Windermere Woodinville Blog

Be Patriotic In Woodinville, Washington

Buy a home, employ your neighbor

Let’s do something patriotic for our country. Let’s do something to bolster the economy. We have it within our means to make a positive difference for America. Let’s buy or sell a home.

The name of the game is jobs. Every time a home sells a bevy of people keep their jobs. It isn’t lost on anyone from the President on down that the housing industry lynchpins the U.S. economy.

Consider the people who get work with every real estate transaction. Consider these local folks who, thanks to a real estate closing, can buy groceries at our local markets. Recognize your Woodinville neighbors who thanks to a home purchase can pay their health insurance.

When you buy or sell your home these people directly participate and benefit: the home inspector from Mack’s Corner; the lender and five employees working on 175^th Street; the appraiser from Cottage Lake; the title company representative living in Wellington; the escrow officer from English Hill; the moving company employee living at Pioneer Hill; the local hardware store employees who sell the touch up paint; the baristas at the coffee shop downtown where we sign the deal.

And yes the guy who owns the real estate office on Main Street who has been in business in this area for 35 years. He lives in Brook Trails, pays taxes and employs six staff (two from Duvall) and supports 50 agents living and working in this community.  We’re a stable, long-term franchise, but our jobs are a consideration, too.

Doing the patriotic thing and purchasing a home isn’t much of a sacrifice. Interest rates near all time lows; home prices are more affordable than ever. If you will live in this home, have no plans to move for a couple of years, and have good job … it’s an auspicious time to buy.

You folks who should be purchasing a home in this buyer-friendly market, please pull the trigger. Don’t let the sum of all your fears measure your patriotism. Do something for your country and your neighbors. Kick up our real estate market. Preserve American jobs.

Thanks for reading our blog

In a January 21st posting in REALTOR ON LINE, by Melissa Dittmann Tracey, we read about some surprising trends in what people don’t care that much for in a home.  According to recent consumer preference surveys, previously favored features fade.

1. Fireplaces: In 1991, sixty-two percent of new homes had one or more.  In 2007, the number dropped to 51 percent.

2. Carpet: While 54 percent of homes still have carpet floors, hardwood floors are taking their place. Seventeen percent of new homes contain hardwood floors throughout the entire house.

3. Living room:  Slowly vanishing from newer homes. Thirty-four percent of consumers say they’re willing to buy a home without a living room.

4. Desks in the kitchen: Often too small and quickly become clutter spaces. Instead, more consumers say they prefer larger desks in or near the family room—equipped with a messaging center—where they can keep an eye on their kids as they work on the computer.

5. Skylights: May be falling out of style. Only 10 percent of new homes will include them this year, a continuing downward spiral for skylights.

6. Upscale kitchen finishes: Granite countertops are slowly becoming less desirable among buyers who are now moving toward affordable, low-maintenance laminate countertops—which tend to last longer and now come in various styles.

From a Woodinville, Washington vantage point (the cool, silvery light area), we still find buyers looking for the fireplace.  But when you ask how often they fire it up, they answer not often.  Granite countertops are still considered “arrival” and a high end home without them might raise eyebrows.

In our beautiful Northwest where winter light is precious, skylights make a difference in mental health.  Personally, we would like to see more, not fewer of these light gathering features in our Northwest homes.

Thanks for considering our blog.

Dress Up - Show Up

Agents showing up at the real estate office, working together, building energy and confidence together, succeed.  If they don’t help a client buy or sell today, they will tomorrow.

We see agents sharing, supporting, encouraging, inspiring, and uplifting their colleagues in this tough market.

Dress up, show up.  Help the others.  Help yourself.

Feed Off the Energy

Many are succeeding in this office.  Most of those continuing sales activity do it from the office in the company of others.

Isolation at home works against the agents in this market.  Togetherness, rubbing shoulders at the office work place, works for them.

Thanks for reading this blog.

