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It is the first day of Spring! Also my first born’s 22nd Birthday! Does it get any better than this! The attached photo is the view from my window today.
I would love some digital view photo tips from our in-house photo expert contributor. I can never get a photo of a view that matches the breathtaking reality.
Happy first day of Spring everyone!
I’m excited to see this latest addition to our regional trails system. We will now have trails that extend from Ballard to Issaquah. For anyone who’s run or biked on East Lake Sammamish, this will be a welcome relief from contenting with the very fast and very heavy auto traffic on that road.
This is also a good example about understanding Title Reports when you purchase real estate — particularly when it comes to existing easements. For those of you not familiar with the history, the Seattle Times has a good story about the events leading up to the opening. The abridged version is:
So ask yourself — should you ignore that easement that shows up in title just because it’s not in active use?
The property rights issue aside, I’m looking forward to trying out the trail tomorrow. One cocession they did provide for the homeowners was to add heavy fencing along the path. For others using the trails, I plead for you to remember that the adjoining homes are private property so please respect thier rights and stay on the trail. Happy trails to all.
Barge? Life? Art?
Enter the Living Barge Project.
The Living Barge Project is a large-scale, temporary public art installation by Sarah Kavage and Nicole Kistler that will be moored on Seattle’s Duwamish River for the month of April 2006. Native plants will be installed on an industrial barge, creating a temporary floating island full of ferns, shrubs and tree seedlings.
[photopress:BargePostcard.jpg,full,alignright]We want to use this project to create a lasting, positive dialog about the history and future of the Duwamish and the neighbors and businesses that surround it. We also want to raise citywide awareness of the Duwamish and invite people to participate in its restoration.
For years, I’ve been working with Sarah Kavage in a completely different context, so it is a lot of fun to see what she is up to in her “art” life.
Considering the opening day tour to the barge scheduled for April 1st is already sold out, this looks to be an extremely popular (yet temporary) art project. Check out the schedule of events to find out how you can experience the Living Barge.
While it has nothing to do with the MIT Forum, I thought it would be fun to present and comment on the TurnHere video of the Republic of Fremont along the lines of Dustin’s post on Ballard.
The video is a lot of fun and gives a great perspective on the funky, hip side of Fremont, while also acknowledging Fremont’s changing demographics.
The Russian in me can’t help but comment on the statue of Lenin that sits in a parking lot of a local Taco Del Mar. Roger Wheeler gives a brief history of the statue on the Fremont Chamber of Commerce website:
Poprad, Slovakia is the place, 1978 the year our story begins. Emil Venkov won a commission to sculpt and cast a bronze statue of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Russian revolutionary leader. He worked for ten years, finishing in 1988 – just in time for the regime to collapse. Demand for Lenin bronzes was nil, with the exception of visiting American teacher Lewis Carpenter. He was intrigued by the bold and unusual design, Lenin striding out of – what – rifles, flames, wheat? Carpenter decided to take the statue home with him, a decoration for a Slovakian restaurant maybe. He decided big time. He mortgaged his house, bought the statue for $13,000, then paid $28,000 to truck it to Scandinavia and ship it via the Panama Canal to Washington state. Carpenter was killed in a car accident in 1994 and his mother, Lydia, was left with a seven-ton Lenin in her Issaquah back pasture. Lydia called Carpenter’s Fremont sculptor-friend, Peter Bevis. Bevis and the Fremont Artwalk Committee were looking for something big to kick off their event. Lenin was just certainly that. After much welding and grinding and banging at Bevis’ Fine Arts Foundry Lenin was ready to thrust his way into Fremont history, being unveiled at Artwalk amid much carping, griping, and fist banging from critics and former countrymen who remembered Lenin as something other than heavy-duty art. Lenin is for sale. For a mere $250,000 (obo), you too can join Lenin’s well-traveled history.
Fremont attracts many local artists there are quite a few galleries. One of my favorites is Frank and Dunya, which features art and collectibles from artists from all over the world.
Some other things mentioned in the video include:
(Editor’s Note: I’m extremely excited to announce a new contributor to Rain City Guide. Eileen Tefft is a Managing Partner with Ltd Real Estate and has over two decades of experience in the real estate industry.)
Hello Rain City Guide community,
This is a first for me. First post, first time ‘published’. I’m excited and feel it’s about time I got into blogging as a way to share information to readers interested in real estate. As a kid, my parents bought and held real estate as an investment. My uncle was a contractor, my grandfather a carpenter… In fact, my dear 82 year-old mother was still hanging off rafters, pounding in 2X4’s in her 60’s (she still would be if someone needed a rafter built! Today she’s cutting down trees with her new chainsaw!). I bought my first property when I was 22 and subdivided it at 32. It was fun and it felt natural.
