Monthly Archives: March 2007

Real Estate Blogs That Answer Questions

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[photopress:Blog_Cola.gif,thumb,alignright] Searching for answers to your Real Estate Questions? Here are a few tips to make finding answers a little easier and more productive.

Try to read blogs that are written by real estate professionals who are licensed in your State, or at least in an area with similar agency laws. Instead of Googling all night to find a blog what just happens to go into detail about the topic you want to know more about, find Real Estate Blogs That Answer Questions. Ask a direct question in the comments section of several blogs, and remember to bookmark them to go back and retrieve the answers.

Of course here at Rain City Guide, rarely does a question go unanswered. We are very attentive to comments and try to answer questions best we can. Unfortunately, Real Estate is one of the few professional arenas that does not permit getting second opinions. If your doctor wants to cut something off or out of you, you get to go get a second opinion from another doctor. But Realtors, by their Code of Ethics, are not permitted to give advices if you are the client of another Realtor. So if you ask a question like: “My agent told me this, but I want your opinion”, there’s a strong possibility that the Blogger will not be able to contradict the advices of your agent.

That being said, let’s find some Real Estate Blogs, besides Rain City Guide, that answer real estate questions. If you are in New York City, it is very difficult for you to get info from blogs that are not written by agents who operate there, because NYC is unto itself regarding the rules of play in real estate. Mainly because the contracts and closings are attorney based, they have no MLS system AND they don’t have Buyer Agency. So for New Yorkers, Best Real Estate Blog that answers questions is: Noah Rosenblatt’s Urban Digs (he even has a live chat feature). Curbed is a popular NYC site, but it looks like your questions will be answered by other readers, for the most part. Christine Forgione’s NYHouses4Sale doesn’t seem to get many questions, but I’m pretty sure she’d answer them if she did. So give her a try.

Where are the California Blogs that talk back? You’ve got Kris and Steve Berg down in San Diego. You’ve got Kevin Boer in the Bay Area You would think with a State as big as California, you would have a slew of good blogs. I see a few people blogging away, but they are just blogging at you like a flashing billboard. Luring the search engines and not allowing comments, or just plain old selling and not providing real info. Oh well. Maybe someone out there has some suggestions that will show up in the comments.

Of course Arizona is just crawling with blog talent. You’ve got BloodhoundBlog where you can pick who you want advices from, but if it’s Arizona real estate you want to talk about, I’d be asking Cathleen. Todd Tarson is so up front and out there, he’d probably tell you what color underwear he has on if you asked him. If I had real questions about real estate in Mohave County, Arizona I’d be talking to Todd on his blog.

Charles Turner’s doing a decent job over in Portland. When he gets a comment, he answers honestly and openly. Teresa Boardman’s blog in St. Paul Minnesota is good, but the comments seem to be a bunch of agents talking to agents, and not much from consumers. If you are buying or selling real estate in St. Paul, try asking off topic questions on any of Teresa’s posts. I’m sure you’d get a good answer. Here’s a great blog of bloggers talking to other bloggers. Who is Tom? What does Tom do? I’m stretching a bit with Francis Flynn Thorsen’s Realty Gram, but throw some questions at her and I think the answers would come.

In fact, if you are in a state where there are real estate blogs that aren’t answering consumer issues and questions, I strongly encourage you to just start asking those questions. You can help develop more Real Estate Blogs That Answer Questions, simply by ASKING some questions on any blog that you can find. Maybe they will get the point that “Enquiring Minds Want to Know”.

425 Eastside Magazine

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[photopress:425cover.jpg,full,alignright] I picked up a copy of this magazine and it seems to be more ads than info, but then so is Vogue and In Style. 

Not exactly new news, as it appears this publication launched back in November.  But my sources tell me that people are streaming into Borders in Redmond looking for it, so here’s the online version via the link.  I got my copy at the 7 Eleven at 6th and Central/85th in Kirkland, if anyone’s looking for it.

Spring 2007 Edition says “2nd printing”.  Anyone know where I can get the first one?

Belltown-Denny Regrade (or things we couldn't do today)

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If you’ve ever wondered what Seattle looked like right at the beginning, there’s a great short history of Seattle’s Belltown-Denny Regrade at HistoryLink.org. The article describes the massive earth moving project, the resulting fill project, and the city’s first of dozens of voted down mass transit projects (this one in 1912). Check out the original plans for the civic center – amazing!

Mercer Island would have made a beautiful park.

Trends – New Construction & Remodel Finishes

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I view trends more from the standpoint of how people who are buying homes view the trends, moreso than how people who actually live in their homes view them.

