He was peeved by the “small-town-ness” of the Tri-Cities.  When you’re living here, though, that’s a desirable characteristic!

I have a vacant listing in Richland.  The homeowner lived there for a couple years, then was transferred elsewhere for his job, then rented the house out for a couple years.  Now it’s time to sell.

The house is part of a walking route for the assigned mail carrier.  I’ve always heard that if a house is on a walking route for a mail carrier, then it’s in a desirable location.  Which makes sense – if the U.S.P.S. feels that its workers can walk around without fear of harm, then it probably is a pretty good neighborhood.

I received a call last week from the mail carrier for the street where the house is located.  She left a message telling me that she had noticed the side door (the one by the mail slot), was open.  She knows no one is living there and knew it needed to be brought to someone’s attention, so she called the name and number on the sign.  How cool is that?

When you are in a nice neighborhood, you have an interest in keeping it that way.  Whether you live there, or pass through on a daily basis. The mail carrier was watching out for the homeowner, the neighborhood, and the Tri-Cities as a whole, actually.

If living in Mayberry is like living in a community where people watch out for one another’s property, personal and real, I’ll take it!

I love living here.  I really do.

Mayberry, R.F.D.? Maybe… is an article from Tri-Cities real estate agent Cari McGee.

It’s best to not have one.

Everyone buying or selling real estate has a number in their head – they won’t go higher than X to purchase the house and they won’t go lower than X to sell the house.

This number makes people feel comfortable.  This number helps them make sense of a confusing situation.  This number creates a happy feeling in the buyer – they got the house they wanted at the price they wanted!  That number assures a seller that they’re not giving anything away!   Yahoo!

Except when it doesn’t work out that way.

A few months ago I sold a house I had listed.  It was initially put on the market in November of 2011 at $208,000.  The seller had purchased it for $200,369 a scant 17 months earlier.  So was $208,000 too high a price?  Yes.  Four percent appreciation in 17 months is too much to expect, but it wasn’t a crazy price.  Prospective buyers still toured it, feedback was generally positive.  And yet no offers.  About three months in to the listing period the seller told me, “By the way, Cari, I’m just not interested in selling it for less than asking price.”  As a Realtor, I have to present all offers, anyway, so I told her that any offer that was given to me I’d still tell her about it, even if it was less than asking.  She understood but simply wanted to make it clear to me that she would not be taking an offer for less than asking price.  That was her magic number.

Six months later with no offers, but continued low-level interest, our contract expired.  She renewed the listing with me and lowered the price to $204,000.  She had received a lay-off notice and her magic number had changed.

Seven weeks later, we lowered the price to $199,000, hoping to get some people we’d heard were interested off the fence, and/or to just get the place sold.  She had a new life lined up back East, and needed to get there.  The house here had become a burden.

Less than a week later I received an e-mail from my client.  She asked me what I knew about short sales.

Sigh.

I spoke with her and she told me that she owed more money on the house than she would be able to bring in with even a full price offer, after taxes and fees were subtracted.  She was already into the short sale process with her lender and had applied for consideration but we needed an offer for the next step.

And blessedly, miraculously, one came in that very day.  But it was for $185,000.  CASH.

Now, normally a cash offer means nothing significant to the seller.  But in this case it did.  He wouldn’t be using a lender and his sale could close immediately, which meant that the usually interminable short sale process would be expedited.  Only the Seller’s lender would need to be negotiated with.  There would be no other bank involved.

We countered and laid all our cards on the table – he could buy it CASH, for $197,000, and she had enough money to cover the difference from her savings.  OR, he could probably get a screaming hot deal from the bank and they’d likely take less, but it would take a lot of time.

The Buyer’s agent (also the Buyer’s son), said the Buyer wouldn’t pay more than $190,000.  That’s all the Buyer felt it was worth.  He, too,  had a magic number, you see.

The other agent and I ran the numbers and found that if we both drastically reduced our commissions, the Seller could afford to sell it for $192,000.

The Buyer still wouldn’t budge.  So, his son, his agent, very kindly stepped out of the transaction, handed me both sides of the sale for a tiny commission for me only, and we put the deal together at $190,000.

If the Seller had not had a magic number in the beginning, would she have reduced it earlier, bringing a buyer sooner?  If the Buyer had not had his magic number at the end, would his son have been paid?