Not Dollar-for-Dollar. Let’s assume there is $80,000 in upgrades to a Kirkland split level home. Upgrades do add to the value of a home. But there are limits. There is not a dollar-for-dollar correlation: a dollar spent does not automatically get the seller a dollar on the asking price.

Seattle Rule of Thumb. A general rule of thumb for Seattle might be that the seller could add 86% on the cost of “smart projects” to listing price: kitchens, bathrooms, decks, siding, windows.  But we are in a declining market and this changes the rules. Even in Seattle, we would think 60% to 70% might be more the top for seller recoup. 

National Average 67.3%. Remodeling produces the Cost vs. Value Report each year in cooperation with REALTOR® magazine. REALTORS® responding to a survey in midsummer said home owners could expect to recoup a national average of 67.3 percent of their investment in 30 different home improvement projects. At the height of the housing boom in 2005, home owners could expect to recoup a national average of 86.7 percent on projects.

Some Items Give Bigger Return. Decks, midrange kitchen remodels, vinyl siding, and window-replacement projects all might net more than they cost. High rates of recovery were seen in both strong real estate markets and weak ones.

Seattle Does Better. Seattle also made the list of cities with a cost recovery of more than 100 percent on decks and minor kitchen remodels. In fact, Pacific Coast cities recorded the best payback on remodeling by a wide margin, as they did in 2007. The result is an average cost-recouped percentage that’s 14.8 percent higher than in the rest of the country (that is, 82.1%).  But now we face the declining market.

Seller Can’t Get it All. No matter what the upgrade, homeowners aren’t likely to recoup all the money spent when they sell. According to Remodeling magazine’s annual Cost Versus Value Survey, the overall return for remodeling projects is on the decline, falling to an average of 70% in 2007 from 86.7% at the market peak in 2005.

Thanks for considering our blog.

Let’s have a toast.  There are three positive trends in our national housing market which will lead us to a recovery in the demand for new homes:

(1) The number of children of baby boomers who are now at an age where they will buy a home,

(2) the influx of 1 million net people coming here due to our favorable immigration policies, and

(3) in 2007 there were more births in this country than in 1957. As a result, we are facing a robust demand for housing.

Thanks for reading our blog and thanks to the Norwest Reporter (real estate) publication for January.

Will Bruce, the owner and broker at Windermere Real Estate, SBA, Inc. in Woodinville likes art.  He collects it.  He hangs it in the public spaces of his Windermere Woodinville office.

For some time we’ve had a permanent collection of original art, prints, and historical photographs of Seattle and Woodinville.  From time-to-time, a new piece of art goes up to supplement our permanent collection.  Consider this recent addition, an  iron mask Will collected on a trip to Mexico.

Different artists contribute to our permanent collection.  For the first time, art lover Will Bruce has provided a single artist with a “show.”  The permanent collection has moved to the archives for the time being.  A single artist now provides work to cover our walls.

Many pieces of work from the same artist went up at our Woodinville office on January 21, 2009.  Below is a sample of work by our new artist Margaret Newton.

Margaret Newton, artist and sculptor, has a “show. ” A dozen of her canvasses are now on display at the Windermere Woodinville office. 

Feel free to drop by: 13901 NE. 175th Street (near Molbaks) or contact Margaret at mountainmoving101@yahoo.com

A real estate office can more than meets the eye.

Thanks for reading our blog.

How is Windermere real estate doing as a brand in this tough market?  Does “Big Blue” continue to show strong in market share?  Yes it does.

Let’s check the December 2008 TrendGraphix data for the Western Washington region.  Let’s look at the Top Brokers Report.  

Doing so, we find that TrendGraphix shows us the data on Market Share Percentage for Total Closed Sides in December 08.  Windermere emerges as the leader.

            Combined King/Kitsap/Pierce/Snohomish Counties

                        Windermere #1 with 27.3% Market Share

            Kitsap County

                        Windermere #2 with 19.6% Market Share

            King County

                        Windermere #1 with 32.1% Market Share

            Eastside

                        Windermere #1 with 28.1% Market Share

            Pierce

                        Windermere #1 with 20.8% Market Share

            Snohomish       

                        Windermere #1 with 24.5% Market Share

            Whatcom         

                        Windermere #1 with 24.5% Market Share

Thanks for reading our blog.

