Category Archives: Seattle Community Guide

Historic Snohomish Homes glow in winter wonder.

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Some of the many  Historic Snohomish Homes are oriented on wide tree-lined streets and remind me of growing up in the Capitol Hill neighborhoods very near St. Joe’s school, Stevens Elementary School and Holy Names Academy.   Some of the larger historic homes of Snohomish share similar architecture, classic lines and warmth that is accentuated when under the soft blanket of our local snowy weather.

I brought the camera to work this morning to hopefully capture some scenery (or crazy drivers) while coming to work and on my way home.  These are very amateur photos, but I tried.  Enjoy.

This photo above does not show it well, but there is a large wooden placard hanging under the front porch gable that reads, “Merry Christmas.”  It must be about 8 ft wide.  If you click the photos you might see it better.

Classic.  Gorgeous wrap-around radius deck and historical colors, probably from the Benjamin Moore palette paint line.   A wonderful treat to see a full Christmas Tree in the upper 2nd floor porch/deck.  Tremendous detail on this historic home, much of the 2nd floor shows wonderful wood work, pillars and dentil molding.  (Boy, I wish Snohomish had a lumber store similar to Seattle’s old Blackstock Lumber.   I’d probably be broke buying up all that clear VG Fir moldings)  Much is blocked from the trees, but who’s complaining?  Not me.

These homes are a lot to take care of and maintain, but there is nothing like them.

Snohomish river looking from park in downtown Snohomish towards the east.  Just weeks ago, this river was raging and near flood stage.   In years past, the flooding of this river would rise to levels above the bank, which is several feet high and cover those bolted down picnic benches.

Seadragon – Microsoft iPhone App

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Microsoft Seadragon iPhone App

Microsoft Seadragon iPhone App

“Seadragon Mobile comes with around 50 sample images that users can play with and Photosynth users will also be able to browse their synths, in 2D at least.”

See more at The Boy Genius…which is a very good site to add to your daily read.

Read more on Seadragon at the Micrsoft Live Labs site.

Follow President-Elect Obama's Journey

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Follow the amazing journey of how this man came to where he is today using Google Maps. This should be every school child’s assignment to day when they go to history class. Then for bonus points they should look up their home in Google Maps Street View, since they added Seattle as of yesterday!

Google Maps – Barak Obama’s Journey

Barack Obamas Journey

Barack Obama's Journey


Twitter is AMAZING

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Over this past week, I’ve had the misfortune dealing with cable (Comcast) being down and just today, my email being out (an issue with Network Solutions).   Both times, I vented with 140 characters (or less) on Twitter.  Of course, I had to use my Treo to whine about Comcast.  But what happened in both cases really surprises me.   Apparently these big corporations have their own “David G’s” out there with their own Twitter profiles and alerts set up to address issues brought up on the internet.

Here’s my Tweet:

pulling out my hair…network solutions email seems to be down…argh! No emails for me.

And the response I received minutes later.

netsolcares @mortgageporter Hi this is Gerry from Network Solutions. I’m sorry your having issues. If you’d like to contact me I’ll see what we can do

I just got off the phone (after holding for over 11 minutes) with Gerry @ Network Solutions and they narrowed down what my issue was (too technical for me to explain) and the good news is, everything is back up and working.   And it’s the weekend.  I’m amazed.

The Comcast response and issue was very similar.   A “tweet” from me saying Comcast is out…no email or internet and this reply from “Comcast Scott” within moments

comcastscott @mortgageporter how often has this been happening? Can we help

Along with this one

comcastcares@mortgageporter Keep us updated

and

comcastscott @mortgageporter glad to help! Keep those tweets coming

By the way, if you have Twitter and you find your Comcast or Network Solutions services not working, you can always tweet these fella’s…they react quickly.  I am impressed and would have never pictured large corporations utilizing social networking this way.

So for all of you who are not utilizing Twitter because you think it’s a fad, I encourage you to check it out.  It is what ever you make it.  I’ve found it to be real useful for communicating what I doing during the day, like providing live rate quotes, in a consultation, writing a blog post, etc.  And I’ll post something “non-business” every once in a while like what I’m cooking up for dinner.

If you do sign up (it’s free and easy to do) please “follow me” or at very least, send me a tweet!

Mr Monk Buys a House

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Mr Monk

Mr. Monk returns to TV with a premiere episode this Friday, July 18th. This one will be near a dear to our hearts. He’s going to buy a house! That’s right. Here is your most OCD client in a life-imitates-art drama.

When his new neighbor plays his music too loud, Monk decides it’s time to move. He makes the big leap and buys a house that turns into a money pit, reminiscent of the 1986 movie that we agents like to give to first-time buyers who think they are ready for a fixer-upper. Things continue to challenge Adrian when he hires the handyman from hell who is determined to rip up the entire house. Brad Garrett form Everybody Loves Raymond guest stars.

Mr Monk Buys a House - trailer
Episode Trailer

Most of us agents have had clients like this to some degree and I’m sure there will be a number of been-there-experienced-that moments. I just wanted to make sure those who didn’t know have a chance to TiVo or whatever to see it.

Rain City Radio: A West Seattle Story

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I really enjoyed today’s conversation with Tracy Records of the West Seattle Blog.  Tracy shared a ton of great stories with us and I learned a ton…

Click here to listen to the entire interview!

