Category Archives: Industry Talk

The newbie's assessment: SEA v. CHI summers!

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It’s amazing how when you move thousands of miles away from your comfort zone your life inevitably takes a 360 degree spin. This summer has been breezier and more brisk than I’ve ever experienced, primarily because it was my first Seattle summer and first (of many) away from Chicagoland.

My top 10 list of why Seattle summers significantly trump the Windy City summers (augment the list if you wish!!!):
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1. That’s easy – no humidity, stickiness or blazing heat that makes you feel like your feet will sink right through the molten-like ground.

2. No need to wear tank tops or shorts everyday, if at all.

3. If you live in Seattle you’ll barely, if ever, clamor for an air conditioner (every Chicago-area resident knows that the air conditioner is a summer mainstay if you are to survive).

4. You can haphazardly cross the summer streets without worrying about getting plowed over by erratic cabbies. Shortly after my arrival here, I could not help but be shocked when I realized the immense respect Seattleites have for crosswalks.

5. The constant picturesque views that the amalgamation of the sun, Space Needle, Puget Sound and surrounding lakes provide.

6. No bugs – or barely any. Ever live in Chicago? Pesky mosquitoes are summer bullies that relentless chew you up with no respite. Bugs love the muggy Chicago summers, and they are a constant companion to the blistering heat.

7. Wearing outerwear at night; you definitely won’t require a jacket on a summer evening in Chicago.

8. Coffee chillers are not necessary. Not a big fan of coffee chillers, always like mine piping hot and during summers in Seattle it doesn’t get fiery enough to yearn for a chiller instead of a cappuccino or drip.

9. The seafood is wondrous, though this is not exactly summer specific since this is the Pacific Northwest.

10. The Cabernet Sauvignon tastes so much sweeter when you are not dripping sweat.

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”.

another day of staging…

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Today was a busy day and another one that required a bit of handholding and education. We have been working with a client for several months now as they prepare a home for sale. The house has been a rental for several years and when I saw it in early December it was in not so great condition from a cosmetic standpoint. The former tenants had ruined the carpets in a scant 2 years of renting and there was plenty of cosmetic damage on things such as walls and doors where the teenaged daughters had vented their sibling rivalry.

You wouldn’t believe that this is the same house now.

I failed to take the photos I planned on today but I’ll post some of the “before” and “during” shots here and then I’ll follow those up later this week once we have the professional photographer’s work done. If anyone looks at this post, I’d really appreciate some feedback on whether you think me and the client did a good job. I’ve been offering a higher level of service to listing clients where we provide a lot of things such as professional cleanings, window washing (in & out), yard service, pro photos, and staging. I think it makes a big difference and I’d like to get your opinion too of whether going through this much work is worth it from the consumer’s point of view.

So, here are the beginning photos… stay tuned at the end of the week for the final shots…

front of the home – it needed some pruning, edging and trimming as well as a fresh layout of beauty bark.

Back yard photo – note the shrubs that have grown up high and are making the house look smaller than it is. The house needs plants that are more in keeping with the size and dimension of the home.

The kitchen and its cultured marble counter tops and older wall oven and gas stove top. Most people likely wouldn’t even notice but the stove top is too big for the space. Note how it goes past the fan above and is underneath the cabinet to the left. This is a fire hazard and was fixed when the house was updated for sale.

The living room carpet detail is hard to see here but let’s just say that it wasn’t the cleanest carpet I’ve ever seen. Lots of spots and stains. Underneath are what turned out to be really great oak floors as you can see a portion of them at the left corner of this photo. The floors were refinished prior to going on market this week. They look great and run throughout the length of the home in all bedrooms, hall, dining area and living room.

This is the 3rd bedroom just to give you an idea of how the room looked before since it is the smallest of the 3 regular bedrooms (not including the office that would likely qualify as a bedroom and has been used as such). We had the seller take out his home made bookcase, remove the dirty carpet, old trim and we had new doors installed.

Townhome concerns…

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A prior post talks about shared driveways in old Seattle neighborhoods and another post within the post talks about parking issues with townhomes. I’m waiting for the first lawsuits and haggling to start over these townhomes in the Seattle area that are “zero-lot line”. While I show them to clients as house and condo alternatives I do point out the issues with not having a home owner’s association with reserves. What happens in several years when the whole building needs painting or a new roof and only you have saved money for a rainy day and your other neighbor spends like there’s no tomorrow so he/she has no savings to help pay?

