********Growing up in Texas I always thought that Texans were just the nicest people around, what with that “southern hospitality” and all… but after our recent cross-country move to Kirkland, I am so glad to find that kindness can be found almost anywhere. Just about everyone here has been so very helpful in getting us settled in and feeling welcome. But it was a long hard road to get this far.

For starters, I was getting married… yes, planning a wedding and a cross-country move, at the same time. Not to mention, getting my husband ready for his new job, quitting mine and starting the search for a new one here, trying to sell everything we own, and of course finding a place to live—a great neighborhood as well as a home.

About two months before the move I began to scour the internet for a realtor and began attempting to make contact. I got all my information together, needs and wants… a small house, within an hour of the airport, a yard for the dog. And I planned a trip to the area one month before the move, and just days after the honeymoon, so that I could see as many houses as possible in one weekend. I thought I was so prepared… unfortunately, no one responded back; no one wanted to help “just a rental.”

In Houston, this is unheard of. Any person at any time could contact any realtor and look at any house they wanted. Almost all rentals in the city are listed in the MLS and could be found at HAR.com. Renting a home was easy; I was shocked to find this was not the case elsewhere.

Finally, I got a response. Ardell DellaLoggia was kind enough to help explain the way things worked, or didn’t work, around here. She kindly informed me that I would be on my own and that a realtor would be of no help… Property Management Companies (who did not work weekends), craigslist, newspapers, etc. would be my best resource. Little did she know I would nag her to the point that she herself would become my best resource.

My trip was fast approaching and I had no homes to see, no contacts waiting, and no hope of finding a home. The Property Management Companies wanted little to do with managing their properties and without really knowing the area, listings online and in the papers were of little help. How was I to know what neighborhoods are bad or too far or too expensive?

After a few more emails back and forth Ardell convinced me to check out the Eastside. And after a few more emails, she decided to lend me one of her realtors for the day. Ardell and Gwen Youch spent a day going over any listings they could find and organizing my trip. Upon my arrival, I went directly to Ardell’s home in Kirkland, was fed lunch, and then was driven around town to examine, not only a list of homes, but of the neighborhoods they love. We saw parks and shopping centers and homes that they would not even make a commission off of. It was a wonderful trip and we ended the day with new friends and TWO possibilities for our new home.

I don’t know where I’d be right now if it weren’t for Ardell and Gwen, probably not here in Kirkland. Granted, my home here is half the size and more expensive than my home was in Houston, but that, I suppose is really beyond their control. I cannot thank these ladies enough for their help and we look forward to never again attempting to rent in the Seattle area, maybe buying will be a little easier…


Enjoy, mls

Hey MOM!  What's up with your Blog?!

It's a whole new concept.  It's four blogs in one.  It scrolls down like a regular blog.  It indexes posts by Title for those who want to read about Earnest Money or Staging, it categories for people who want to scroll by category AND it shows posts by name, month to month in the Archives.

Now a Buyer doesn't have to scroll all the way back to January 1st to find what they are looking for.  Just click on the topic in the index and WaLa!!  Right to the point!

I know, it's a little odd, but then...what did you expect?

If you are visiting this blog because you are thinking about moving to the Seattle area, the "Eastside" means the East Side of Lake Washington.

Personally I like to go around the Lake from Kirkland on the Eastside, down Juanita Drive through Kenmore past Bastyr University hugging the Lake all the way around and down through Northgate and down to GreenLake.  But most people take "the 520 Bridge" or the I-90 Bridge.  The links above will give you tons of info and that last link is a cool web cam of the bridges, so you can decide by traffic conditions if you want to drive over the Bridge to the Eastside, or take the pleasant, scenic route around the Lake.

Grow-A-Brain is my most favorite "place" in the world, next to Kirkland.  I wish I could live in there.

Rain City Guide is the place where I experiment with crediting clients who contact me, referencing that site, with monies toward their Closing Costs and other items.  It is a "work in progress", always. Clearly one of the most innovative blogs around thanks to Dustin Luther the Bloginarian.

SearchingSeattle.com is my property search site for you convenience.  The only real advantage to using that site is that you can contact me through a property on that site and it will automatically send me the property's mls# that is of interest to you.

