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.

Trulia and Zillow booted from Pru Convention

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[photopress:rz.jpg,thumb,alignright]  I usually don’t “lift” things from Inman, but I’m still running into people who haven’t heard this one.

“Prudential Real Estate…barred two of the biggest names in online real estate — Trulia and Zillow — from exhibiting at the company’s annual convention in San Diego this week. Both companies had booked booths at the show and flew executives to Southern California to rub elbows with Prudential brokers, only to be told at the last minute they were not welcome. Trulia co-founder Sami Inkinen said that 20 minutes before the company’s exhibit booth was scheduled to open, Russell Capper — president of Prudential’s e-commerce subsidiary, Prudential Real Estate Services Co. — told the company to “pack up and leave immediately.”

Sellsius had the breaking news and was seeking more info. Paul Chaney shows the Trulia booth “shrouded in black”.  Some think Trulia handled it a little TOO gracefully.  This article doesn’t say much more on the subject, but I loved the tagline “Not Very Prudent, Prudential”. This blog post looks like a total cut and paste of the original Inman Article and/or blog article.

I’m not buying the whole Yahoo reasoning.  Twenty minutes before show time?  Booted out?  Sounds like a shoot from the hip emotional disturbance to me.

Second Opinions on Good Faith Estimates

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[photopress:MPj03867450000_1_.jpg,thumb,alignright]

A few weeks ago, one of the Realtors I work with, Suzy Seller, contacted me to see if I could help her client with an out-of-state mortgage.   Ima Rusty (names are changed to protect the innocent), was moving to Arizona to retire and perhaps see the sun.   Ima had gone to her “local bank mortgage company

Professional Status: Perceptions and Reality

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In part one of this series of blog articles about the subprime meltdown, I briefly sketched the rise and fall of subprime loan products and their relation to predatory lending practices within a capitalist system.

Today’s part two will examine the structural relationship between a professional and his or her client.

Is your barista at Starbucks or the person who bags your groceries a professional? If you answer “yes,