King County Requires Septic Systems to be Inspected at the Time of Sale

In King County, the seller of any single or multi-family residential property served by an on-site septic system is now required to have a monitoring and performance inspection prior to transfer of title.

King County will require the inspection and report to be completed by a King County licensed On- Site System Maintainer (OSM).

A copy of the inspection report must be submitted to the Health Department and the buyer prior to transfer of title.

The new requirement is set forth in King County Board of Health Code Section 13.60.030.

Special Forms – Special Inspectors Necessary

The inspection must be completed and a copy of the report must be given to both the buyer and Public Health before the transfer of title.

The OSM must use the King County reporting forms when submitting the inspection report packet to Public Health.

Monitoring and Inspection Report Not Necessary if Inspection Done within Previous Six Months

13.60.030 Operation and maintenance at time of sale.

3. A monitoring and performance inspection is not required if such an inspection was performed within the previous 6 months.

Waiver Request if Seller Has Used On-Site System Maintainer with the Last Six Months and Filed Reports

Will Be Using Certified On-Site System Maintainers (OSM)

New NWMLS 22L Addendum That Must Be Part of Your P&SA

So What’s the Penalty?

1.08.050 Misdemeanor penalty

1.08.060 Civil penalty

1.08.070 Abatement

More Information

Check this Site http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/ehs/wastewater/realestate.aspx

For more information about this requirement call Michelle Britt, Program Manager at (206) 205-8962.

Consult your lawyer.  Life becomes complicated.

Thanks for reading our blog.

We will soon hear a much anticipated inaugural speech from a new President of the United States.  We assume the new President will want to make a real contribution to our lives.  He will want to solve pressing economic and political problems.  He will want to heal divisions in the government and society. He will want to lead with distinction.

Will he be thought of as a “great” leader?

The really great people, the people who are remembered as having made a real contribution to life, are the people who said to themselves, not, “How can I use the state and society to further my own prestige and my own personal ambition?” but, “How can I use my personal gifts and talents to serve the state?”

Every economic problem would be solved if people lived for what they could do for others and not for what they could get for themselves.

Every political problem could be solved  if the ambition of people was only to serve the state and not to enhance their own prestige.

The divisions and disputes which tear the government asunder would for the most part never occur if the only desire of its office-bearers was to serve it without caring what position they occupied.

One of the greatest practical truth in the world is that there is supreme greatness and value only in those whose ambition is to be a servant.

We wait to see if our leader and his team measure up to supreme greatness.

Thanks for reading our blog.  And thanks to William Barclay for thoughts on the True Ambition.

For Washington State home appreciation escalation reached a peak in the first quarter of 2006. Properties were jumping up in value almost 18.7% per year.  By late 2008, we find Washington State homes not only failing to appreciate, but going backward in value on a year to year basis.  Lets look at this graph from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.

In the third quarter of 2008, Washington saw a -2.10 appreciation rate.  Prior to that the State had stayed out of the minus column.

To us it seems clear that house appreciation hit an “abnormal” peak in 2006.  Appreciation was too hot, too good to be true.  Appreciation rates were bound to return to normal levels.  On the return trip, we may have overshot the mark by going past 0.0%.  But who would doubt that we will return to a 5 or 6% appreciation rate after inventory adjustments (read, clear the market of foreclosure properties and use up new homes still waiting for sale).

Increase in population as a single factor will create a housing demand. 

If you’re house “flipper” you may have reason to wait on further depreciation.  On the other hand, if your a first-time-home buyer  wanting a place to live and raise your family with no plans on moving in the next five years, it seems safe to buy.  

If historical data is good for anything, you have a good bet that your house value will sooner than later begin to appreciate  at 5 to 6% per year.  Normal appreciation rates will return.

Thanks for considering our blog.