That’s why it’s best to have a more nebulous number in your head.  The Buyer thinks, “I can afford X, so I’ll pay X if I must”.  “I could sell it for X, if necessary”, says the Seller.  Guess what?  if you want to move, it’s necessary now.  If there’s another offer on the table, you must pay X to ensure you secure the house you want.

Would you rather get a screaming hot deal on a house you’re lukewarm about, or pay market value for the house of your dreams?  Would you rather wait around for a higher offer that may not come, shelling out money every month in carrying costs, or cut your losses sooner and move on with your life with the house that has become a burden no longer on your back?

Most people will still have a magic number.  It’s human nature.  However, the sooner you’re willing to move off your magic number, the sooner you can truly move into or out of your house.

The Magic Number is an article from Tri-Cities real estate agent Cari McGee.

Back in August, I was contacted by a woman named Maria.  Maria and her dad wanted to buy a house.  I asked her what she was looking for, put her in touch with one of my trusted lenders to make sure she was able to buy a house, and off we went.  In September, they found what they were looking for, made an offer, it was accepted and we started proceeding toward closing.

Maria did everything right;  she got paperwork in to the lender when she needed to,  contacted an insurance agent to obtain a homeowner’s policy, saved her money and didn’t make any crazy purchases while we were in escrow, and quickly signed any addenda I needed her to sign during the process.   She was ecstatic every time I saw her or spoke with her.  She LOVED this house!

November 7th, closing day, arrived. I texted Maria, because she was in class that morning, and asked her when she and her dad would be free to sign.  She said around noon.  I thought that was odd because her dad had never been available during the day before, he was at work.  But, I thought perhaps he had taken the day off or something and didn’t give it too much thought.  At 10:30 am I received a call from the lender – “Cari, we called to verify employment for Maria’s dad.  He was laid off three weeks ago.”

Allow me to digress for just a moment – have you ever seen the movie The Wedding Singer?  There’s a line in that movie that we say around the office a lot – “Once again, things that could have been brought to my attention YESTERDAY!” I’m including it here if you haven’t seen it.  It’s at the 1:20 mark -

Maria’s dad not working was information that we needed to know the minute it had happened.  On the morning of closing, though, time was too tight and circumstances had become too unwieldy to save this sale.  Maria and her dad were unable to buy the house, and to say she was devastated would be putting it mildly.

Fast forward about two weeks, the listing agent on this deal had mentioned the situation to another lender who thought she could help.  Since she went in to the deal knowing the circumstances of Maria’s dad’s unemployment, she had a different set of criteria to manage, and she thought she had a way to make it work.

I called Maria to see if she was still interested.  At first, she balked.  I asked, “I thought you loved that house?”

“Oh, I do!” she assured me.  “That’s the problem.  Cari, when I heard I couldn’t buy the house, my heart broke into a thousand tiny pieces.  I cannot put myself through that again.  I can’t get that far and then allow my heart to break once more.”

The phrase “…a thousand tiny pieces…” echoed through my mind.

She said she’d think about it, talk to her dad, and let me know.

The next time I spoke with her, she said her dad was sure that not getting the house had been a sign they weren’t supposed to buy it all.  “But I love it, Cari, I do.  I will try to convince him.”

Just after Thanksgiving she called me and said her dad was on board once again, and so was she.  But she asked me, “Cari, will it work?  Will I get the house?”  Again I heard her phrase “…a thousand tiny pieces…“  I told her I believed it really would work this time.  She said okay, and we went down this road again.

I am pleased to report that yesterday, just in time for Christmas, Maria and her dad closed on their home.  Her heart is safe, and they can celebrate in a place they love.  She texted me yesterday afternoon: “You have made me really happy.  Thank you for your help and Merry Christmas to you, too.  I have no words to thank you.”

She has no words.  She doesn’t need them.  The light in her eyes when I gave her the key spoke volumes.

I wish you joy this Christmas and as little heart break as possible.  Merry Christmas!

A Home for the Holidays, or How Home Buying Can Almost Break Your Heart is an article from Tri-Cities real estate agent Cari McGee.

Anyway, the point of this post is that this year, 2012, marks my third Presidential Election in real estate.  What I noticed in 2008, and noticed again this year, is that the market is dead in the weeks leading up to the election.  It may have happened in 2004, but I was so new to thee business, I didn’t notice then.