Who’s responsible if a leak starts on your neighbor’s section of the roof but the water travels and penetrates into the structure on your side?

What are the appropriate measures to take to handle complaints such as the parking issue? If there is an easement for each property owner to all the other owners and the easement states that blocking the shared space is not allowed to whom does the aggrieved party complain and what is the possible restitution to that person if the offending party doesn’t quit blocking the shared space?

Another scenario: What if your neighbor decides to paint their part of the building bright purple? Or perhaps they never paint at all and bring down the resale value of your home when you try to sell?

While these types of housing have been decent middle ground options for home buyers that can’t afford some of the single family homes, particularly new construction in the city, and provide an alternative to condo living there are some serious questions and concerns that most buyers haven’t considered. I’m just waiting for the rash of lawsuits that will likely happen when these properties are around their 10th and 20th years of age and they’re in need of major upkeep. My guess is that aggrieved neighbor will sue offending neighbor but maybe there will be a different kind of backlash. Anyone out there in RCG-land got any ideas or thoughts on the subject?

Pine is dying, Urbnlivn get together, SLU delays

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Events

Last Tuesday the POWHat Neighborhood Association hosted the developers of Pine and Belmont so the community could find out more about the controversial project. I was unable to attend though Carl Goodman did and contributed an excellent article to Urbnlivn, Pine + Belmont Condo Development: More Details Revealed. Unfortunately the details are not too promising. The biggest concern being that they will not be replacing the five bars they are displacing over noise concerns even though their target demographic is young singles. Capitol Hill won’t be the same.

I would also like to announce the first ever Urbnlivn meetup. If you’re interested in condos and all things new downtown the date to save is January 31st at 7:30.

Project news

South Lake Union

The biggest news out of Paul Allen’s South Lake Union is that all three projects (Enso, Rollin Street and Veer) have announced delays ranging from one to two months. This is the second set of delays.

They say the reason is delays in securing permits but maybe they are busy with the closing of 2200. It must still be in the midst of closing because 6 more units hit the market.

Trace Lofts

Trace Lofts the ‘mysterious’ project at 12th and Madison announced their reservation process [pdf]. Reminder, there is a preview event this Thursday.

Vertigo

Seattle’s ugliest condo may get a little less ugly. It looks like they are re-painting it.

Condos in the news

The Seattle PI had an article that Downtown mostly a male domain. Meanwhile the Seattle Times wonders if Mixed-use buildings bring mixed feelings. On the other hand the New York Times tells of the condo bubble elsewhere in the nation, Buyers Scarce, Many Condos Are for Rent. If any condo project here converts to rentals, my money is on Trio.

Condos off to a busy start

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(Editor’s Note: Today is another great day as I get to introduce Matt Goyer as the newest contributor to RCG. I’ve been following Matt’s Urbnlivn website for quite a while and I’ve always been impressed. With urbnlivn, Matt has managed to collect, organize and republish an incredible amount of local condo knowledge. However, if you decide you need more than condo information from Matt, then check out his personal blog, his more general real estate blog, or his contributions on the Redfin’s blog. While I don’t want to pigeonhole Matt into only talking condos, our current plan is to have him synthesize the great condo research he does on Urbanlivn and bring it to RCG on a regular basis. Matt can be reached at mail *at* mattgoyer *dot* com or by leaving a comment below!)

Relative to all of December it was a busy week this past week for new condo construction in Seattle. What made the first week of the new year so busy was three new events on the calendar and lots of action on the MLS.

Three new events

January 9 at 7pm, the POWHat, a community association, is hosting a discussion about proposed condo on Pine. This is the development that started the death of Pine/Pike meme and has been written about in The Stranger, The Seattle Weekly as well as The Seattle PI. Written about not because the developers paid to get in the Saturday New Homes section but written about because it is replacing the independent bars and restaurants which the condo’s marketing people love to tout as the reason why you should move to Capitol Hill. So I’m looking forward to seeing what is replacing the Cha-Cha, Bimbo’s Burritos, the Bus Stop, and Kincora because without those four institutions it’s going to be hard to market this project.

