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  • Critter Free Crawl Spaces
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  • Beautiful Bothell Home For Sale - Status = Contingent. What Does That Mean to Other Buyers and Agents?
  • Income Qualifications for Affordable Housing in Issaquah

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It’s not cute; in fact it can be down right ugly. But it is nothing to be embarrassed about. Critters in our crawls spaces are a very common problem. In fact my two most recent transactions turned up rodent infestations in the crawl spaces and attics.

So what do you do about this?

Whether you are a buyer or a seller don’t panic. It is actually an easy fix, but it can be pricey, so shop around. The best vendor out there that I have found is Clean Crawls. They do excellent work and are competitively priced - and YOU don’t have to get dirty! I don’t know about you - but I sure don’t like to be face to face with a rat.

If you are thinking of selling your home, it is not a bad idea to have a preliminary home inspection done prior to going on the market. Doing this allows you to address issues before they have a chance to turn a deal upside down.

If you are a buyer and this issues comes up - again don’t panic. Just have your agent get some quotes from reputable vendors so you know just how much of a problem you are dealing with. From there you can go into your inspection negotiation and home ownership with your eyes open.

Little critters can be cute, but for me and my clients, I much rather see them in a cage than scampering around my house.

There is so much hype about what is going on in our marketplace today. Is it up, is it down? Well so far this year with my clients I have experienced a balanced market with give and take on both sides. That being said, it baffles me that a seller in this market would not respond to an initial offer or that an agent would recommend to their seller to not counter an initial offer.

An offer is like a conversation. If a seller doesn’t respond to an offer, the conversation ends. In today’s market a seller should be prepared for an offer to come in under asking price. What they should not do is be insulted by an offer that is less than asking – no matter how much less it may be. It is better to counter a less than full price offer than to let it go unanswered. By responding it at least gives the buyer a chance to adjust their thinking and provides an opportunity for a transaction to come together and in this market that is an important opportunity to create. So far this year I have had multiple situations where the initial offer was low, but ultimately ended up at a fair price. This has been the case for both my buyers and my sellers. So for all you sellers out there (and buyers too), embrace the counter offer and keep the conversation going.

Imagine this scenario…

Saturday afternoon, you are out house shopping for a home and your agent shows you homes that have a current status of “Active”. This is common occurrence and a great place to start…BUT…

THIS IS NOT THE WHOLE PICTURE.

There is a whole other classification of homes that could be waiting for you. These homes are under the status of “Contingent”.

Contingent? What does that mean?

A home (subject property) that is listed as Contingent has generated an offer that the buyer and seller have agreed to. One of those terms is that the buyer has a property that must sell before the buyer can proceed with the transaction of purchasing the subject property.

When a property is Contingent, the door is open for another buyer to make an offer. The seller is allowed to accept another offer so long as it is in “backup” position. “Backup” position means that the second buyer has a brief, typically 1 to 5 days, waiting period before they can proceed with the purchase of the subject property under their purchase and sale contract terms. The waiting period is the time period that the first buyer has to waive or satisfy their home sale contingency. If they are unable or unwilling to do so, then their purchase and sale agreement is terminated, their earnest money returned to them (in most cases) and they no longer have any obligation to the seller, and vice versa. The seller is then free to move forward with buyer #2 [in backup position].

Now for my shameless plug…

Unfortunately, a lot of buyers’ agents don’t include Contingent homes in their clients’ property searches. I currently have two listings across the street from each other:

9025 NE 176th Street, Bothell, WA 98011 and 9036 NE 176th Street, Bothell, WA 98011

Both are beautiful 3 bedroom plus den homes. Both have family rooms with gas fireplaces. Upstairs there is a spacious master suite w/5 piece bath and walk in closet in both as well as a laundry room that is conveniently located upstairs. These wonderful properties have 2 car garages that have ample storage and are complete w/ AC for Seattle summers. Both generated offers in less than two weeks time. One of them is Contingent and one of them is Active – STI.