It is kind of hilarious, as who occupies the White House has absolutely no bearing on whether the white house with the pretty front garden is the right house for you.  But, there you have it.  That’s real estate in the Tri-Cities during October of an election year.

I have eight listings right now.  Only the brand new one is getting any activity.  No one is “just seeing” what’s out there.  If you’re looking now, you have a deadline or a firm date in your head.  It’s not the time of year to aimlessly shop.  Everyone is much too wrapped up in seeing what happens on November 6.

So, if your house is on the market and you’re not seeing any showings, that is most likely why.  In addition, if you’re thinking of lowering the price, or entering the market, or changing anything significant about your house or its marketing, wait until after the 6th of November.  No one will notice it right now, so it will be a wasted effort.

How the National Election Impacts the Local Tri-Cities Real Estate Market is an article from Tri-Cities real estate agent Cari McGee.

When everyone gets along in a real estate transaction, the whole deal goes more smoothly. When I can trust the title company to adequately research title and alert me to any potential issues, I rest easy. When I can trust the escrow company to dot all the i’s and cross the t’s, be friendly and instructive and quick, then I have fewer worries. The same goes with the lender. I’ve already written about how important it is to work with a local lender.

It’s also important to choose a good local lender.

We know you’re busy. We know that you did your research already when you found the agent you decided to use. The lender just gives you the money, so why do you need to get along with him or her? Why do you need to make sure he or she is a suitable match?

Why It Matters To Find the Right Mortgage Officer

Here are a few reasons why it’s important that you and your mortgage lender are a good fit:

1. You’re trusting this person/company with personal financial information.
2. Like everything else in this world, when someone likes and respects you, they do a better job for you. The saying is, “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar” for a reason.
3. Some are better than others at closing real estate sales. If the company develops a reputation for delays or — horrors! — the inability to close a deal, you need to find a new lender. A colleague of mine has recently had only one of five deals successfully close. What have all of these deals had in common? The same mortgage company. Different lenders, same company.

Some of my colleagues only have one lender that they keep on speed-dial. Most have two or three. I am in the more-than-one camp, myself. Obviously, since I am writing this post, I think it’s important to pair the right client with the right lender, and obviously that isn’t going to happen with just one person. There is no one-size-fits-all lender, in my opinion.

How Real Estate Agents Find Mortgage Companies/Lenders To Work With

It’s not easy when you’re a new real estate agent to find the right mortgage companies to recommended to your clients. I remember having to do this during my early days in the biz. Ugh. These process generally goes like this:

1. meet for coffee
2. chat about what you both did BEFORE you became an agent or lender (because it is almost never anyone’s first career – we all seem to fall into it after we’ve given something else a whirl)
3. lender discusses how his or her mortgage company does business and what this means to you and your clients
4. agent smiles and nods and has no idea what the lender is talking about because there have been no deals, or only a few deals under his or her belt
5. parties part and very rarely does this one meeting result in a lifetime agent/lender relationship

There’s a new agent in our real estate office that met with two lenders this week. Both of them are among the ones that I use on a regular basis. Guess where she met Lender #1? At a coffee shop! Guess what they talked about before they discussed business? What they did before they were in the business! Guess what happened next? You get the picture.

Actually, lender #1 differentiated himself by asking her how he could help HER succeed. That was impressive. It is in a mortgage lender’s vested interest to work with successful agents. Kudos to him for saying, “Let’s figure out how we can get there.”

The meet-up with lender #2 deviated from the norm just slightly — he told her to bring her “coffee or whatever” to his office. He also presented her with every new agent’s dream chart. It outlined for her the process of how a loan works at his bank — who gets their hands on it, where it goes next, the timeline for every step along the way. This was enormously helpful for her.

My point is this — real estate agents down a lot of lattes in the pursuit of finding the right lenders for their clients. We take note of who will do the job, how they do it, and when it closes on time. When your agent suggests that you should work with a lender he or she trusts, it’s smart to listen. Our caffeine-addled brains will thank you!

(Stock image via Shutterstock.com. Used under license.)

Why It’s Important To Find The Right Mortgage Officer is an article from Tri-Cities real estate agent Cari McGee.

But the funny thing is, in all but a very few instances, “all cash” doesn’t matter AT ALL to the seller.

