As her husband, I’ve let Anna know that she is not to be influenced by this real estate agent! 🙂
Here’s the story:
The display of one Realtor’s assets draws attention in Belmont Shore.
And here’s the logic:
“It’s kind of flipped people out,” said Heath, who reported receiving almost as many calls from Realtors upset with the ad as those voicing support. “A couple of agents are having a fit about it, but that’s because they just didn’t think of it first.”
My opinion? Go Wendy!
The Seattle PI had an article today describing how things are definitely picking up at the local Boeing facilities around the Puget Sound. This paragraph sums it up pretty well:
The company plans to open a second production line in Renton that will push output there to a record 31 planes a month. It is also requiring some 777 workers in Everett to work overtime and will replace a key executive there amid a series of production problems before it boosts output of that twin-aisle jetliner as well.
None of this comes as a surprise to me as I’ve been noticing a substantial increase in people who looking to move to the area related to Boeing jobs. In addition, some of the housing message boards such as craigslist and trip advisor seem to have a lot more questions about good places to live for people whose jobs are relocating to Everett and/or relocating to Renton.
For home owners, any sustained expansion of jobs to the region is great news and I’m of the opinion that job growth plays a larger role in keeping home prices high than any change in interest rates! The success of the tech industry (Microsoft, Amazon, etc) in the area has done wonders for our home values and with the additional growth from Boeing, the future looks real good for Seattle-area home owners.
I had a brainstorming session with a mortgage broker this afternoon and we discussed all kinds of potential uses for generating leads on the web. I mentioned that I would be interested in having guest bloggers on my site who could give opinions on their particular area of expertise. Considering I haven’t held back in giving mortgage advice, I should at least let mortgage brokers get a word or two in.
My plan is to give a forum for real estate experts (mortgage brokers, title company representatives, contractors, etc.) to post articles (“blog entries”) on a semi-regular basis. If you fit into the “real estate” industry and would be interested in posting an article every once in a while, then email me with some of your ideas and I’ll create a username/password so that you can begin.
My requirements for posting articles are simple:
1) Post informative articles. Post that simply advertise your service won’t cut it. For example, from mortgage brokers I would like to see articles that are about current events or explanations (in plain english) of mortgage terms. Like why did the long-term interest rates go down right after the Feds recently raised the prime interest rates a quarter of a point? (I’ve got lots of other ideas, if you need some, just ask me!)
2) Work in the Seattle Area.
The main benefit of blogging on my site is that you can get increased exposure without having to build a blog of your own. (I’m starting to generate a significant amount of traffic and the site is only two months old!) Maybe you’ll find that you like blogging so much, you’ll start your own at some point in the future. Either way, you are welcome to test out the technology on my site if you are willing to add good content!
On this timeline of all things google maps, I found a great application that lets you view live Seattle-area traffic data over google maps:
Seattle Traffic
For other cities, use this link:
Google Traffic
In addition to gHomes, some of the things that I thought were missing from the timeline include:
Both of these are awesome applications that are pushing the boundaries of making google maps easy and useful! Mygmaps is great in that it gives an easy to use interface for publishing your own information on Google Maps while dasnet is amazing in that someone is able to take tiles (from Microsoft’s terraserver) and post them in place of the gmaps times. Considering gmaps has the great interface, and terraserver has better quality aerials, this is a great service for all of us who love having high quality aerials at our fingertips.
[photopress:donald_playing_guitar.jpg,thumb,alignright]I had a long discussion with my grandfather this past weekend regarding the utility of full-service realtors. He’s been around quite a while, so I have no intention of dismissing his opinion on anything. Especially considering that he’s been an investor in real estate for most of his life.
He point blank asked me why anyone would use anything other than a discount broker to sell their home. He mentioned that on a typical home sale, they could easily save you a couple thousand dollars in commissions. He mentioned that if he had to sell a house, he would list with a discount broker, price it a little higher than he would be willing to accept and then negotiate to an appropriate price. For him, this strategy comes right out of a Capitalism 101 course that we all learn along the path of life… And then today, CNN mentions a related issue in one of their top stories:
The article discusses how some discount brokers are complaining that they are not getting access to the multiple listing service (MLS). I know nothing about the background of this story, but I do have an opinion on discount brokers.
My take on using a discount broker?
Discount brokers play an important role in keeping full-service real estate agents on their toes and are definitely here to stay. For some people, a discount brokerage makes a lot of sense, and will get them a fair price for their home. However, a typical discount brokerage is not going to provide the value added services that can potentially raise the value of a home substantially. What are you missing out on by using a discount firm?
In the end, if you are using an agent who is just rolling through the motions, then you may do just as well to use a discount broker and sell your home yourself. However, if you find an exceptional agent, you will inevitably find that the work that they are doing and their stored up knowledge about the local market conditions will allow your home to sell for substantially more money.