I got 3 calls this week from past clients wanting to begin buying real estate as an investment. After several hours of discussions, I decided to write about the nuts and bolts of my experiences, the mistakes I’ve made and where I found the most success.
There seem to be two types of investment buyers. One that wants to ‘flip’ real estate (turn a quick profit by buying low and selling high) and one that wants to purchase and hold for the long term. I will address the first question here and save the second for another post which will include buying for cash accumulation vs. buying for a positive cash flow, buying using 1031’s and buying using Self-Directed IRA’s.
So, let me start first with the question I get asked most… “How can I buy a house, fix it up, make a profit, quit my job and live off the real estate returns like I’ve seen on T.V.?
When you purchase a condo (which can be a townhome) in the re-sale market (as opposed to new construction), there is a very important event that takes place during escrow. Line 19 of our “Condominium Purchase and Sale Agreement” Form 29 provides that the seller will deliver the “resale certificate” to the buyer within (blank) days from mutual acceptance. You have a limited period of time to cancel the contract based on the resale certificate and when that timeframe runs out, you lose that right. The period is normally 5 days.
I want to talk more about the practical aspects of this event, rather than the legalese, so the above is short and not all inclusive and simply an introduction. In the past several weeks I have cancelled two escrows based on the resale certificate, or more accurately the buyers cancelled escrow based on the resale certificate, and so I think this topic is timely and worth noting. I will give a real life example as an anecdotal story to raise some of the issues involved, keeping this post short(er), and will go into more detail on my blog, where I can be as prolific as I want 🙂
I showed a condo at night. We went up the elevator and into the unit and we at that point were more concerned with getting the property into escrow than examining all aspects thoroughly. It was a one of a kind condo. I knew that if the buyer lost the opportunity to make an offer, I could not easily find them another like this one. And so the offer was prepared and accepted rather quickly. We had two timeframes to further examine that choice, one was the home inspection and the other was the resale certificate info and timeframe.
During the home inspection which was in the light of day, we walked all over the complex and found two alarming issues. The inspection itself was fine. The alarming issues were part of the common area and HOA responsibility. Neither of the issues we viewed were addressed in any way in the Seller’s Disclosure “Form 17”. I asked the listing agent to go look at the problems we viewed and respond, he would not do so and said the seller had no knowledge regarding what we could readily see. I believe that was true as they did not go where we went, which was everywhere. When the resale certificate arrived, there was almost no information regarding the issue, the minutes in the resale certificate being from 2002 through 2004 were not any help. There was a minor, yet bold notation, regarding one of the issues with an estimate of a very large cost. I am being vague as this is a real life current situation and you need to know the steps to take more than the actual detail. It was obvious that the total actual cost was not yet known and that the repairs would not be completed until several months out. The buyer cancelled the escrow based on the resale certificate. The seller did offer to pay the amount the HOA expected the total cost to be, but we deemed that to be insufficient. Another buyer may be willing and able to work something out acceptable to both parties, and that is OK. We returned the resale certificate so that the seller could use it to raise this issue to the next buyer in a more timely manner, should they choose to do that.
When you purchase a condo, be sure to walk all over the complex and view everything there is to view. Make notes of anything that is worth noting. The seller’s disclosure is normally about the unit itself, and not all issues of the complex. Likewise, the inspection is normally an inspection of the unit itself and not the roof or siding or other issues deemed to be HOA responsibility. When you receive the resale certificate, read the minutes thoroughly. Look at the Rules and Regulations, CC&R’s and By-Laws and make sure you understand and have no problem with these. Even if the mls says you can have pets and you see pets when you view the condo, that does not mean that pets are allowed. Look specifically at the pet rules and make sure you can comply with the written rules. Look at the amount in reserves and make sure that the amount is sufficient for the needs of the complex. Most importantly know that you have a very limited time to note a lot of things when you get the resale certificate.
All too often people take this big stack of “stuff” and do not even look at it. I do review it with and for my clients. There is no way I could put “Everything you need to know about the Resale Certificate” into a blog post. Hopefully this is enough to start a conversation via comments that is increasingly helpful and to red flag the issue. Again, I will try to add to my existing posts on this topic on my blog as well.
I just noticed an interesting article published in the Inman News by RCG contributor, Russ Cofano, that provides an interesting perspective on the extent to which a listing broker can copyright a listing (requires a subscription after today).