These are the few instances:

1. Time is of the essence, the house needs to have been sold yesterday, and an all-cash buyer can own the house within a week.
2. The house is overpriced and a bank would never appraise it for the price the seller is asking and the buyer is offering.
3. One owner wants to stick it to the other owner — “Here, I sold the house for a dollar, here’s your fifty cents, now get out of my life!”

In nine years in real estate, I’ve seen #1 once, but I’ve never seen #’s 2 and 3.

A cash offer does not net anything additional to the seller, so why should they care how the buyer is buying it?  Why should the seller let the house go for a song simply because the buyer will have fewer associated costs in purchasing the house?

What’s more, it’s all cash in the end.  If the seller is able to receive some proceeds from the sale of their home, it gets deposited in their bank account or they pick up a check for the amount, or they roll it in to the new house they’re buying.  It all spends the same.

So forgive me if I don’t get excited the next time I hear that a buyer is paying “ALL CASH”, because it doesn’t matter AT ALL.

(Stock image via Shutterstock.com. Used under license.)

Buying a Home with Cash? Whoop-de-do… is an article from Tri-Cities real estate agent Cari McGee.

But I digress.  In case you missed the Parade of Home this year, I’m going to re-cap some of it for you.  I’m going to share comments I overheard and my own impressions of some of the homes I visited.

I spent the majority of my time in house #12, built by Infinity Homes.  Infinity often builds wildly rococo homes; pillars and Venetian plaster and furbelows abound.  Even last year, when they tried to move into a smaller square footage segment, it still had some pretty showy features.  This year I feel they hit the nail on the head. The unique, special finishes they’re known for were there, but put together in such a way that I could actually imagine myself living there.  It was surprisingly cozy, and warm.  And took advantage of amazing views.

I also spent time at #14, Evergreen Homes NW’s offering.  It was lovely, with an immense kitchen island.  There was an enormous amount of space for all kinds of food prep and serving.

At #20, Talmadge Construction, there was a very nice home with  a good layout.  Porcelain tiles resembled wood floors, gorgeous knotty woods for the front door and the cabinets, and a great patio space round this house out.

House #22, Gretl Crawford Homes was remarkable!  It had a wonderful floor plan and was gorgeously decorated and finished.  If a home can be described in words usually reserved for food, I’d describe it as “delicious”!

I visited house #5, built by Dream Builders.  It was an homage to modern space and design and furnishings.  My husband LOVED it.  I did not.  The kitchen counter tops were something shiny and metal.  I said it looked like a rec center.  My husband loved it.  Everything was very sparse and clean and linear.  I couldn’t find a single snug and comfy corner, and for a reader like me, that’s a travesty!  It looked like a home that should have been built in the California Bay Area on a bluff overlooking the sea.

My son and I went on to visit Prodigy’s Parade house (#1 in the program).  When I was spending time at house #12, I had overheard  a couple mention that Prodigy’s house was their favorite. It felt like a “big little house”, and was comfortable and elegant at the same time.  I absolutely understood what they meant. It was well laid-out, and pleasant, and simply felt good.  While touring this home, I overheard some people discussing the house. She said, “THIS is a HOME!  THIS is so much better than that other house by the river” The house by the river is #5, the modern one.

We saw #2, the Varsity Homes ULTRA Modern Home next.  Our new house is an ULTRA Modern Home by Varsity.  They’re not as crazy modern as #5, despite the name, but they are different from the norm around the Tri-Cities.  I like how they’ve taken mid-century sensibilities and married it with this decade’s aesthetic.    My son, dry, Bob Newhart-humor-possessor that he is, told the builder, Les, who was there, “Yeah, we didn’t like the house you built for us last year, so we’re looking around to find something new…”  I gasped and began to fall over myself apologizing, when Les responded, “I used to have only positive things to say about you.  Now I want to wring your neck!”  As he should!  Crazy kid!  I had heard that this year’s house had a beach vibe to it, and indeed it did.  I could absolutely see it settled in near a dune.  It was light and bright and open, and I loved it.  It probably helped that they used the exact same exterior paint color and rock accent as our house!

My son and I have resolved to visit EVERY Parade Home next year.  Wish us luck!!

2012 Parade of Homes is an article from Tri-Cities real estate agent Cari McGee.

You might be asking, “Why did Cari put a picture of a dining room on her blog on Independence Day?”

