state and the local community. If you’re in the market to develop a roughly 40 acre parcel with a mixture of retail/commercial/residential feel free to contact us and we’ll get you more details.  Be warned though - the parcel, if not subdivided into smaller parcels, has a $10Million price tag.

Some of the development opportunities include townhomes, residential, condos, retail space and more.  I’m personally hoping that a green development might come in and do a really cool urban planned development.  The zoning of the area has quite a list of permitted uses, so there are some very interesting opportunities.

You’ll be reading more about it here on this blog as we get more involved in helping co-list and market this opportunity.

Because I write in several online forums I have to avoid duplicating the exact material from one blog to another.  For those of you that have been getting into the online forums of communication you recognize that search engine optimization only occurs when you have original content and if you cut and paste your posts from online forum to additional sites you’ll end up getting yourself blacklisted by the bots and spiders that troll the web.

So, to keep myself from getting my, what I like to think are useful articles, blacklisted, I’m putting a link to one that I just wrote for my “other site” where I write regularly - Rain City Guide.  In the post I list 9+ questions that consumers can use to help in interviewing a listing agent.  These questions are applicable for any real estate market no matter where you are so please feel free to use them in your own market outside of the Seattle and Washington State area!

I’m a member of Active Rain, a national online networking site for agents, and there are all kinds of blogs that talk about staging.  One in particular highlighted not so much the usual work of staging but rather the ability to identify the difference between a historical look and a dated look.  It’s a good topic because I think there are times that a property owner thinks it’s just fine to leave a house in the condition it’s in because it was the original look of the home and it is appropriate for its decade or period in which it was built.  I personally don’t agree.

Here is a great book (via the link) called Interior Desecrations that is a hilarious look back at some of the painful designs of the past.

If you recognize any of your home fixtures or furnishings you might want to consider an update!