#5 – 9740 SE 35th Place, Mercer Island WA  – $6,750,000

#4 – 9627 Lake Washington Blvd. NE, Bellevue WA  – $7,030,000

#3 – 3248 78th Place NE, Medina WA  – $7,250,000

#2 – 6301 NE Windermere Rd., Seattle WA  – $7,999,999

#1 – Undisclosed Address in Seattle, WA  – $9,000,000

Would you like to see your home on this list?  If so, just give me a call and we’ll get it sold right away!

I wanted to throw in a plug for our in-house mortgage consultant who is very knowledgeable and friendly.  The actual house hunting process is a bit more complicated, but at least the financing aspect is pretty easy.  In REALiTY, there are fewer steps since step#8 is just Pete providing buyers with a status update!  Getting a loan has never been easier!

When REALiTY BiTES, Bite back!

The Drop In Housing Prices

For the past few years, real estate values have dropped back to circa 2003 price levels.  Shocking, but certainly not new information to anybody that has a pulse. That means if you purchased a home anytime after 2003, it’s possible that your home value has dropped.  This is just an average, as there are some areas where values have remained higher, and others where they’ve dropped even more.

The light at the end of the tunnel, however, is getting brighter.  In Woodinville, where I live, homes are moving!  I’ve provided some charts below for my specific neighborhood around Cottage Lake, and I’ll try and point out some highlights.

The chart below shows the trending Avg Price/Sqft.
The main takeaway is that the Price/Sqft is starting to climb back up. This is good!

This next chart shows the gap between the Asking Prices and the Sold Prices.
A few things to point out here:

• While the sales prices are still lower than the same time last year, the prices seem to have stabilized a bit and have even increased from last month.
• The Asking Prices also decreased, but the thing to note is the GAP between the Asking and Sales prices. They have narrowed over the past year, which means that sellers are FINALLY realizing that their home values went down. This is HUGE because it affected the market times in a negative way (as seen in the next chart below this one).

The Dangers Of Overpricing Your Home

The chart below shows the Months of Inventory. As I noted above,the larger the GAP between the Asking Price and the Sold Price, the longer the home will sit on the market. Think about it. Buyers seem to know the intrinsic value of a home better than the sellers (because the buyers are IN the market, while sellers are ON the market). When a home is overpriced, it will linger until either the price is reduced or the frustrated seller removes the home from the pool of inventory (cancels the listing). Every day that a home sits on the market, it is considered INVENTORY. Hence, shorter market times lead to less inventory and a more balanced market.

Would you like specific statistics for your neighborhood? Give me a call and I’d be happy to provide them to you. Are you thinking of selling your home? I can help there as well. Let’s chat!

When REALiTY BiTES, bite back!

It’s always a good feeling when a client that I’ve helped has something nice to say about my services.  In the old days, my broker might get a nice letter in the mail from a client letting him know I didn’t screw anything up, and that I should be able to keep my job for at least another day.  Nowadays, the web makes it easier to share those thoughts with the world, both good AND bad.  Fortunately, I haven’t had any bad reviews (knock on wood).

Check out the latest review [Here] I received from a satisfied client on YELP.com!

I also happened to receive an award from Seattle Magazine for my work in 2011.

A big THANK YOU to all who I’ve helped this past year.  If I can help you with a purchase or sale in 2012, give me a call.  Let’s make this a great 2012!

When REALiTY BiTES, bite back!

What’s Green And Can Fit A Body Inside?

a). The Green Lantern’s body suit.
b). One of the pods from the movie “Invasion Of The Body Snatchers”.
c). The latest trend in home building.

Since this Blog is centered around real estate, you’ve probably already guessed that the appropriate answer is C (although A is technically correct and B is half correct since the movie was originally shot in B&W).  Yes, I am referring to a trend that is considered “green” (not the color, but the effort to save our world by changing our lifestyles and taking our environment into consideration).

Could you be a pea in a pod?

The days of the McMansion are coming to an end.  Small is big and Big is small these days.  Pod housing is a growing trend, and for good reason.  Not only is the footprint smaller and more energy efficient, but the manufacturing process can be streamlined, resulting in pre-fabricated kits which can be built quicker and with less waste byproduct.

The biggest hurdle for the supporters of this type of housing, is getting mass consumer acceptance. In other countries, minimalist housing is the norm (see video below).

I’m not sure if I could live in a 300 square foot apartment, but from the video above, it appears that the occupant isn’t sacrificing much!

What do you think? Could you live comfortably in a pod unit?  Leave a comment!

When REALiTY BiTES, bite back!

Money Saving Tips

If you’re like most people these days, the economy has made you think twice before pulling out your wallet for purchases.  Those frivolous purchases that we once indulged in, are now things of the past.  I’ve learned to get by on much less than before, and I’ve found ways to save money while fixing up my home.  Here are a few tips that might help you as well!

Craigslist

I realize this may not be news to you, but I still believe Craigslist is a valuable resource.  When I remodeled my current home, I gutted the interior.  To save on dump fees for my old cabinets, carpeting, bathroom fixtures and nearly everything else, I just “Craigslisted” them. Hmmm, I wonder how long it will be before that becomes an official word in the dictionary? In short, I accomplished 3 goals by using Craigslist:

1. Made money by selling re-usable (and valuable to some folks) goods, and gave away nearly everything else.
2. Helped out the environment by not dumping things that were salvageable.
3. Saved money and multiple trips to the dump by having fewer things to dispose.