Because Ronald Reagan once said , “All great change in America begins at the dinner table.”

I’m sure it started that way for our forefathers.  I’m sure that as they were spooning turtle soup into their mouths and ending their meal with peach tarts, there had to be a thought, “Maybe we CAN break away from England…” And the rest is, as they say, history.

Have a great day!

Happy Independence Day is an article from Tri-Cities real estate agent Cari McGee.

It is extremely important to use a local lender when obtaining a loan to purchase your home. It is not slightly important, not marginally important, not simply a good idea – it is extremely important!

A recent event illustrates why.

I received a referral from an agent in Colorado.  She called me on the Friday before Christmas, and when I answered the phone, she exclaimed, “Yes!  I said to myself if she answers the phone on the Friday before Christmas, she’s an agent who loves her job and deserves this referral!”  We got to talking, she told me about her clients, whom subsequently became my clients, and I had a new job to do.

I very much enjoyed working with this couple.  They wouldn’t be moving here until May or June, but we kept in touch via phone and e-mail, and got as much advance work done as possible before they arrived.  One of those things was being pre-approved by a lender.  I referred them to a lender with whom I’ve worked before, and in whose loan-closing abilities I am confident.

The wife of the couple came to town this spring, and we toured several homes.  They made an offer on one, it was accepted after some negotiations, and everything was set.  Just before they made the offer, the couple told me they thought they’d be going with a different lender that they had found on the Internet.  His rates seemed superior and the deal he was presenting them with was better all around.  I urged them to stay with the local lender because sellers have been known to reject offers with pre-approvals from out-of-town lenders.  The couple agreed with me, and they went to see the lender when they moved to town, about a month before the house was due to close.

When they were with the local lender, they showed him what the Internet lender was offering to them.  On paper, it did indeed look like a better deal, and he said if they felt more comfortable pursuing the Internet lender’s offer, he wouldn’t blame them.  So, they did.  Jay Stewart at Pacific Finance Northwest now had their business, and we were proceeding to close the deal.

I immediately contacted Jay, trepidation in my heart, because in my eight-plus years in real estate, deals with out-of-town lenders that have worked out poorly have vastly outnumbered the deals with out-of-town lenders that have worked out well.

I asked Jay if he felt we’d have trouble closing according to the deadline set in the Purchase and Sale Agreement.  He said he didn’t think so but the one thing that could hold us up was the receipt of the buyer’s first paycheck.  I asked him to let me know as we got closer to that date, and I’d arrange for an extension if necessary.

Closing was scheduled for June 5th.

My client’s first paycheck came in and the stub was delivered to Chastity Burpee, the loan processor, at the end of May, a full week before closing.  That meant there was ample time between receipt of the paycheck and closing to meet the deadline.

On May 31st, Chastity asked my client for two more pieces of info, and he immediately complied and sent her what she needed.

On June 4th, we were nowhere close to where we needed to be in order to close the next day.  I contacted Chastity via e-mail, who said I should extend the deadline to June 8th.  I did.  My clients were slightly upset, but could live with a few days delay.

June 7th arrived, and we were nowhere close to where we needed to be in order to close the next day.  And suddenly, neither Chastity, nor Jay, would contact us.  No returned e-mails, no calls, nothing.  My clients had already made arrangements to move all of their items to the new house on Friday, the 8th, so they needed to reschedule, but we had no idea when to reschedule TO because neither Jay nor Chastity gave us any info.

I decided to Google Pacific Finance Northwest to see if I could find anything, just for fun…and guess what I found?? Negative reviews.  What a shock!

On the evening of Friday the 8th, after 5pm, when my clients already had to reschedule the movers and book a hotel room for themselves, Jay finally called me back.  I was with my husband and daughter in the car when I took the call, and both were scared by the end of the call and pledged to never make me as angry at them as I was at Jay.  I calmly, but forcefully, told him that the behaviors we were seeing from PFNW were unacceptable.  I also mentioned Chastity’s negative review.  Jay jumped to her defense and said she was one of the best processors they had and that sale in particular was an aberration.  I would have bought that if I had not been experiencing a horrible situation in Jay’s and Chastity’s hands.  To Jay’s credit, he went on to return the clients’ call, knowing they were justifiably furious.

