Redmond-Bellevue Real Estate

ARDELL — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 17:50:22 GMT

The Market in the Microsoft Zone is still and always a very HOT market. Finding a decent value is not Child's Play and many are being tricked into overpaying for the homes there.

Maybe "tricked" isn't the right word. But it amazes me what some consumers don't notice. On Thursday of last week I received an alert from a client regarding a single family home within 1.5 miles of Microsoft (the Zone). It did not pass my intitial sniff test, so the "showing" is what I call "in reverse". In reverse means I didn't recommend it. The client found it on their own on the internet.

When we called to arrange the showing there were already three offers in hand. Property had been on market only one day. Here's the events that followed.

1) The offers were being presented between 5 and 6 p.m. which is the same time we wanted to show it.

2) We prepared an offer in advance with a blank price so that we could also present an offer before the owner had to respond to the 3 offers they already had in hand.

3) We met our buyer client at the property with our offer sitting in the car.

4) We saw a man pacing back and forth in front of the house. Obviously one of the buyers or agents, who was waiting for an answer to one of the offers being reviewed inside the property, by the seller and the seller's agent.

5) Based on assessed value, main floor square footage, style of home and other inherent value factors, we had already determined that the home was over priced at the price we thought it would sell, which was the cap price in our escalator clause sitting in the car.

6) We looked at the property and it was obvious the house was cheaply built at the time of its original construction. A factor almost impossible to remedy after the fact.

7) I looked up at the roof and noted that the "new roof" was a "second shingle".

8) The lot was wide and shallow and on a side to side hill, making the dryer part of the yard unusable and the usable part of the yard a gully for water to get trapped.

9) The street was a steep hill making it difficult for children on bikes. A leisurely walk would become a strenuous hike, just to get to "flatland".

10) Most of the improvements gave a false sense of "remodel" and were poorly done. Gaps and bubbles in the cheap pergo wood flooring. Granite counters already deeply pitted and worn. Bedrooms were tiny. Master closet space inadequate.

11) The man pacing out front was told that his offer was the lowest of the offers in hand and that the owner was going to verbally counter the other two.

Now was the time to decide. Was the offer in the car going to be pulled out and presented? Our recommendation was no. The property was going to bid out of good value range. The improvements were misleading. The basic real estate of this property wasn't worth the bid out price. We passed.

Staging Your Home the Feng Shui Way

ARDELL — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 20:32:58 GMT

Home Staging is not simply a tool for selling your home.

In fact, I have just as many Home Buyers asking if I might come and stage their new home, IF they saw me stage the home they were selling to buy their new home. Because the truth is that everyone should be staging their home the Feng Shui way, based on the moon's cycle.

Feng Shui is the art of telling the Universe what you want. For Christian based thinking, just convert Feng Shui into "Ask and you shall receive". For New Agers, just convert it to the principles of "The Secret". When to Stage should follow the Native American philosopy of new moon to new moon cycle. Truth is that every spriritual, religious, philisophical and mathematical analytic method has cross applciation principles, and many practical uses. The HARDER truth is, that applications depend on what you want to accomplish.

Everyone wants a step by step instruction guide. So that is what you get from those who are capitalizing on your desire. Instead of giving you the correct means to achieve your goal, they are "giving the custome what they want", taking you rmoney, and giving you what you asked for instead of what you really needed.

I have spent nearly every dime I have made on my children or for my children or somehow with my children in mind. Expand that to my children and me and Kim. I intended to do that, but now I want to tone that down a bit.

When you step into my house, one of the first things that greets you is a huge collage of photos. The people in those photos are "sucking up my money" because I have told the Universe, by placing the photos there, that I WANTED that. I asked for that. I got that.

The Bagua used for feng shui ASSUMES the priority of things in your live, and recommends placement on that basis. Truth of the matter is that everyone does NOT want the same things and ALL individuals shift priorities.

The Art of Staging Your Home the Feng Shui Way will take many posts on this topic. I encourage you to ask questions so that I don't miss that which YOU are trying to accomplish. I will write several posts as I Stage My Home to shift the priorities of my life. All will appear in the Feng Shui category and unfold over time.

Suffice it to say that if you are complaining that all of your money is being spent by your children, then stop putting their photos in the money areas of your home. You got what you asked for.