“The carpet that “has become extremely popular of the last few years is the Textured or Frieze style. It is also referred to as the ‘trackless’ or ‘no foot print’ style. This style is very good at hiding traffic and doesn’t show vacuum lines. A Frieze is a lot like the Textured style except that the twist is much heaver with the Frieze. A good quality Frieze styled carpet can be one of the most durable styles you can buy and holds up extremely well under heavy traffic.”

[photopress:textured_1_2.jpg,full,alignright]I took the quoted language from a carpet site, to show the difference between Texured and Frieze. They look about the same to me. One thing I have noticed is that on bare feet, some feel terrible and stiff and others feel great. You may want to give it a bare foot test both on the carpet sample at the store and then again when the carpet arrives before it is installed. One of the advantages of viewing homes with bare feet and slip on shoes. Doesn’t look as professional I guess, but I pick up a lot more imperfections in the flooring with bare feet.

Along with this trend comes darker carpet colors in sage green and brown tones, or at least a darker beige. No more black dirt borders around the edges. I for one am happy with this trend, but remember to keep the walls light if you are going with darker carpet. You can still use sage green paint with a darker sage carpet, but keep it light with only an accent wall in the darker color and the rest of the room in a lighter version. I find adding white paint to the darker one keeps the same color tone, better than playing with all the paint chips trying to match the light with the dark. From what I’ve seen in some homes, not everyone has a “good eye” for matching tone, so adding white cuts down on the error factor.

Hardwood floors are more popular than ever. People talk more about bamboo for the “green” factor, but I SEE more wood than bamboo. Newer townhomes are using a lot of Brazilian Cherry, shifting from narrow plank to wide plank recently, and in the darker version. I’m looking at the thicker version myself, but the thinner pre-finished version, that can only be refinished lightly once or twice, is what I see most in newer townhomes in Seattle.

My favorite subject is knobs! and handles. And here we see a big change. Nothing changes the look of a kitchen and bath more cheaply than changing out the cabinet hardware.

If you have these white ceramic knobs,[photopress:white_knob.jpg,full,alignleft]

a quick change out to brushed nickel or stainless knobs [photopress:kn.jpg,full,alignright]does the trick.

I just sold a condo with the white knobs, and will probably give him all of my brushed nickel knobs, because while I was looking at knobs for this article, I found this great one!! [photopress:glass_knob.jpg,full,alignleft] Anyone who has been to my house will know why 🙂

But the really big news is in the two hole pull vs. the knob.Anyone who has anything that looks like this: [photopress:out.jpg,full,alignright] in gold or brass or even in brushed nickel,

there is a big change to this round extended bar style, either in stainless steel or brushed nickel [photopress:in.jpg,full,alignright]

Do YOU have a durable power of attorney?

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So, I haven’t been on RCG for a while because I am gone from Seattle to Wichita, KS where I and my siblings are on hospital watch. My parents were hit by a drunk driver on Monday night and so I caught a flight here immediately since both of them were in the hospital with injuries. My dad has a brain injury and has been unconscious for several days now. For anyone that is interested in reading my blogs about the experience feel free to do so at this link: http://blog.myspace.com/teamreba
When I’m working with clients there are always situations that come up where we have to deal with difficult circumstances. My partner, Michael, and I frequently ask our clients if they have a durable power of attorney. Typically we make it for a specific property based on the transaction and usually the title company has to approve the POA to insure the purchase. Sometimes the POA is put in place under in the context of just making sure we are able to get signatures if there is a spouse or partner that travels a lot or an out of country trip is planned that would make it difficult to get notices or addendums signed. I’ve used these when I have siblings in multiple states as well who are buying or selling property.

Thankfully my parents did put together POA’s about 4 years ago. My mother is a REALTOR(R) in Wichita and my dad works with her as a licensed agent. They also own several rental properties and they had just received mutual acceptance on an offer for one the day they got in the accident.  My mother is conscious, although on pain medication for her broken bones, and she is aware enough that she knows what is going on and can sign things for herself. However, while I am my dad’s medical POA one of my siblings is his financial POA.  I’ll likely have my sister sign for my dad just so there is no question about mental faculties with my mom when the additional paperwork for this transaction is turned in.

It’s been a relief for me (and I think my mom too) to be able to come in and help out with her business while she and dad are in the hospital. I can’t practice real estate agency in Kansas but I have contacted some other agents that know my mom (she’s been an agent 20 years) and they’ll help with any items that require licensing and I’ll be a knowledgeable “gopher”. This also relieves stress from my siblings who may not know what they should do for her contracts and listings. I hadn’t really considered I’d have to help out in this way, but I sure am glad that I can.  It helps to also give me something else to think about rather than my dad in ICU.