January 18 at at 6pm, Trace Lofts will host their buyers preview. We’re all looking forward to unraveling the mystery that is Trace Lofts. At least no one is upset about this development, yet.

January 19 at 5pm is Decatur Condominiums grand opening gala. Decatur is a conversion originally designed by the Space Needle’s architect. Now the invitation doesn’t mention whether this gala will be black tie or not. I’m assuming no since, I don’t own a tux and the units are supposedly all under $500,000 (people who make less than six figures likely don’t down their own tuxes, right?).

Active week on the MLS

At the beginning of last year most new condo developments shied away from the MLS. But then in the fall as the market slowed more developments listed their inventory hoping to attract more attention. Then towards then end of the year we started seeing price reductions and buyers bonuses; presumably to move inventory before year end. Now that the new year has started prices are increasing and I’m sure we’ll see fewer buyer bonuses.

To start us off, Noma first increased the prices on the 3 units it had on the MLS and then listed the rest of their inventory which is 19 units. They now have 22 listings on the MLS ranging in price from $222,950 to $539,950. I imagine they’re a little frustrated watching Canal’s success.

Olive 8, the development which added 3 floors, had 10 price increases ranging from $20,000 to $50,000. What is odd is that the increases range from 1.5% to 5% and seem fairly random.

9 units from Press 2 were listed. Press is a two phase development originally built as apartments. The first phase was an occupied apartment and has since been converted, phase two was never occupied and renovated.

4 units from Trio came online. Trio is unarguably Seattle’s biggest condo failure with only 28 units sold of 113 in over a year. Glad to see they’re coming to their senses and making their units more accessible to all the users of the MLS. Hopefully this gets them a little more attention in the New Year.

If you’re interested in following the day to day activity in the Seattle condo market be sure to check out Urbnlivn or check back here next week for my weekly updates.

Popcorn ceiling removal

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popcornI really would like as much info as anyone may have about removing popcorn ceilings. Whomever invented those things should be drawn and quartered. Also called “cottage cheese” ceilings. I think they look more like large curd cottage cheese than popcorn.

1) How have you tested for asbestos before removing?

2) Any step by steps of the process appreciated

3) If anyone in the Seattle area has had them professionally removed, who did it and can you break down the cost per square foot? I assume without asbestos is cheaper to remove than with asbestos. Is there a cost per square foot?

Anyone know why they were popular? Anyone still like them, and if so, why?

Been Some Time — New Identity Theft Tactics

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I received an e-mail from our credit resource company explaining a new tactic that people are using to steal your identity.

The scam has to do with Jury Duty. The article talks about people that are receiving calls from people that claim to be court officials or a jury coordinator and ask them why they did not show up for their jury duty. The caller than explains that an arrest warrant has been issued because you didn’t show up.


The article also says that if you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Sometimes they even ask for credit card numbers. Give out any of this information and bingo! Your identity just got stolen.

They have reported this activity in 11 states so far and say that this scam is particularly insidious because the callers uses intimidation and bullies people into giving them their information.

Buyer Tip – Successful Negotiation of the Home Inspection

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You can ask for the moon in Phase 1 of the inspection contingency. But if the seller’s response to that is less than satisfactory, you need to get specific in your response to the seller’s response.

Let’s say you give the seller a big laundry list of “stuff” that is “wrong” with the house under Phase 1. of the Inspection Contingency.

Seller comes back in Phase 2. offering to fix only one of those things.

To be successful at getting more than that in Phase 3, you should go back with a very specific, and pretty much final request, such as:

I will buy the home “as is” with regard to all times noted in the inspection if the price is reduced from $514,000 to $512,000.” Or “I will buy the home “as is” with regard to all other items noted in the inspection contingency IF Items #2, 7 and 9 are repaired prior to closing and receipts for those repairs are delivered at closing with at least a 30 day warranty on those repairs”. There are many and better ways to state this, but be specific about what you want the seller to actually DO when you get to the final round.

The long winded version is on my blog. Trying to cut down on the verbiage over here. I tend to “overstate my case” to put it kindly, which results in blog-clog 🙂

And don’t forget…as with any negotiation…timing is everything.