Real Estate January 25, 2014

Tree Masters Makes a Tall Order

 

Tree houses like none other, a creative contractor is creating some very unique and fun tree houses.

Mike Nelson from Fall City, Washington, (Northeast of Seattle) Mike creates a magical outdoor space, bringing happiness in many forms. Mike Nelson is a bubbly energetic contractor with incredible vision. These tree houses are not the typical tree house your father built for you or your friend’s tree house.  See these links for some of the tree houses Mike and his crew has built.

Portfolio

Nelson Treehouse and Supply

This is a cool link to a tree house retreat in Fall City, Washington,  Treehouse Point

Mike has a show on Animal Planet on Fridays; my family enjoy watching this funny cast of characters.

 

You most likely won't get your return on investment as monetarily, yet I would think you would maximize a fulfillment of happiness and pleasure knowing your family has a unique item that other homes in your area may not have. 

 

 

Real Estate December 11, 2013

Buying a New Home, What Steps to Take?

Thinking of buying a home?

What are the first steps? What do you do?  

These steps below will get you started in the right direction.  The best thing to do is to engage with a professional Broker (Realtor) that you work wwell togetrher with. They will should have  aprocess that will make the home buying event easier and more fluid. 

 

The Beginning

First step is to check out mortgage brokers, to get Pre-Approved, research 2 or 3 to see what their rates are, such as Cobalt Mortgage or Cornerstone Home Lending

 To make a commitment wit the mortgage broker and get the pre-approval process in the works.

There is a difference between pre-approval and pre-qualified, here is the difference between the 2 of them.

Pre-qualified is a simple process of the mortgage broker asking simple question, such as income and debt and then you are pre qualified for  X amount.

Pre approval is more in depth financial information to determine what your purchasing power is.  Typically both require a credit check, yet the approval process will require you digging deeper into your financial world, break to the W-2’s, 401K docs, and investment paperwork, pay stubs.

Once your broker (Real Estate Agent) has the paperwork/letter stating what your purchasing power is, all may be in order with your finances if they are not, then you may need to pay a little or a lot of attention to fixing any issues that popped up during this process.

Now is the time to figure out what you are going to look for?

What areas you like, rate 1, 2 and 3rd

What schools area do you want to be in?

Public transportation? Is this important

Work, how close to work?

What style of home do you like? Contemporary, Modern, Tudor, Rambler?

What size of home?

How many floors, this goes with style of home

How many bedrooms? Size of rooms

How many bathrooms?  How extensive of bathroom finishes are you looking for?

Den/ library are they in your future?

Property, how much property are you looking for?

Kitchen, what are you looking for in a kitchen, simple, or extensive

Garage, 1,2 or 3 cars?

Living room, media rom?

There are so many things to think about when purchasing a home.

When looking for a home it’s important to enjoy the search and make it a good experience.

Fireplace/s  Gas or wood burning

Backyard amenities?

Are you looking for a basement, finished?

 

This is not my complete list, though it is fairly long and encompasses a lot of items.

I hope this helps you get pointed in the right direction.  Be smart and just because it has a nice paint or great paint colors doesn’t mean it’s a great house.  Use a very good home inspector; the home inspector should not be used to get a lower price but to get a very good idea of what the condition of the house is in and what repairs are needed.

If you have a great Broker (Realtor) then utilize them for their expertise and advice, a true Realtor will be worth all their money.

Good luck and enjoy your search.

Tom Fine

Fine Homes NW, Inc.

Windermere Real Estate Capitol Hill, Seattle

206-434-6561

 

 

Real Estate September 6, 2013

Jobs Report in! Good News. Save a Buck!

I love hearing good news, the job numbers are in and it's up 169,000.  Yeah! Unemployment in Washington down to 6.9% and in Seattle it's down to 5.5%.  We are on the slow track to recover and at least it's going in the right direction. Businesses are opening and expanding.