I also saved money by scouring Craigslist for things I needed in the home, whether it was materials, or labor.  The best thing about Craigslist is that things are generally low priced and local to your area.  I love Craigslist!

Barter

If you’ve got any skills at all, there are others in your community that might be willing to barter with you. I’m pretty good at working on computers, so many of my friends and colleagues are usually willing to lend a hand in return for my computer help.  If you’ve got a truck, offer to loan it to a friend in return for some manual labor.

Visit Your Local Paint Store

My son worked this past summer at the Sherwin Williams Paint Store near where we live.  He told me that they often have paint that was not color matched properly, or that the customers ordered but ended up not liking.  Rather than waste the paint, the stores will often give it away FREE to customers who ask. I have a little rental home that a previous tenant just vacated, and it needed to be re-painted inside.  Since I really don’t care what the color looks like, it was a no-brainer to stop in and pick up a few gallons for free!  As it turned out, they had a 5 gallon bucket of off-white paint that nobody wanted, so they gave it to me.

Unless you’re really picky about the paint colors in your home, it’s worth a trip to your local paint store.  At $30/Gal or more for some paints, it can be very expensive to paint your walls, and you may be pleasantly surprised at the colors you can find.  One person’s trash is another person’s treasure!

Do you have any cost saving tips that you’d like to share? Leave a comment below!

When REALiTY BiTES, Bite back!

The Chinese people are very superstitious, and every major event brings out incense, firecrackers and other devices to ward off evil spirits.  I remember watching the dragon dances in Chinatown, while plugging my ears to protect them from the loud M80s and firecrackers. The smell of gunpowder (invented by the Chinese) is something that I will never forget!

As we move into 2012, I’m sure that many are hoping for a return to more prosperous times. Below is a link to a news video on Chinese New Year from THV.

2012: Year of The Water Dragon

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

If Only I Could Take That Back!

How many times have you said something and wished afterwards that you could have taken those words back.  Imagine how the outcome could have differed if you had just re-phrased your words.  Sometimes, how you say or write something can be just as important as the meaning you are trying to convey.

I’m reminded of one of my favorite movies starring Bill Murray.  Groundhog Day is the perfect example of how one man could change the outcome just by changing his behavior.  And the best part? He got to do it over and over until he got it right! I can’t even count the number of times I have wished for a “rewind” button in situations where I’ve said the wrong thing at the wrong time.  Usually, my brain works faster than my mouth, but sometimes, the opposite happens and I get into trouble.

My boss shared a short video with me that was touching, and I wanted to pass it on to others as well.  So, in the spirit of sharing, watch this video and see if you can change what you say in future conversations.

Today’s video is a spoof on lending requirements.  Check it out!

Earthquake Forces Conservation

Back in 1989 after the Loma Prieta earthquake in California, my boss, who lived in the Los Gatos hillside was without water for nearly one year.  Every night on his way home, he had to stop and fill dozens of water jugs for drinking, washing dishes and clothes, showering, and flushing toilets.  Those of us living in the lowlands wondered why he and his family didn’t just relocate, but I guess a man’s home is his castle, and he wasn’t giving up without a fight.

If Only He Had This Throne

In 1992, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act which mandated that beginning in 1994, all common flush toilets use only 1.6 gallons per flush.  Since 1994, there have been many iterations of these so-called low flow toilets, many of which were poor implementations.  I’ve had many different low flow designed toilets since then, and in my humble opinion, Toto (from Japan) designs the best toilets!

Looking at this from a purely mathematical standpoint, let’s compute how much water my boss would have saved if he had low flow toilets back in 1989:

Assuming the average person uses the toilet twice per day, that would be 6 flushes in his household each day.

The average water savings from the old style toilets to the low flow toilets is 1.8 gal/flush

Total water savings per day would be 10.8 gal (6 x 1.8 gal)

Total savings for the year would be 3942 gallons

At 8.34 lbs per gallon of water, my boss lifted an additional 32,876 lbs (or 16 tons) during that year.

Of course, he could have gone old school and followed the mantra of “If it’s yellow, let it mellow.  If it’s brown, flush it down”.  Then he might have saved even more…

Maybe Glum Was Right?

If you ever watched Gulliver’s Travels as a child, you undoubtedly remember Glum’s often quoted phrase “It’ll never work”.  Well, just because it does, doesn’t necessarily make it a good idea. Take the Labradoodle. Do we really need another Poodle breed?  How about the Flatulence Deodorizer (patent# 6313371)? What about Animal Ear Protectors (patent# 4233942)?  Maybe the Labradoodle owners can make use of the animal ear protectors!

Here’s a short video of how this toilet/sink works.

I’m all for washing my hands after using the loo, but somehow the thought of actually standing over it to do so just feels downright weird.  I suppose these toilets might be very popular in China or Japan where the homes are very small, but what’s next? Brushing my teeth over the toilet too?  I’m giving this invention a thumbs down.