And below are some links to some of the things we discussed:

We covered a lot of great topics in the interview including her perspective on the elements of the media that has fundamentally changed.  As someone with 25 years experience in the traditional media space AND a successful local blogger, her perspective was fascinating!

Click here to listen to the entire interview!

*Note: If you’re wondering why this post looks different then when it was originally published, I didn’t like the outline that I originally provided, so I changed it around a bunch.

Pocket Listings in Seattle?

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I was a meeting this weekend with an agent in Southern California where he showed me a website he says he visits a couple times a week.   A competitor had built up a large repository of “pocket listings” for the Beverly Hills area and then stuck them behind a registration wall… of which he visited regularly.

Being a Rain City Guide kinda guy, I’m not keen to put things behind registration, but I am fascinated by the idea of putting together a page of pocket listings as a resource for Seattle area agents and consumers.  If you’re an agent who serves any area supported by the NWMLS and you’d like to advertise a pocket listing on RCG, let me know in the comment below.

If I get 5 or more pocket listings in the comment section of this post in the near future, then I’ll assume there really is demand for such a tool in the Seattle area and I’ll start up a new page (right between “About RCG” and “Seattle Agent Recommendations”) for pocket listings.

Here’s the only information I need from you:

  • Neighborhood
  • One to two sentence description of the listing
  • Contact information (name & phone)

For obvious reasons, I’m assuming that most agents won’t want to list the address of the pocket listing, but if you want to include that information as well, all the better.  And just to be clear, this is a free service of RCG.   Assuming it becomes a lot of work, I may charge a nominal fee to cover my time and/or automate the system, but I honestly don’t see that happening in the near future.

Are there rules for getting your pocket listing on RCG? Most definitely!   But I don’t even know what they are yet.   However, I will definitely figure out some rules if people start abusing the system.    Some potential rules that come to mind: (1)  Only allow agents to list their top 3 pocket listings, (2) must let me know if a pocket listing gets listed on the MLS and/or (3) must let me know if a pocket listing is no longer available. But even those rules aren’t hard-and-fast yet until I get some feedback from the community.

So, if you are an agent intersted in getting some additional exposure for your pocket listings, let me know!

Barclays North: "It's a matter of cash flow"

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Snohomish County real estate land developer Barclays North is shutting down.

Back in April, CEO Patrick McCourt went public with their financial problems.

Everett-based developer Barclays North has struggled since late last year to repay loans from nearly 100 banks and other lenders, according to court documents. Company officials said in court papers in January that Barclays North and its many affiliates were in default with at least 56 lenders, though most had agreed to hold off any action until the end of March…

“What got Pat into trouble,” said Britsch, was purchasing land in advance to supply “national contracts with very large builders,” who backed out after the housing downturn began in California and the Southwest in mid-2006.

Demand for undeveloped lots in Snohomish County “fell relatively hard and fast,” he said, “and when that happened the builders obviously didn’t need as many lots as anticipated. That left Pat and the banks holding this huge financial burden.”

Local state-chartered banks exposed to loan losses include Frontier Bank, Banner Bank, Shoreline Bank, Cascade Bank, and First Sound Bank.

and from the Everett Herald story:

“It’s fair to say all builders and developers are facing pressures in this market, although every company’s business model is different,” said Mike Pattison of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties  

I wonder which title insurance companies are on the hook for any outstanding mechanics liens?

 

Join us for a Rain City conversation on Tuesday afternoon!

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I’ve been having such a blast with the 4realz Roundtable conversations, that I’m going to bring the conversation to Rain City Guide!

a Rain City conversationThe idea: this Tuesday at 4pm, I’m going to host a conversation with the Rain City Guide community. There are many ways to join the conversation and all of them are easy. All the information you need is located at this website: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/17904, but here is a summary:

  1. You can call in to the # provided (724-444-7444), Call ID: 17904, to listen to the conversation.
  2. You can join the chat by going to the website that TalkShoe provides for a Rain City conversation any time during the scheduled call (4pm to 5pm on Tuesday)
  3. Getting fancier: You can sign up for a (free) account with TalkShoe and then join the chat (step #2). This will allow me (as the “host” of the show, I’ll be able to know who you are and identify your chats!
  4. Fanciest: You can sign up for an account (step #3), join the chat (step #2) and call in (step #1).

If you opt for step #4, then I can have you join in the conversation during our podcast!

The way that I’ve been managing the conversations during the 4realz Roundtable is that I invite a few “guests” who are unmuted during the entire show. And then, just to make sure things don’t get too overwhelming, I closely monitor the live “chat” during the show and if someone has a question or wants to make a point, then I “unmute” them. For people simply listening to the show, it sounds like a live radio interview show, but to the people taking waiting to “come on air” they can actively chat with all the others waiting to come on air.

So, for the first episode of a Rain City conversation, I’ve invited EVERY Rain City Guide contributor to be live on the call… The first order of business will be to go around the “virtual” roundtable and let each contributor talk for two minutes about what brought them to Rain City Guide.

Then quickly, I want to open up the mic to your comments, questions, tips, etc.

  • Are you moving to the Seattle area and want to ask about great neighborhoods?
  • Do you have a specific question for a contributor?
  • Want to share your experience with the Seattle real estate market?

My hope is that this first episode will be a lively and educational conversation, but it will only work if you join us! So, please consider taking an hour out of your Tuesday afternoon to take part in a Rain City conversation! I can’t wait to hear from you!