I know we are all smarter from what we have learned through for the last several years, it has made us smarter and wiser. Not to mention more cautious. I now know what my Grandfather, Joe meant by saying, save a buck! Back then it was a buck and today it's at least a $100's. My Grandfather lived a simple and comfortable life. He owned multiple rentals in downtown Detroit, Ouch! They where sold years ago for virtually nothing, yet it provided him and Grandma a comfortable income. Joe also had a tailor shop where he had pre-made suits and a great lay-away program.  Listen to this:  When one of his tenants needed to go to court because of non payment of rent or some other issue that he found out about, Joe had them come to his shop and he would outfit his tenant in a suit to look good. He said you always should look good when taking care of business.  He had such a big heart and great values.  Joe saw a lot in his life, from escaping the holocaust to the depression and living a long good life.  What do I take away form this?

How do I treat others?

Am I saving a buck?

What can I do for others?

How can I help the community?

What I put into this world, will it help and will anyone listen?

 

What does Joe (My Grandfather) have to do with the jobs numbers and unemployment? I think about how he helped put people in the right frame of mind when they where down and it gave his tenants courage and the ability to feel good about themselves so they can be a positive influence to their family and community.  Being a good contributor to society, working, paying taxes and being an asset to America instead of a liability.

 

I am looking forward to continuing good number reports as well as lower unemployment numbers.  While I save a buck.

 

Tom Fine

Fine Homes NW, Inc.

Serving Seattle and surrounding areas for your real estate needs

 

 

 

Real Estate August 29, 2013

How to Sell your Home, Several Simple Steps to Increase the Value of you Home

This is scary, challenging and exciting all at the same time. The thought of selling your biggest investment.  Well being wise and realistic you'll do fine. I knw you're thinking you can do the FSBO, of course as a realtor I don't believe in FSBO (For Sale By Owner), here you have your biggest asset and you have a fulltime job and know you are thinking of taking on this huge endeavor, is this smart?  Do you know how much time it will take? Do you have experience in selling a home? Marketing a home, Interacting with potential buyers?  Do you know what to say and how to close the deal or negotiate?  What are these values worth?

The right realtor will make the cost of their services pay off, they will make you as much money as possible and will engage with potential buyers and buyers agents.  Well let's get down to why you are here.

Here are some steps to get your home prepared for selling for the maximum amount.

1. Curb Appeal, this is the first impressions a potential buyer will see your home, beside the pictures online.  Clean the yard, make the yard attractive, simple plants and bark in the beds can make your yard stand out from other homes for sale.

2. The first thing to do is to declutter your home, this means getting rid if all the excess items, possibly too many chairs in the living room, too much furniture is a turn off. The rooms should feel larger and by minimizing them, making the rooms look clean, larger this will give the rooms more volume. Clean your home, this means dusting, washing windows, this means deep cleaning and keep it clean, you never know when a potential buyer will want to see your home.

3.  Make necessary repairs, do a walk thru and look at everything and make a list, that is what a good inspector will do and you'll loose money on the house if there any issues. Once you have the list, prioritize the list and go over the list with your realtor, they can help make key judgments on what should be repaired or replaced.

4.  Prepare a list of what you like about the house and what repairs and improvements you've made on the property.

5.  How about another list of what shops, restaurants and other great places are around your home that buyers can associate with and can see the proximity of these places. Anything special like this: "Look thru Living room window to see the Space Needle", "Walk to the Waterfront", "Pike Place Market are within walking distance from the house".

6.  Once you hire a realtor to represent your home, they will provide a CMA, (Comparative Market Analysis) which will have comparative properties to provide you with a good idea of what your home is worth and what price range the home can sell for.  A realtor is here to provide you with details and information and it is your job top make the decision on price from t he information they have provided. It's important to try to leave the emotion out of this process and try to look at it as a business transaction. i know that's tough, but emotions get in the way of a realistic price. Emotions increase the price.  Keep your emotions out, be realistic what your home is worth, otherwise it's a waste of time to try to sell an overpriced home

7.  Tell your friends and neighbors that you are selling your home, word of mouth is an incredible power full source, utilize it. Spread the word.

With the right presentation and price and terms, it should sell fast in the right market.

Good luck on your home sale and I hope you do well.

Contact me to help you sell your home.

 

Tom Fine