Hey there y’all!

Our office is hosting a fun event next Wednesday, November 1st in Columbia City. It’s a fundraiser and a “fun-raiser”… that’s a double-whammy!!!

For 28 Years the Windermere Foundation has been helping our homeless and low-income neighbors when they are down on their luck and we’re not stopping now!

Check out the video and read below to learn how you can have a great time and help people in need.

Occasionally in real estate, we come across practices that are strange, ethically challenging or just don’t quite pass the “sniff test”.  Real Estate Naughty or Nice is an arena we invite you into to hash out the ideas breaking into or out of real estate orthodoxy.

Please, jump in the fray and help Ted to save the day!

And now a word from Ted…

My office is hosting a fun event called Kinder Heart Show.  Here’s the skinny:

“There are 10,000 Washington State children in foster care.  Our office co-hosting a children’s art exhibition benefitting Treehouse, a non-profit that provides support to foster families.

We would love to showcase artworks by your pre-school to high school artists!  Please consider donating art at KinderHeartShow.com.  The deadline is Friday, November 3rd.  The general theme is anything that symbolizes love.

And please join us at our December 6th art reception and auction (5:30-8:30pm) at 4919 S Genesee Street – Seattle, WA 98118. Treehouse will receive all auction proceeds, which will help fund holiday gifts for foster children.”

So let’s break out those Crayolas and make some payola for the foster kids!

Continued strong demand has pushed home prices in King County over their 2007 peak. Faced with record low inventory and anxiety about rising interest rates, buyers are snapping up homes as soon as they come on the market. What is tough news for buyers is a boon for sellers. A recent analysis of home sales in King County showed that 41 percent sold for over list price.

• Both closed sales and pending sales (agreements that have been signed but not yet closed) in King County were up by double digits over last March.

• Home prices continued their steady rise.

• April was the sixth consecutive month of record-low inventory.

SEATTLE

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Inventory continues to be a real problem in Seattle, with the city having just two weeks of available homes on the market. As a result, multiple offers with escalator clauses are now the norm. The number of homes sales were up 18 percent. The median home price increased 15 percent to $552,500.

EASTSIDE

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Both home sales and home prices on the Eastside rose in April. The number of closed sales were up by 15 percent over last year. The median price of a single family home was up 6 percent to $654,650. Stiff competition for homes was exacerbated by lack of inventory, with just one month supply available.

KING COUNTY

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April was the second month in a row that King County had less than one month of available inventory. (A supply of three to six months is considered balanced.) The number of closed sales climbed 17 percent over the same time last year. The median price of a single family home in King County rose 11 percent over last year to $480,000.

 

If you're like me there are soundtracks that accompany the different epochs of your life.  I'm in my early 40's and it's a busy time of year both in real estate and with my family.  Suffice it to say, I am not "All About That Bass".  In fact, I don't see myself ever being "All About That Bass".  Instead, I've decided to dive head long into my mid-life crisis and listen to the music of my youth.  I'm not talking about my "crazy" teens and early 20's youth.  No, when it's busy like this I like to listen to music that that my mom would play on the car radio as we drove around town with open pop tops of Orange Crush, completely untethered to the seat of said vehicle.  

Maybe that sounds like a cry for help and if it is that cry is going out to Boz Scaggs, Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, Supertramp and the like.  That Billy Joel… he's got a way about him.  I don't know what it is, but I know that I can't live without him when I'm over-revved.

When it's negotiation time, I like the Dwight Shrute approach of locking myself in a car and blasting "Kick Start My Heart".  I've not done it yet but I may before my next offer presentation.  Instead you'll usually find me listening to Joe Satriani, Liquid Tension Experiment or some other guitar-nerd, instrumental music when I need focused energy.  

But right now I like the comfort of doing the "Lido Shuffle" while I take "The Long Way Home".

If you've got real estate in your life and a soundtrack to go with it, let's hear about it.