The new John L. Scott property search site is clearly the MOST awesome property search site around as of today.  Just double click on the map to zoom in.  I know it's a little odd to highlight another Broker's site this way, but I have to give credit where credit is due.  It is an awesome site!

My sister's website is of note because she probably, really, invented blogs given her website is more like a blog than a website, and has been for many years.  I wonder if she still has those Christmas ornaments I hand painted for her on there?  She is in a "limited interest" field, so this is not a plug for her business...but a plug for her GENIUS status!!

Feeling nostalgic? Want to go visit your high school?  The house where you grew up?  Your best friend Reidi who lives in Longwood, Florida   Well take a trip using this Awesome Link and take a drive through any neighborhood you like.  Visit Grandma even.

So you are thinking about moving to Seattle.  Well let me ask you a few things.

Can you LOVE our Troll?  Can you love the Troll in Everyman?

Can you appreciate that Kirkland was named for a man who Tried and Failed?!?! Yet we celebrate His Efforts just the same?

Can you grasp the fact that our area's wealthiest citizen doesn't have a College Degree?

Can you become one of the many who visit Bruce Lee's Grave just two miles from Downtown Seattle, to remind yourself after a small battle lost in life, that "The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering."

Can you walk past the Statue of Jimi Hendrix in Capitol Hill and smile, saying to yourself, here we celebrate a man who "lived high, hard and fast" and said, "I think anybody should be able to do whatever he wants."

Seattle is more than "The Pacific Northwest"; it's no Portland.  It's a place where the plastic facade of today's world melts away.  It's a place where the people refuse to buy into, or support the falacies, that the rest of the world buys into.  It's a place that supports effort focused in the right direction, even when that effort supports the next man's achievement, like a baton being passed.

Come then, and welcome to you, but be prepared to leave your misconceptions about what life REALLY is all about, behind when you do.

I belong to an agent oriented forum with 17,000 “participants”, many “lurkers”, from all over the Country and Canada.  I have been “speaking” there since 1998.  At least once a year a newer agent there asks the question: “What is the average number of emails per transaction?”.

Of course it is possible to go from start to finish with no emails at all, I guess.  Hasn’t been my experience, but I’m sure it is still humanly possible for that to happen.  Last year I had one that took close to 400 emails AFTER the transaction closed, to solve an after sale problem.  None of the emails were from the other agent in the transaction , though I did copy him on every email response to his client.  I was the seller’s agent.  I also had many, many phone calls and meetings, in addition to the 400 emails, and all turned out “well”. 

“Rule” is I can never contact someone else’s client in the transaction, but I must answer honestly, if that client calls me.  Usually I do tell them I will respond to their agent and their agent needs to be the one speaking with them.  But when they say their agent isn’t responding to them, I am left with no choice but to handle both sides until the matter is resolved.   I apply the same rule to email, usually.  I never email the other agent’s client in the transaction, nor do I copy the other agent’s client during the course of a transaction.  But if someone else’s client emails me directly, I respond directly, with a copy to their agent.  When you consider that those 400 emails were often directed to at least 6 people, that is 6 times 400 communications or 2,400 communications!

In my experience, the “average” transaction takes between 150 and 200 emails.  This is only my side of the transaction, so if the other agent in the transaction has the same experience, that would be 400 per transaction. Many of these copy multiple parties and only count as 1 email to 4 people.  Emailing escrow with copies to the other agent and my client, for example. This does include emails from the day I meet a potential client until the day they close on the property, and afterward if and as needed.  It does NOT include emailing property to them from the mls, as those emails do not show in my Outlook data.

Blogging is trimming down the number of emails needed to complete a transaction!  Since 1/1/2006, when I began blogging, I have noticed that many of my clients already know a lot more than they ever did in the past.  They already understand more about various transaction details, having read my blog before they contacted me.  I find they also read it during the transaction, and sometimes I direct a blog post to a specific issue at hand in a generic way.  This way I not only help my client to understand what is happening in the transaction, but the general public at large at the same time.

That being said, everyone, agents and consumers both, need to undersand that an email is “in writing”.  There are still times when I need to pick up the phone to say something that I am not willing to put in writing.  A good agent needs to know when to send a letter or a card by snail mail, when to email and when to pick up the phone.  Each of these communication mediums have their place in the transaction, and it is an art to know which to use when.