Meanwhile, the listing agent of the house my clients were trying to buy said, “If they would have used your guy in the beginning, this wouldn’t be happening.”  I thought it to myself several times, and my client even emailed me the following after extension number one but before extension number two:

“Ugghhh, I totally understand why it is better to go with someone local now.”

Ultimately, eight days beyond the original closing date, my clients closed on their home.  They love it.  And, like most people, the memory of the extensions and frustrations are buried in the deep recesses of their mind.

Now, delays can happen with a local lender, too.  I am not saying that all local lenders are perfect.  However, the difference is twofold -

1) if the local lender does not respond to a phone call or an e-mail query for help, I can go camp out on his or her office doorstep until I get a reply

2) they have a vested interest in keeping me happy.  I don’t kid myself into thinking I do so much business that a lender would be foolish to screw up a relationship with me because it would be a huge hit to his or her bottom line.  But the lenders and I DO know that I’m a talker.  If a deal goes south and it is the lender’s fault,  I tell my colleagues at the office, who tell their friends in the industry, and pretty soon, that lender has a large PR problem.

Recently, another client asked me about my blog.  He said, “You haven’t written anything since your house story.  I need to know what’s going on in real estate!”  I told him I had a post in my head about why you should always use a local lender.  He’s moving from out of town and he said, “I need to read that!”

So, there you have it.

(Stock image via Shutterstock.com and used under license.)

In the Name of All That is Good and Holy, Use a Local Lender is an article from Tri-Cities real estate agent Cari McGee.

Actually, I think this is the last post on this subject!  Eleven posts and six months later – we’re in our new house!  This last post is about the closing process.

We were involved in what is called a “simultaneous close.”  The house we were selling needed to close in order for the money to buy our new house to be available.  I had complete confidence in our lender, Dan.  I was not as enthused about the lender loaning the money on the home we were selling.  The buyer was using a lender with whom I’ve dealt in the past.  He hadn’t done anything wrong in those transactions, he just wasn’t someone I preferred working with.  Hat’s off to him, though, because when he learned that there was a strict timeline that needed to be followed, he made it work.

My husband and I signed our paperwork to sell and purchase on March 1st.  The new house became officially ours on March 5th.  Fortunately, we had arranged to rent our old house back from the buyer/new owner for a couple days so we could have the time to move out and have it professionally cleaned for her.  We couldn’t begin moving in to the new house until we actually owned it, and we couldn’t own it until we didn’t own the old house any longer.  It was a nutty two days – rushing here and there, making countless drives the two miles between the old and new houses.  Thankfully we had friends who helped us move and we paid them with the traditional pay-back meal of pizza and beer/soda.

Our last night as renters of 5044 Blue Heron (the old house), Matt ran back to leave the garage door openers, a rent check, and pick up a stray item or two.  I was in the new house, organizing and unpacking and shuffling the kids off to bed.  It seemed like he was gone for a very long time.  I wondered what could be keeping him.  I knew he knew the way.  He had five minutes work, max, to do at the old house.  He had his mobile phone with him, so if he had had trouble, he’d have called.  I waited and waited.

Finally, he drove home and told me what had happened.

He’d walked into the place we’d owned for thirteen years.  It was sparkling clean and not a trace of “us” was there.  He said he felt kind of strange, sort of unsettled.  He set the check and the garage door remotes on the china buffet (we’d left it for the new owner), and walked briskly to the bedrooms to make sure everything was gone and the lights were off.  He told me that as he had flipped the light switch in each room, memories flooded over him.  He remembered our son sleeping through the millennial New Year’s Eve party (after all, our boy was only 2 at the time!).  He remembered giving our daughter Albuterol treatments when she was recovering from pneumonia.  He remembered the day his book arrived on our front step from the publisher.  He remembered the extraordinarily hot July 4th when we brought our tiny puppy with huge paws home.  He remembered so many, many things, he actually became choked up and fought back tears.

His story made me realize that a house is so much more than walls and floors and a roof.  Even when no “thing” remains, the memories hover about.

If you’ve read parts 1-11,  thank you!  Any questions about the home buying process?  Please e-mail me, or ask in the comments section.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about this as much as I enjoyed living through it. Yes, it was stressful, but so worth it in the end!

(Stock image via Shutterstock.com. Used under license.)

Building Our New Home, Part 11 is an article from Tri-Cities real estate agent Cari McGee.