In a recent news publication, attorney J.T. Westermeier, partner in the firm of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP, said that copyright owners of property listings content are not subject to compulsory licensing and that brokers can refuse to allow their listings to be displayed publicly by third parties even if the third parties are competing brokers. In Westermeier’s view, NAR’s online listings display policy being challenged by the DOJ is consistent with the broker’s exclusive copyright rights.
Like many of the arguments that have supported the use of copyright laws to protect listing data, I believe that this argument is misguided. First, Westermeier correctly addressed only copyright rights associated with the photographs and the expressive comments to the listing. As we all should know by now, there can be no copyright to the property facts contained in a single listing. In the perfect world, I might agree that a broker could limit the use of copyrighted photographs and listing comments if indeed the broker owned all of those rights. That is when reality sets in and we realize that the multiple listing service/broker/agent interrelationship is anything but perfect.
Russ goes on to say under the current listing arrangement, most agents are independent contractors who have not given up the ownership of their text and photos associated with a listing. While some agents may have agreements with their brokers that gives up their copyright, this practice is not universal (and I assume that the practice is not even common).
If, within a single MLS, there was uniformity that led to the broker owning the copyright in the copyrightable elements of each listing, Mr. Westermeier’s argument might be a good one. The reality is that within most MLSs, and even within many brokerages, there is no such uniformity. Because of this lack of uniformity, the argument of broker copyright to support an MLS listing display policy that applies equally to the entire MLS membership just won’t work.
Granted, this post is not real estate related. However, since Rain City Guide is at the intersection of Real Estate Ave & Technology Blvd, I figured the goings on at Microsoft Way might interest some Rain City Readers.
For good or ill, Microsoft is still the 800 lb gorilla of the technology industry. Because of this, the success of the company has sizable impact on the price & availability of housing in the region. Therefore, it’s fair to say, that I’m hoping that Windows Vista won’t suck, and its success will lead to another growth spurt at the company which will increase the value of every-body’s home in the greater Redmond/Seattle area. (That way both the geeks & realtors will be happy)
Anyway, the purpose of this post if to inform the geeky among us that Microsoft is having a Windows Vista Install Fair this weekend. Here’s what you need to do in order to get a free copy Windows Vista.
Well, I’m looking forward to playing around with all the cool new features and using an OS built for the 21st century. Here’s to hoping my laptop enjoys the experience!
I noticed that Robbie has been playing around with the back-end of the home search tool he has developed for Rain City Guide, and it reminded me that I’ve been wanting to highlight one of the cool feature. The search tool allows you to sort your listings based on the price per square foot…
And why should you care? Well, here is a search of the “cheapest homes in Seattle” in terms of cost per square foot. (note I had to put in values for the low end of a home and the low end of square footage in order to eliminate all the “zero” values.) If you’re the type of buyer who is looking for a good deal this would be a great place to start. I’m not aware of any home search site in Seattle that allows you to filter things in this way so easily!
Create your own search here: Seattle Home Search.
Brief overview of the event…
Moderator:
Panelists:
Jim did an excellent job leading the discussion. I didn’t take notes, but in general the questions were all pretty predictable and the answers were spot on… With an exception of a “woman-related” comment by Nikesh, no one made any major gaffs, and there were no real surprises… But that is not to say the event wasn’t informative…
My initial reaction is that the four panelists did a wonderful job and all represented their companies well. I’d even be willing to go further to say that they personified their respective companies. As in:
Nikesh had a hard time sounding real and often ended up sounding like he was recording an infomercial, which is (for better of worse) my picture of HouseValues.
David made some great points, but came off at times like he hadn’t completely thought through his business model. I wish Jim had pushed him to answer the question: What if a listing agent refuses to show one of your buyers a property? Or better yet, what happens when that listing agent who DOES show a Redfin buyer a property and then sues Redfin claiming they were the procuring cause of the sale. Talking about this issue, I wish someone had pushed either Gordon or Jim to answer if they would knowingly show one of their listings to a buyer who openly said they were going to use Redfin. Agents out there: Would you?
Spencer played the role of beta tech guy. He obviously understands the real estate industry and no one really forced him on any issues so he kept from saying too much of interest (like: What comes next?).
Gordon played the role of elder experienced broker really well. He obviously knows the industry inside-and-out, and considering his interest in technology (he is also a Director at Zillow), he came off as someone willing to explore new business models.
If you were there, what was your take on the MIT Forum? Did you learn anything new?
UPDATE 1:
Niki from HouseValues has a collection of interesting reflections on the forum…
UPDATE 2:
Spencer added his thoughts on the MIT forum (and a few other conferences he’s been to recently) on the Zillow Blog.