[photopress:mea_culpa.jpg,thumb,alignright]Looks like I need to get down on bended knee and beg Robbie’s forgiveness, pounding my chest and saying “Mea Culpa!” Robbie, I try and try to give you accurate data, honestly I do. But it just is not always within my power to do so. I am totally stumped on this one.

If anyone out there can help me get the accurate data for Robbie, PLEASE point me in the right direction.

I listed a property in Mount Baker. Checked the tax record and it said “Year built 1900”, so I entered that “data”. This is a “man in the bushes” listing, so I already know who is likely going to buy it. But still, for Robbie’s sake, I would like the data to be accurate. Out of curiosity, I wondered if there were any houses older than this “Grand Olde Dame” of Mount Baker.[photopress:mt_baker.jpg,thumb,alignleft] I did a General Query in the tax database for homes built between 1800 and 1900, and guess what?! Anything OLDER than 1900, shows AS 1900 in the tax records!

So here I am realizing that I put “Year Built 1900” in the mls, and maybe it is really older than that. Of course my first thought is about Robbie and his “Cries Against Lame Data”. Tell me please, what’s a girl to do when the tax records won’t take me back further? So I contact the Title Company and they say they can only do what I did, giving them 1900 also. They then go a step further, and now do know that “the original plat declaration” for that section of Seattle was in 1888. So maybe that tells us that the house was built in that 12 year window, between 1888 and 1900.

Could “the original plat declaration of 1888” be filed AFTER the house was built there? Enquiring minds want to know! Sorry Robbie, I aim to please; and yet again disappoint. MLS has no way to put a “date range” for year built, or “older than” 1900. So 1900 it stays. Though I did try to account for that in the remarks section.

Am I forgiven, or do I end up on “Robbie’s Lame List” with a “lazy agent” dunce cap on my head? Oh well, “Wednesday’s Child is full of Woe”, as the Nursery Rhyme goes. Some days I wish I were born on a Sunday.