Starbucks on Anna?

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[photopress:luke_hurley_and_bird_patterson.jpg,thumb,alignright]I’m always interested in new marketing approaches and I recently read about two ideas that seem worthy of more consideration. The first comes from Rosa where she describes an investment banker that buys everyone coffee at the local Starbucks once a week. Here’s how Rosa describes it:

This morning Kerwin and I walked into a Prescott Starbucks and both ordered their strong-brew coffee of the day to then find it was free. The barista at the cash register motioned over to a gentleman sitting in an animated discussion with a group of about six others, and said, “Your coffee is on Mr. Perez this morning.

Too Close for Comfort?

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[photopress:100_1963.JPG,thumb,alignright]I found a great article on the land rush in the Pacific Northwest. This article has accounts of many people and their experience trying to buy homes in a seller’s market caused, in part, by a lack of land.

What I found most interesting was a resourceful answer to the shortage of space that was highlighted in the story. Some developers have started condensing houses – and by condensed I mean building upwards of 37(!) separate homes on an acre of land (though most seem to hover around 17 per acre). The houses have individual charm and a real community feel with a shared common area for all. Some people like the closeness of the neighborhood and the high quality of the construction- though the lack of parking was an issue for some. It may not be an option for all, but what an efficient use of our hot land commodity!

European Solutions

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london bridge
The Seattle Times ran an interesting commentary discussing how much the central government of Britain has been promoting redevelopment. Without a doubt our government could make vast improvements if they rearranged their priorities. However, I’m not sure enough Americans want to live in these dense “utopias”.

At a recent conference in Seattle, Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott…

described the amazingly broad set of activist initiatives that Prime Minister Tony Blair has allowed him to lead and champion — in housing, transportation, recycling abandoned industrial lands, revitalizing towns and using government power to force new malls and megastores back into downtowns.

All of this is rolling forward with tens of billions of pounds invested, pushed with little opposition in a national parliamentary system with few of the checks and balances of the U.S. system.

More links:
The Thames Gateway London Partnership

Photo Montage Diversion…

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[photopress:poster_mark_ready_to_print_logo.jpg,thumb,alignright]This week’s off-topic site that shouldn’t be missed is the flickr montager. It is a great tool that creates a photo montage of Flickr images based on the photo’s flickr tag.

For example, type in the words “solstice”, and you can see a photo montage made of up phots from flickr that people have tagged as “solstice”. I got some great montages from the words “seattle” and “ballard”. The montages defintiely work best if you start with a simple photo without a lot of detail. But either way, it can be a lot of fun to look at.

Housing Bubble- To Pop or not to Pop?

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[photopress:Bubble_boy_2.jpg,thumb,alignright]Talk to anyone today on the subject of real estate and soon it turns into a discussion about the impending housing bubble and whether or not it is going to burst all over your investment dreams. How worried should we really be?

This article in the Seattle PI explained the situation both nationally and locally rather well. It seems that the question is not really whether the housing bubble will pop (if it even exists) but rather what impact that would have on your housing investment if it happened. All investments are risks. Arm yourself with knowledge and make the best choice for you and your situation and hopefully you can avoid getting “bubble” all over your face!

mortgage update…

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Turtle on RockMortgage rates are still quite competitive:

Mortgage rates fell across the board over the past week, mortgage finance firm Freddie Mac said Thursday, suggesting the housing market still has room to grow.

The rate on 30-year, fixed-rate loans averaged 5.57 percent for the week ending Thursday, with an average 0.6 point payable upfront, down from the prior week’s average of 5.63 percent, according to the mortgage finance firm’s survey.

Fremont Solstice Parade

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Once again, Fremont put on quite a show…

I had a wonderful time at this Fremont-only parade and celebration… A bunch of people have already posted photos over at flickr, but a warning that many of the photos are not for the faint of heart.

(The same warning should probably apply to people thinking of moving to Fremont! 🙂 ).

$90 million home sets US property record

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garden viewWow!

A 40-acre estate in the Hamptons – the Long Island summer retreat of New York’s rich and famous, has been sold for $US90 million, a new US record for a residential property.

The New York Post cited sources close to the deal as saying the purchase was made by a Swedish industrialist who has rented the estate for the past few summer seasons.

To answer the obvious question… Assuming standard commissions (and this was far from from a standard situation), two real estate agents just earned $2.7 million in commissions!

I guarantee you’re going to get this mortgage, I think.

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donna's homeWhy does the mortgage business seem so insane and unreliable?

Well, there are a couple of reasons. One reason is there are a tremendous number of loan officers who have no experience but who are pretending they do. As loan officers, our job is to make your loan work. When we look at a loan application, we examine all possible reasons we can find that could be a problem. These are things like properties under construction, borrowers who are out of work, too much debt, not enough income, complex income situations, low credit scores, title problems, and much more. Loan officers with lots of experience have seen so many different situations with such complex problems they know how to evaluate a new loan and spot potential problems. Where we run into trouble is with the underwriters. These folks work for the lenders and they review all of the information sent to them from the loan officer. They have guidelines and matrices which tell them what’s acceptable and what’s not. Underwriters will ask, or what we call “condition

Interested in Pre-foreclosures?

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Exit 3On Saturday, the Seattle PI hyped pre-forclosures:

A good place to find these cash-flush speculators is at foreclosure auctions, according to longtime Tampa, Fla., property investor Tom Lucier, author of “The Pre-Foreclosure Property Investor’s Kit.” But by the time a property reaches the auction block, it’s probably worthless as a short-term investment. The trick is to find the distressed property in pre-foreclosure.

Pre-foreclosure is that period of time between when the lender files a foreclosure lawsuit or notice of default in the public records and the date the property is to be sold at public auction or trustee’s sale.