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  Well in case you haven’t noticed, the much anticipated arrival of Nine Bar Espresso has finally come to fruition. Nine Bar opened their doors today.  I stopped by for a tasty treat and was very pleased with the indulgence. Their coffee was FANTASTIC! I also personally love that they offer their sweetener in liquid form. Not only does it more evenly distribute sweetness to your favorite coffee beverage, but it cuts down on paper waste by not having individually wrapped packets of sugar. Way to look out for the environment.

The atmosphere is great too. Nice warm colors throughout the space and great tables and booths make it a cozy place to sit and enjoy a cup of joe with some friends. During the warmer months there is going to be a fantastic patio area that I am looking forward to frequenting.

World Pies, the other half to this taste sensation, will be ready to go soon. Hopefully by about the 15th of this month according to the owner Matt Snook. Matt was very gracious and gave me a personal tour of the shop. You can tell he is very proud and excited about this project.

Matt - congratulations and welcome. You and your crew are off to a great start.

They’ll be open this week from 9am to 6pm. Watch for extended hours and Grand Opening info coming soon!

The last Retail Task Force Meeting didn’t uncover too much that wasn’t already known. Judd did mention that an Oregon business man who owns several hotels had recently signed a lease on the hotel space at The High Streets. Unfortunately, at the time, he was not sure what hotel he was going to build. Recently, things have changed.

As of last Wednesday night, it looks like he will be moving forward with the Residence Inn brand under the Marriott umbrella. I think this makes total sense.

People don’t really want to come to Issaquah (as much as I love this place I call home) to spend a weekend or a night or two for leisure. They are more apt to come because they are here from out of town visiting friends or family or possibly relocating to the area and need a place to stay until they find a permanent home. And with Swedish building a hospital 3 blocks away, it will also be a convenient place for out of town guests to be close to loved ones who have the unfortunate privilege of being a guest of the hospital.

This is perfect for this brand whose core competency is catering to guests who have longer stays. For more details on what a Residence Inn offers travelers, check out their website.

Most people think staging a home is a matter of doing a little straightening up and cleaning. I’ve got new for you…there are many stages to staging :-). Staging a home is much more involved; both physically and mentally. In order to help break it down from the impossible to possible I will walk you through the process one step at a time, one post at a time. In the last post on staging I talked about the importance of detaching yourself and your emotions from your home. The next item on the agenda is to de-clutter your home.

Think of this as a time to do your own mini, or massive, as the case may be, Clean Sweep.

When sorting through your belongings consider this handy rule of thumb: If you haven’t used it in over a year, you probably don’t need it.

• Donate, sell or throw away items you no longer need/want.
• Craigslist and Goodwill are great places help you find new homes for items you don’t need. I am always hesitant to throw usable items in the garbage, but if you cannot find them a home, it might be your only option.
• Remove all books from bookcases unless the bookcases are built in , in which case just thin them out.
• Pack up knickknacks.
• Clean everything off kitchen counters including toasters, coffee makers, etc.
• In the bathroom, put essential items usually left on the counter in a small box that can be stored under the sink or in a nearby closet

Embrace the concept less is more when staging your home to sell. By thinning out your belongings it will allow your home to showcase itself. This process will help potential buyers easily see themselves living there which is very important. It is also a wonderful head-start on the packing you will eventually need to do anyway.

Stay tuned for the next posts in my series on Staging Your Home To Sell.

For more personalized information about staging your home or Accredited Staging Professionals like myself, feel free to give me a call.

Swedish Hospital recently executed its option to purchase 18 acres of land in Issaquah Highlands, further cementing their commitment and determination to bring better hospital services to the growing population of King County’s Eastside communities. The land that plan to build on is located at the South West of edge of the Issaquah Highlands.

While this is great news for the community, they are not out of the woods yet. Swedish has cleared all the state Department of Health’s red tape, so they have started the planning process. They still need to get a favorable ruling from the state Department of Health administrative judge in the joint appeal filed by Overlake, Evergreen, Snoqualmie Valley and Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center. Their argument is that the plans of Swedish concentrate too many beds in one location. I find that odd seeing that some of those participating in the appeal tried to be the hospital developer of choice in the first go-round. In fact, Overlake and Swedish both submitted applications that were rejected way back in 2004. Overlake gave up while Swedish filed for appeal after appeal until they finally were granted permission to build.