My comments to all that read RCG is that if you don’t have a durable power of attorney for your personal affairs you really should do it and the sooner the better. You never know when a truck will slam into you and render you unconscious and you’ll need help with your medical and personal affairs such as paying bills. We stress this kind of long term planning to pretty much all of our clients and we host a client event every year that covers things like this to prevent more cases like Terry Schiavo. I hope you’ll consider it and go do it soon yourself.

Content is King!

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I have always said content is king, especially in the Web 2.0 world.  Without content, you are not only invisible to the ‘net, you are also meaningless.  No matter how significant of technology you possess.  This was never more apparent then the time we launched our first mapping application a couple generations ago (that is August of ’05 in Internet time).

[photopress:streetadvisorlogo.jpg,thumb,alignright]A company that will win or loose depending on their content launched Yesterday morning. Melbourne, Australia based company Streetadvisor.com launched their site and lets people comment on, and find information about, streets in their neighborhood. 

What a great idea!  Since back in the day, I have always wanted to create what I feel would be the perfect real estate site.  This site would not only list hosues for sale and sold (like every other site), but would also have neighborhood information.  The perfect site would essentially be to houses what vehix is to cars.

StreetAdvisor is the easy way to find out what people REALLY think about the street they live in.  They ask many of the questions I would want answered before I moved in to a new neighborhood.

  • “If only I knew what my street was like before I bought the house!”
  • “I wish there was a way to ask my neighbors a question, but I’m just too busy to see them.”
  • “I like my house, but my street is so noisy!”
  • “My neighbor’s dog is always barking” (I added that one)

I know Shackprices has something similar to this under their Shack Neighborhoods.

5 Steps for Shopping Mortgage Interest Rates

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[photopress:693_kick_tire.jpg,thumb,alignright]What?  I’m writing about something I don’t agree with in principle?  True.  I think that many people are spinning their perfectly good wheels in order to try to find a rate they cannot have unless they’re prepared to lock at the precise moment they are shopping.  But, the practice of rate shopping and kicking the tires of Loan Originators appears to be a necessary evil in the mortgage process. 

Here’s my advice, if you feel you must shop rates.

Step 1:  Contact at least three different people you trust financially and ask for referrals.   I suggest family members, friends, co-workers, your real estate agent, CPA, Financial Planner, etc.   Ask your sources what they liked and did not like about their Loan Originator.   Gather their contact information and visit their web sites and blogs, if they have one.  

Step 2:  Prepare your personal financial story.  You’ll need to retell the exact scenario to each Loan Originator so they can each provide you a rate based on the same information.   If you just want to see how skinny someone will quote a rate to you, you can make up a vanilla story of “I’m putting 20% down on a $500,000 house.  My mid credit score is 700 and I would like a 30 year fixed rate with no origination or discount points, please.  I would like the loan priced with a 30 day lock

Neighborhood Roundup: Breaking the Espresso Rut

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Creating the list of active neighborhood blogs was only the first step in my grand vision… (or is it Greg that has the grand neighborhood vision?) Okay… Maybe there is no grand plan, but I thought it would be fun to give a roundup of recent neighborhood posts…

The West Seattle Blog has turned to Cafe Rozella to break out of an espresso rut and is “really impressed”.

Dave at the Learning from Lake City expanded my skatepark world view considerably… Skatedots? Skatepots? Districts? Regionals? Who knew?

Georgetown Stew highlights a scam where people are not only taking advantage of day laborers, but it gets worse…

Not only are some folks in South Park being stiffed out of their wages, the employer(s) are apparently asking the workers for their home address, with the promise that a paycheck will arrive in the mail. And then the surprise arrives. Not a check, but officers from Immigration & Naturalization show up.

Beach Drive gives us a beautiful photo of a brave soul on the Sound…

Linked a day too soon to the Outer Limits blog… Ericka announced that she was moving on (thanks to a job!) and looking for a replacement…

The Miller Park Neighborhood Association blog is looking to get people out at an upcoming (March 28th) Sound Transit meeting to show support for lightrail on the eastside…

The Kirkland Weblog highlighted a great new photo blog out of Kirkland… The idea (as I understand it) is that the author of Kirkland 52 is planning to post photos of Kirkland once a week over the next year.

The Capitol Hill Seattle blog indulges their love of maps with an interesting map of voter patterns on the Viaduct Replacement. (PI Article)

The Belltown Bent highlights an award given by a Harvard Group to Weiss/Manfredi Architects for their work on the Olympic Sculpture Park.

Ballard Avenue wallows a bit in the transportation history of Ballard… I think the photo makes the post.