Are you looking for some background information on the Seattle area? Maybe you are moving to Seattle or just want to find out more about a local neighborhoods? You could do much worse than Wikipedia.org where they have entries on all the major aspects of Seattle. Entries include the local economy, culture, polities and neighborhoods (among many other entries!). Currently, the neighborhoods with entries that are pretty comprehensive include:
Also, another group has put a Seattle Wiki together that is much more specific to the area and might be of interest to some. However, as of today, the entries are not nearly as complete as the general Wiki…
What is a Wiki?
Essentially a Wiki is a user-updated on-line encyclopedia. The sheer volume of entries and the fact that anyone can update it are both its strongest and its weakest points. There is a massive amount of interesting articles, but the editors (me and you!) are often a little biased!
Both the Seattle Times and the PI have articles today about the continual high growth in home prices in the area:
I like this quote where Elizabeth Rhodes speculates about a possible housing bubble:
Fuel for speculation of a housing bubble — but not proof of one — increased yesterday on a report that strong buyer demand has pushed Central Puget Sound prices up 10 percent or more over last spring’s already high numbers.
I’m of the opinion that demand for homes in quality urban neighborhoods is here to stay, and while that doesn’t mean the high growth in values will last forever (it won’t), I think the high prices will…
Wired News has an timely article regarding on the real estate industry and provided some examples of situations where professionals (not limited to real estate agents) might not have your best interests in mind. I think they could have taken their limited analysis of “real estate information” a step further. In reality, there is so much real estate information that gets locked up in proprietary databases at the expense of the consumer. And to add insult to injury, even this locked up data is riddled with errors.
“Information can be a beacon, or information can be a cudgel; it depends on who wields it and how. In any transaction, it’s common for one party to have better information than the other. In the parlance of economists, this is information asymmetry. There’s value in asymmetry; it’s the reason why someone, such as a consumer, will pay someone else, an expert, for his knowledge.
Of course, sometimes an expert might manipulate his advantage for his own benefit. If your doctor suggests that you have an angioplasty – even though current research suggests that angioplasty often does little to prevent heart attacks – your first thought won’t likely be that the doctor is using his informational advantage to make a few thousand dollars for himself or his buddy”
While I can’t change the industry overnight, I’m trying to do my small part with gHomes by opening up the data and presenting it in a useful way for my potential clients. Just like most industries, the real estate industry lives and dies by references and referrals. By providing the best possible information and service to my clients, I think I will more than earn my commission (and their future referrals).
In my continual quest to give my clients better and more useful real estate information, I’m experimenting with posting the home sale data over Google Maps and I’ve finally got an alpha version ready for limited public consumption. There are no forms to fill out or hoops to jump through, all you have to do is click on this link:
http://www.RainCityGuide.com/gHomes/
Some notes on the the project:
Other great google mapping sites include:
Improvements I’d like to make:
Thank you Louis, Ken, Phil and Paul for your help and inspiration!
Of course, if you are interested in seeing any of these homes (in person!), just let me know! Enjoy!
[photopress:wroll07.jpg,thumb,alignright]I just found a nifty tool on the Washington State Department of Transportation’s website that allows you to calculate your commute time if you live in the Seattle area. If you are interested in how long it should take you to get to/from work from your potential new home, this will give you a pretty good feel of how long it will take to drive!
This got me thinking about all kinds of commute-related issues for Seattle area residents. Here is some of the commute-related info I dug up:
Trip Planner
For comparison purposes, King County Metro’s Trip Planner allows you to estimate how long it will take to commute via transit. Not only that, but the trip planner site will also tell you what routes to take!
Commute Costs
Finally, Metro also provides a commuting cost calculator that allows you to estimate the cost of driving vs the cost of commuting via transit. Of course, the calculator is biased toward convincing you to take transit, but it is none the less interesting to see all the costs of commuting.
The Future of Commuting to Downtown Seattle
My recomendation? If you are thinking of relocating to Seattle for work (and you are going to be working Downtown) then make sure that there is a convinient transit line that will get you to downtown. The daily grind of sitting in Seattle traffic will likely wear you down. Especially as traffic conditions in Downtown Seattle are likely to get much worse before they get better.
Why do I think traffic going to get worse before it gets better? There are a bunch of plans in the future to improve the transportation network in Seattle. Ten years out, things should be much improved. But until then:
(Dustin’s bias: As an employee of DKS Associates, I’ve been paid to do transportation consulting for three of these five projects)
Am I missing something?
The good news is that a lot of money was just allocated to pay for some of these improvements, so while there will be some down time in the near future, the long-term prospects look very good for Downtown Seattle!