Maybe Overlake shouldn’t have given up…

Regardless on what happens with the current appeal by the competition, Swedish owns the land and will build some sort of medical facility; with or without beds.
To read the official press release, click here.

In addition to the current affordable housing, another 60 units, a combination of rentals and single family homes, will soon be under construction. Division 95, the last chunk of land previously not committed to any one in particular to build affordable housing has finally found at least one developer.

For those of you not familiar with Division 95, it is North of Park Drive, on the West side of 25th Ave NE, and right at the intersection of 25th Avenue NE and Logan Street.

The site plan calls for 50 rental units (location indicated by the blue shading in the picture) and 10 single family homes. The 10 single family homes will be directly adjacent to 25th (as indicated by the red shading in the picture). These homes will be built by Habitat for Humanity and are scheduled to break ground sometime this year. If you would like to help out in this project, please check out the volunteer page at the East King County Habitat Website.

Port Blakely is still trying to find a non-profit builder for the 50 rental units. They have proposals out to several different builders currently. If no builder is found in the next 12 months, PortBlakely will most likely step in and take the ball on this.

And for all of you who might be concerned about “Affordable Housing” bringing down property values or not fitting in the community, here is some food for thought. “Affordable Housing” already makes up about 20% of Issaquah Highlands real estate. It must pass the same Architectural Review Standards that all the other homes do to ensure there is a level of consistent quality. In addition, to qualify for affordable housing you must meet certain income requirements. Depending on the unit you are trying to acquire, a single person can make up to 80% of the median income to qualify for the most affordable programs, all the way up to 120% of the median income before they no longer meet the requirements. The median income in 2007 for a single person was $54,500.

In a previous post on the appreciation in real estate prices that Issaquah Highlands has seen comparing 2006 to 2007, I showed some data on the resale’s that had occurred in Issaquah Highlands between 2006 and 2007. Shaq, one of my readers, inquired about specifically about one home that had shown a anemic 1% increase in price from the time it was first purchased in 2006. So I decided to dig in a little bit to investigate why this house is such an outlier.

House 29 indeed has had an interesting history.

The home was first on market in 2005 as new construction and was originally listed in the high $600,000 getting moved up to $704,950 where it generated an offer in May of 2006. The house finally closed in November 2006 with a sales price of $713k,000. The increase in price probably was related to upgrades put into the home as well as the increase developers were making in prices at the time to account for market demand.

The original buyer then tried to sell the home only four (yes you read that right; FOUR) months later in March of 2007 hitting the market at $800,000. In my opinion, the listing was overpriced and underwent a series of price reductions:

• first reduction - 04/12/2007 - $775,000
• second reduction - 05/21/2007 - $769,950
• third reduction - 06/04/2007 - $759,950
• fourth reduction - 06/20/2007 - $755,000
• fifth reduction - 08/13/2007 - $739,000

The home finally generated an offer at the $739,000 asking price. The home closed on October 1, 2007 for $722,000 - still an increase in price over the original sales price a year earlier.

This quick turnaround does not appear to be the result of someone trying to “flip” but rather a less than timely relocation as the property was originally listed with the owners of record on the deed, but that changed to a relocation firm shortly before the house sold. In my opinion the 7 month market time was in large part due to an overly optimistic original listing price. I would suspect that if the home were originally listed closer to $760,000, it would have sold sooner and closer to asking price than it did. Stair stepping down in price is not the way to get your house sold. When you do that, you end up chasing the market.

While this example is interesting because it shows us what happens in value over the course of a year or two (it did increase) obviously in this instance the increase was not enough to cover the expenses. That being said though - I don’t know many people who end up having to list their home for sale four months after moving in. My guess is the employee was “bought out” of his home by the relocation company and the relocation company / new employer was willing to take the hit. They will even be able to write it off.

I do think real estate is a great investment - but I believe in the buy and hold method vs flipping.

Wondering what to do with old electronics that have since been replaced by great gifts you received over the holidays?