How does one acquire the title of “professional”?  This is a subject often debated in real estate circles.  Are doctors professional? Yes.  Are lawyers professional? Yes.  Are real estate agents professional?  Are mortgage reps professional?

I am prompted to raise this point by the last two comments on a previous post.  An “anonymous” commenter asks if anyone is “kicking ass today”.  Dustin responds with “?”.  Seems to me this same commenter has raised the “kick ass” question before.  By following the trail to the source, one can assume that this commenter is in the mortgage business in Southern California.  One can also follow the yellow brick road to his email address which is at Yahoo.com

People often ask how they should select a real estate agent and/or mortgage person.  Maybe it is not fair to say that those whose email address is yahoo or hotmail or even aol are not “professional”.  But doesn’t it seem so?  Can it be as simple as that?  Often when I am caught in a transaction with a less than professional agent or less than professional mortgage person, I am dealing with someone whose email address is nastyboy69@hotmail.com.   So I think I will go out on a limb here and propose that one’s email address IS an indication of who you are dealing with. 

If you want to be perceived as a professional, if you want to be viewed as someone whose standards of practice reach the level of “professionalism”, then take the extra step to acquire an email adress with a professional domain name.  Conversely, if you choose a real estate agent or lender, or even a lawyer, whose email address is kickass4U@yahoo.com, then don’t complain when they appear to be less than professional when acting on your behalf.

One has to wonder, after attending meetings where residents take sides on what new houses should look like, how much we should or should not impose our views on one another.  Seems like when we spend less than $200,000 for a house, people have less say in what we build than when we spend millions.

Something seems odd that people who live in homes they bought for $70,000 should dictate to someone who is building a home for $1,500,000.  Sometimes I think maybe it makes them feel powerful to tell the wealthy "newcomers" what they can and can't do with all their money.

All of the houses above are certainly wonderful homes.  Anyone would be happy to own any one of them.  So why aren't we just as happy when our neighbor owns it? :-)

When someone in a position of power says, "I raised my whole family in a 1,300 square foot house!", you have to wonder where the heck they are coming from.  What does it matter what you did 40 years ago?  How is that relevant to 2006?

That being said, I would like to weigh in and say we should reduce the FAR to 50% across the board detached garages  and "air space" should be included in the square footage.  There, that should keep my view intact. Can anyone really have a truly objective opinion on this?  I doubt it.  It's all based on taste and self interest.  If people want to buy big square houses with all balcony and no yard...who's to say they can't...the people who can't afford to build them?  And someone thinks this is a free country...

On Wednesday, April 6, I attended the Norkirk Neighborhood Association Meeting at Heritage Hall.  There was a special presentation called "Rethinking the rules for single-family home construction - Floor Area Ratios under scrutiny"

Back on January 8th, I "predicted" in a post that we would be seeing some changes being proposed...well, here they are. I would say there were more people in the room, 65% or more, who were not in favor of changing the rules.  I think I am being generous leaving 35% to those who wanted the size of homes to be smaller and for government to dictate that it be so.

What I found very interesting happened after I left the meeting.  At the meeting we were told that there were no FAR rules prior to 1999.  We were futher told that RS 5.0 zone homes had a FAR of 60% and that RS 7.2 zone homes had a FAR of 50%.   Well that explained why my house, which looks like a bungalow from the front but had a huge rear addition in 1994, appears to exceed the FAR for my area.

But I checked on some of the massive homes in town that clearly do not seem to fit FAR guidelines, and many of them were built AFTER 1999?  Maybe we should be looking into enforcing the rules already in place more than changing them at all?  Until the rules are enforced, what does it matter what the rules are?  Why further penalize those who follow the rules, when the homes people complain about most are those where builders seem to  have simply ignored the existing rules?

It's an absolutely gorgeous day in Kirkland today, the first day of Spring.  I took a long walk and wished I had brought my camera.  We have such interesting homes here in Kirkland, lots of character.  I'll try to take a walk on every nice day and take at least one photo for you all.  Soon we should have 6 nice days out of each 7! 

One thing about the Seattle area is, it may rain a lot, but Spring and Summer can't be beat!  We have the loooongest days and by June it doesn't get dark until almost 10:00 at night!