Contingent homes are a great opportunity for a buyer because you are going to generally be in a situation where you can have honest negotiation going on. Buyers don’t have to worry about another buyer coming in and beating them to the deal because there are generally very few buyers looking at homes that are Contingent. Sellers don’t need to feel pressured by time or lack of offers because they already have a buyer in contract with an offer that is acceptable to them. Basically a lot of stress is removed when trying to come to a mutually acceptable backup offer.

So why do I mention this? Well for one, I want to get my client’s property sold. I do that by continuing to aggressively market the home. But knowing that a lot of agents don’t show their buyer’s Contingent homes, I wanted to reach out directly to the consumer. It is important that you know that Contingent homes ARE STILL AVAILABLE FOR YOU TO CONSIDER. I want to put this information out there both as a PSA to the buyers looking for homes and to the agents that don’t include Contingent homes in their property search as well.

That being said, make sure you ask your agent to include Contingent homes in their search parameters. In the meantime, if you or someone you know is shopping for a beautiful house in Bothell that has features such as granite countertops, GE Profile Stainless Steel appliances, surround sound, an extra long driveway for guest parking and a professionally landscaped spacious and private backyard in addition to all the features mentioned above, have them contact me at 206-686-1661.

Alice, a reader from Florida, recently asked a question about how income is calculated for this low income housing in Issaquah.

I would like to move to Issaquah to be close to my daughter and her family. Can you please tell me how the income is calculated for this low income housing? My main income is from Social Security, have some other income and once my home sells here in Florida will have some cash.

Any help you can give me with this matter will be much appreciated.

For all interested in knowing what HUD uses to base income off of you can refer to the official document titled "TITLE 24–HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, PART 5_GENERAL HUD PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS; WAIVERS" or 24CFR5.609 for short. Or you can just read the summary below.

To answer your question Alice, HUD uses all amounts and sources of income, INCLUDING SOCIAL SECURITY PAYMENTS, whether they be monetary or goods and services. There are however a few, okay quite a few, exceptions which I have listed at the bottom of this post. So yes, your Social Security income and your "other income" (assuming it does not come from one of the exceptions below, would count against you.

To determine what housing you qualify for, you would need to add up all your income, count the number of members of your household and then refer to the chart below.

For example, if your household income totaled $50,000 and you had 4 persons in your household, you would qualify for a affordable home at the 80% of median income or greater level. That would basically allow you to purchase, or rent any affordable housing units in the Issaquah Highlands.

I have helped several clients find and purchase affordable homes and most recently am in the process of helping one purchase in the Issaquah Highlands. If you would like any help with finding and purchasing affordable housing, or would just like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email.

These exceptions are subject to change but currently include the following sources:

• Amounts paid by a State agency to a family with a member who has a developmental disability and is living at home to offset the cost of services and equipment needed to keep the developmentally disabled  family member at home.
• The value of food stamps provided to an eligible household under the Food Stamp Act of 1977.
• Incremental earnings and benefits from participation in qualifying state and local employment training programs.
• The amount by which the family’s welfare benefits were reduced, if the family was not an assisted resident at the time of sanction.
• Non-recurrent, short-term benefits that: * Are designed to deal with a specific crisis situation or episode of need
  • Are not intended to meet recurrent or ongoing needs; and
  • Will not extend beyond four months.
• Work subsidies (i.e., payments to employers or third parties to help cover the costs of employee wages, benefits, supervision, and training).
• Supportive services such as child care and transportation provided to families who are employed.
• Refundable earned income tax credits.
• Individual Development Accounts.
• Services such as counseling, case management, peer support, child care information and referral, transitional services, job retention, job advancement, and other employment-related services that do not provide basic income support.
• Transportation benefits provided under a Job Access or Reverse Commute project, pursuant to section 404(k) of the Social Security Act, to an individual who is not otherwise receiving assistance.
• Lump-sum benefits payable as a death benefit.
• Deferred periodic amounts from SSI benefits that the family member received in a lump sum amount or in prospective monthly amounts.
• Amounts received by a person with a disability that are disregarded for a limited time for purposes of SSI eligibility and benefits because they are set aside for use under a Plan to Attain Self-Sufficiency (PASS).
• Deferred periodic amounts from Social Security benefits that the family member received in a lump sum amount or in prospective monthly amounts.
• Child care arranged or provided under the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990.
• Amounts received by the family that are specifically for, or in reimbursement of, the cost of medical expenses for any family member.
• Payments received under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
• Income derived from certain submarginal land of the United States that is held in trust for certain Indian tribes.
• Income derived from the disposition of funds of the Grand River Band of Ottawa Indians.
• The first $2,000 of per capita shares from judgement funds awarded by Indian Claims Commission or the Court of Claims or from funds held in trust for an Indian Tribe by the Secretary of Interior.
• Payments received under the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980.
• Payments received by the Indian Claims Commission to the Confederate Tribes and Bands of the Yakima Indian Nation or the Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Reservation.
• The first $2,000 of income received by individual Indians derived from interests or trust or restricted land.
• Payments received for the care of foster children or foster adults (usually persons with disabilities, unrelated to the tenant family, who are unable to live alone).
• Lump-sum additions to family assets, such as inheritances, insurance payments (including payments under health and accident insurance and worker’s compensation), capital gains and settlement for personal or property losses.
• Full amount of student financial assistance paid directly to the student or to the educational institution.
• Temporary, nonrecurring or sporadic income (including gifts).
• Reparation payments paid by a foreign government pursuant to claims filed under the laws of that government by persons who were persecuted during the Nazi era.
• Adoption assistance payments in excess of $480 per adopted child.
• Refunds or rebates under state or local law for property taxes paid on dwelling unit. 
• Amounts specifically excluded by any other Federal statute from consideration as income for purposes of determining eligibility or benefits under a category of assistance programs that includes assistance under any program to which the exclusions set forth in 24 CFR 5.609(c) apply.
• Payments or allowances under DHHS’ low-income home energy assistance program (LIHEAP).
• Federal scholarships funded under Title IV of The Higher Education Act of 1965, including awards under the Federal work study program or under the Bureau of Indian Affairs student assistance program.
• Payments received from programs funded under Title V of the Older Americans Act of 1965.
• Payments received on or after January 1, 1989 from the Agent Orange Settlement Fund or any fund established pursuant to the settlement in the Agent Orange product liability litigation.
• Earned Income Tax Credit refund tax payments.
• Any allowance paid under provisions of 38 U.S.C. 1805 to a child suffering from spina bidifa who is a child of a Vietnam Veteran.
• Any amount of crime victim compensation that the applicant (under the Victims Crime Act) receives through crime victim assistance (or payment or reimbursement of the cost of such assistance) as determined under the Victims Crime Act because of the commission of a crime against the applicant.

For more information you can visit the King County Housing and Community Development Program 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.

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.

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.

Has anyone been paying attention to what the interest rate market has been doing lately?  The 30 year conventional loan which allows for amounts up as high as $417K has gone as low as 5.25% today!  We are almost at the all time low here?  This is some interesting times going on don’t you think?  If you aren’t ready to refinance or purchase your new home now, when will you be? 

Regardless of what is happening in the economy right now, you MUST take a look at your own finances and see if this is the time for you to take advantage of these incredible rates.  Do anything you can to consolidate your 2^nd mortgages or credit card obligations into these rates.  If you’ve got the equity to do so this is your time. 

Even jumbo rates have started to come down again.  Those are loan amounts over $417.  The scare of the summer when lenders were uncomfortable lending in those higher loan amounts are starting to calm their nerves and I’ve seen those rates as low 6.5% for the 30 year fixed loan.

I know it is scary out there with our questionable economy.  But don’t be afraid to make things better in your own finances.  As I said earlier this year, my goal is to give everyone positive information to make their lives better.  Here is one way it may work for you!  Call us to see if this is a possibility for you and your family!

The retail area in the Issaquah Highlands is finally starting to come together. Recently, Port Blakely and Opus released renderings of what the planned development for The High Streets will look like. Port Blakely and Opus brought in five different architects to design the various buildings so that there could be as organic a feel as possible to the design but trying to maintain some level of consistency and quality in the process. I like that they are doing this a lot.

I really like the plans that they have put forward and can’t wait until it all starts to come to fruition. This certainly will add a great deal to the Issaquah Highlands community as well as make more people want to move here and call the Highlands home.

Below are some of the site plans and approved renderings.

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