Team Reba Real Estate

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.

One of my favorite shops, even if just for eye candy, is Frock Shop in Phinney Ridge (Seattle).  The clothes are fun, feminine, and oh so fun to look at too!  I also love that the shop owner, Suzy Fairchild, makes sure to stock sizes for the well above zero to size 2 crowd.  However, she doesn’t stock a ton of each size but this does have the side benefit of meaning you won’t find many (or any) people showing up at the same party wearing the same outfit as you.

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.

A local mortgage professional who we sometimes work with sent out a notice today.  See the comments below in Italics. 

Most of you are aware that Down Payment Assistance programs like Nehemiah, etc. are history effective October 1st. Lenders are requiring that loans using DPA’s fund by September 30th. Therefore, some lenders are requiring locking and submissions by August 15th and others by September 12th.  

If you have any clients that need this program, now is the time to do it. While there is a movement to get the programs reinstated, it’s anybody’s guess as to how that will turn out. Let me know if I can help you in any way. 

Jerry Rutherford 

Professional Mortgage, Inc.
22659 Pacific Hwy So Suite 101
Des Moines, WA 98198
Phone: (206) 870-5050 Cell: (206) 356-1711
Toll Free: 1-800 764-5626
Email: jrutherford@pmiloans.com
www.pmiloans.com
WA Lic. # 510-LO-35158

I’d been receiving some other industry requests asking for feedback to be sent to legislative members who were responsible for voting.  It seems that even with support from the NAR and mortgage professionals who see the daily need for programs like Nehemiah, the folks in government decided to act rashly anyway.  I guess it’s typical politics as usual because government frequently seem like a massive pendulum going to extremes and only after protracted battles and lawsuits will it go to the center and make sense.

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!”

While sending out a note to a friend of mine, David LeClaire, a local sommelier who is now running SeattleUncorked wine club, I stumbled up a new restaurant find in the (Le) Renton area. 

The new place is called Blossom Asian Bistro and, oddly enough, they were recommended on the Red House Beer and Wine website (this was the place I was recommending to David initially).  Perhaps there is an ownership interest there?  It doesn’t really say. 

(update: it IS co-owned by some folks from Red House and the restaurant group involved)

One of the great things I found out on the Blossom website is that nothing on their menu is over $10.  That’s pretty amazing if you ask me!  Come on down to “Le Renton” and check out yet another lovely addition to our downtown restaurant community.

They even have a 4-6pm Happy Hour as well where all the food bites are under $4 and certain adult beverages range from $2-5.  Sounds pretty “happy” to me…

OK, an update!  We did make it down to Blossom recently and it was AWESOME!!!! Here’s a fun photo of some of “the goods”!!!!

Our very own Tim Burkart (a frequent contributor to Team Reba’s Blog) was selected by his peers for inclusion in the 2008 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. 

According to information provided by the annual letter from Garvey Schubert Barer, the firm where Tim works and who represents Team Reba’s business, “The Best Lawyers list is compiled through an exhuastive peer-review survey in which thousands of top U.S. attorneys confidentially evaluate their professional peers. The 2008 edition is based on more than 2.1 million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers.”

This is a coverage that has become near and dear to my heart as I am now a newly minted condo owner (Thank you Rebecca Haas and Eric Aasness).  As an insurance agent I have always been amazed at how people would take all of this time, money and effort to buy the condo of their dreams and expect someone else to protect (i.e. the Master Policy) it.  Let’s face it, the Master Policy’s the last thing you’d want to read.  It’s boring and full of insurance misto-babel.  Some master policies cover more than others but in a nut shell it is designed to protect the building and common areas and its purpose is to make sure the structure and common areas can and will be rebuilt in the event of a loss. 

There is no coverage for your personal property such as your clothes, flat screen TV or the new sofa you just purchased.  So everything from the walls in are your responsibility.  Items like fixtures, cabinets or appliances maybe covered by the master policy but often are not especially if you’ve remodeled your place in any way. 

This is where I, your friendly insurance agent, enter the picture and ask you if you feel safe knowing your neighbor has a candle fetish and another can’t even boil water to make tea.  I believe condo insurance should be thought of the same as  home insurance.  All too often it has been looked at like renters insurance and considered optional and it also doesn’t help that it is not a required condition for closing your loan.  Thankfully, the new construction condo I just purchased DID require proof of individual unit coverage prior to closing any sales.

To get an idea of what condo coverage costs I always recommend you start where you have your auto insurance coverage.  Most companies give a discount for having more than one policy with the same company.  I also think this might be the right time to review all of your insurance coverage and make sure you are maximizing discounts and coverage. 

Thanks for listening to your favorite online and blogging insurance agent.  Feel free to call or email me with any questions about this or any other type of coverage.  I wanted to share some of my thoughts about condo coverage in the hope that it might help all of us condo owners out here.  Take care and be well.     

The RE/MAX Metro Realty office I hang my license with has a special program that we utilize for our clients and friends that helps us keep in touch and is a few steps above the recipe cards that other agents send out.  It’s called ‘From Your Friends’ and it is a great monthly program of discounts to local Puget Sound restaurants and activities.

Previous months have included the Seattle Children’s Theater, Seattle Thunderbirds Hockey, Purple Cafe’, and Duke’s Chowder House.  This month we get the lovely flavors of The Melting Pot.  I’m very excited about taking advantage of this coupon myself because I do enjoy the Melting Pot and we have a gift card for it right now too so we can stretch our dollars quite a ways by going a couple of times before the card expires.  We always get a few extra to hand out to new clients and/or for friends who want to go with friends or family to one of these restaurants or events.

All of our clients whether they are buyers or sellers (who stay local) are added to the program and with people watching their wallets more these days what with increased prices in gas and groceries, it’s a wonderful way to still have some fun while keeping an eye on the household budget. For those clients who have just moved to the area it is a great way to also be introduced monthly to some of the areas attractions, neighborhoods and local restaurant options.

If you’d like to be added to our list and are open to receiving our monthly email newsletter you can contact us with your details (name, address and email) and we’ll add you to our “friends list”.  It’s just another way we take good care of our friends here at Team Reba.