Have you heard about the single mom in Florida that wants to sell her home along with herself? It's true, "Deven" wants to sell her home and find love so she came up with the idea of combining the two. Apparently her house was listed on ebay (who later removed the ad) and craigslist. She listed the house for $340k and added herself along with it for $500k. Crazy but true, check out the whole story by clicking here.
Some day my husband and I want to have a piece of property on some type of water front. We both love the ocean but in the Northwest the ocean brings wind and cooler temperatures. Most likely we'll end up on a lake somewhere. We have family that have a house on a lake near Olympia and we love spending time down there. Lake life is so calm and relaxing. We go for evening boat rides and the kids usually fall asleep, even in their life jackets. It's a nice little retreat!
We just brought on this new listing that is on Spanaway Lake in Spanaway, WA. The pride of ownership definitely shows in this home. They are obviously gardeners and there are plants and wonderful landscaping everywhere you turn. There's a concrete bulk head and grass down at the waters edge so there's no mud to deal with!
Inside the main kitchen has been remodeled with tile floors, skylights, and corian counters. There's a second kitchen downstairs and the floors are heated! What a luxury to have heated floors! There are wonderful views of the lake from inside, a slate fireplace for those cool nights, and a jetted tub to end the day. To see more photos click here.
The famous Sleepless in Seattle Houseboat is for sale!The Seattle Times reported the owners have lived there for 14 years and love it! It came on the market last week for 2.5 million dollars and has amazing views of everything. Personally, Id love to just spend a weekend there. I've never even been on a houseboat and living there must be just amazing! Do you feel the waves, would I get sea sick during a storm?
You have to remember the movie only featured the exterior of this houseboat. The inside scenes were filmed in a sound stage I believe so the inside does not look like the movie. Although some things seemed similar but it's been awhile since I saw the movie.
Even still, the inside is very nice, very open and bright. The agent has a website with photos you see by clicking here.
If you had 2.5 million to spend on a house would this be the one you would buy? If so let us know, we'd love to help you!
The subject of Real Estate seems to come up everywhere we turn these days. In the news we hear about foreclosure, mortgage rates, the future of real estate and how it effects our economy.
The McFarland Group's guru Dave McFarland came across a great short, simple, and to the point article on why Now Is A Great Time To Buy. If you are considering investment properties or rentals this is the time for you! If you need to sell your home it's a little harder but homes are selling. Yes it's a buyers market if a house is priced correctly, it will sell!
Check out the article and always, if you have any questions please give one of us a call. Check out our staff profiles for more information.
Back in 1989 a three-bedroom home in Seattle sold for around $130,000 and Boeing dominated our economy. Starbucks had a few dozen stores, and Microsoft was really ramping up.
Now those corporate giants, along with the rise of Amazon.com, have made Seattle a "the place to be" when it comes to corporate climbers. Eventhough the corporate-headquarters moved to Chicago for Boeing, the main plant is still in the Puget Sound area and has been busier than ever. The influx of the well educated and well heeled has turned Seattle into a cultural mecca. The downside of all this upside: Seattle is far more expensive. Housing prices have more than tripled. And it still rains. A lot.
When my husband and I bought our first house we were both working in Bellevue and we loved the area but we couldn't find what we wanted in our price range so we ended up north in Mill Creek. We were able to get everything we wanted in a house and in our price range where if we stayed in Bellevue we would have to give some things up, like a garage!
Fast forward 6 years and we are still in the same house. I now work close to home but my husband does the long commute from Mill Creek to Bellevue 5 days a week. That's about 20 miles a day, mostly freeway driving. He drives a small SUV and figures he is getting 20 miles a gallon. With the price of gas about $3.50 a gallon he is spending about $7.00 a day in gas just to go to work. Multiply that by 5 days a week and that's $35.00 a week, $140 a month, $1680 a year. That's a lot of money, especially when you have twins! But it's not enough to make me wish we would have bought a house in Bellevue so we could save money in gas.
My advice, not that you're asking, is get the house you want. I am much happier in our Mill Creek home and all our house has to offer and I will gladly pay more money in gas back and forth to work to have that. But that's just me, maybe you think differently. Whatever your opinion just think it through when considering a house. Our buyers agent Brandon Bogart is a great resource, he's lived in the Seattle area his entire life!
The Seattle PI ran an article on March 5th about the Seattle Housing Market. As many of you know, the Seattle Market is not tracking the same as the national market so pay attention to the local scene! Click here to read the article.
Your first stop should be our website at www.themcfarlandgroup.net. Here you'll get access to the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) for free. You'll see houses listed for sale in your area.
But, if you want to find foreclosures, you'll need to dig deeper. Your county's Web site probably lists foreclosures. You'll find details on houses involved in foreclosure proceedings. If your county's Web site doesn't list foreclosures, there are alternatives.
www.realtytrac.com, www.foreclosures.com and www.bargainnnetwork.com list foreclosures and other bargains. The sites offer seven-day free trials. After that, RealtyTrac charges $50 monthly. Bargain Network and Foreclosures.com charge $10 per week.
You should also visit www.homesales.gov. It lists homes that the
U.S. Government is selling via auction. Many of these are HUD homes. Let us know if you need more information!
House hunters who want green design features in their future home have a new resource for identifying such properties in Washington state.
Northwest Multiple Listing Service, the largest full-service MLS in the Northwest, is enhancing its listing forms and database so properties with certain environmental certifications, energy efficient features and sustainable materials may be readily identified.
Green homes are increasingly sought after in the Northwest, and the addition of environmental categories to the NWMLS listings will significantly help homeowners' ability to find homes with green features. With the new green checkboxes consumers can easily identify homes that meet specific criteria.
Real Estate agents can use checkboxes for highlighting a home's green and resource-efficient features. Among the new fields are designations for homes that meet third-party certifications for Built Green®, Energy Star® and LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards.
Additionally, NWMLS created checkboxes for identifying various energy-efficient heating and cooling systems (with "solar" being a new field), and for renewable floor coverings such as bamboo, cork or other sustainable materials. In details about a property's lot, the listing agent may now check a box denoting drought resistant landscaping.
If you are interested in searching for a green home please contact our buyers agent Brandon Bogart. If you plan on selling your home please point out any green features to our sellers agent Dave McFarland.
A couple of days ago I was out with clients looking at a bank owned home (foreclosure). The buyers have already made an offer on a property but that was in January and the bank still has not responded. They did not really want to look at bank owned properties but it just kind of worked out that way. It is too bad they have to look at all, they already found the perfect home and made an offer but as I keep saying banks can't sell real estate.
They had a question I can't really answer. They want to know where the people that used to live in the homes that are now vacant went. I don't know but I assume they are renting something somewhere. I think it is wonderful that there are still people in the world that would ask a question like that. It is nice that there is some awareness that the vacant homes used to have people in them and that something happened, and they got behind on their mortgage payments, and now they don't get to live in their home any more.
Here a resource for people that are having trouble making their house payments: 1-888-995-Hope.
They have a web site too: http://www.995hope.org/ They provide counseling, and encourage home owners who are struggling to call as soon as possible. The sooner the call, the more options the owner has.
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