The Take It Back Network can help you with that dilemma. They have several locations in King County that recycle old TV’s, computers, monitors, etc. This is a great resource since you can no longer dispose of these types of items in your garbage container in King County. Costco also works with a company called Green Sight where you can recycle the stuff for free and potentially get some trade in value.

They can also recycle old cell phones, but if you have cell phones to dispose of, check out Cell Phones for Soldiers or WirelessFundraiser.com where you can choose a wide array of charities that will get the proceeds from the recycled cell phones.

Both organizations will help get cell phones or money into the hands of those in need.

As an Realtor and Accredited Staging Professional like myself, it is my job to help home sellers get top dollar for their home. Staging a home to sell plays a key role in making sure that sellers get every last dollar of value out of their home. In order to do that, it is imperative that you market and price a home well as to attract the largest pool or buyers, but you have to grab the buyers attention when they open the door. It is in those first few seconds that you want to make sure potential buyers can easily see themselves living there.

Once you put a For Sale sign in the yard, you should be mentally moved out of your home. Detaching yourself and your emotions from your home is one of the hardest parts of selling your home but it it is also one of the most critical. You need to convince yourself that while you may still be living there, it is no longer YOUR home. Rather it is merely a house that is nothing more than a product to be sold for top dollar to someone else who will soon make it THEIR home. YOUR next home is now waiting for you wherever your next destination is, be it down the street, across town or across the country.

With this in mind it is imperative that you get to packing those things that make your house a home. Pack up all your personal photographs and family heirlooms. Buyers often times can’t see past your personal style choice and touches to the house, and the last thing you want is for them to be distracted. Buyers need to imagine their own photos on the walls, and they can’t do that if yours are there! You don’t need to make the house look like it is deserted and vacant but you do want it to be de-personalized enough that buyers can see themselves living there.

No matter where you are, but especially in a neighborhood like Issaquah Highlands where resellers are still very much competing with new construction, staging your home is very important.
Stay tuned for the next posts in my series on Staging Your Home To Sell.

For more information about staging your home or Accredited Staging Professionals like myself, feel free to give me a call.

Every neighborhood has it’s ugly side. You know, the stuff that nobody wants to talk about. For some neighborhoods it could be the Home Owners Association. For others it might be that bad resident that parks cars on their front lawn and leaves their trash out in the street all week long or that the city is going to build a giant monorail smack dab through the middle of the development.

My husband recently sent me an email from one of the Issaquah Highlands residents and I immediately realized what the ugly side of Issaquah Highlands is.

TRASH!

That’s right, you heard me. TRASH! For some reason visitors to the Issaquah Highlands think the side of our roads and our green space is a proverbial dumping ground for their milk jugs, beer cans and Mc Donald’s lunch bags. Take a look at some of these pictures below and you will see what I mean.

I am sure their is a resident or two that are guilty of this kind of behavior, but by and large this is being done by non-residents. This kind of behavior infuriates me. I take pride in my community and I want visitors to see that pride when they come here. I don’t want them to see a landfill.

If this kind of behavior and defamation of our neighborhood bother you too, I encourage you to contact the Issaquah Highlands Council and sign up for the proposed Adopt-A-Block program. In addition, please report all litterbugs to the non-emergency number for the Issaquah Police Department; provide as much detail including license plate numbers if possible. It is a pretty steep fine for the infraction and might make someone think twice about doing it. And last but not least, pick up a few pieces if you see this stuff. Everyone pitching in a little goes a long way.

Please do your part to help  keep Issaquah Highlands clean and green.

 

As of January 15th, I am happy to announce that Issaquah Highlands has one more shop open for business. And on top of that, it is the FIRST of many to go into the new Starpoint buildings at Park and 25th.

Alice’s Beauty Salon occupies one of the wonderful live/work spaces on the ground floor of Starpoint North. Alice Abercrombie, the owner of the salon does everything from basic haircuts for men, women and children to fancy colors and perms all at very reasonable prices.

I am super excited to see the shops starting to open up in Starpoint. With the pet spa opening up in February and the pizza shop and espresso bar opening up at the end of this month, our neighborhood is really starting to fill out.

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