Here’s a little gorilla marketing for a wonderful building lot (never been used) right on the Washington Park Arboretum.  It is just over 10,000 SF and is accessed from a quiet loop of Arboretum Place E. and E. Garfield.  The neighborhood is an enclave of well-built homes with easy access to both the Mountlake district and Capitol Hill. 

This note is being circulated amongst a group of Architects with the thought that there may be someone that they are working with who is looking for an unusual in-city building site.  The link below will give you an initial look at a site map.

If you have any questions I can be reached at 206-729-0243.

See the Arboretum Place Location map

Click on the photo to view its full size:

The corner of Garfield and Arboretum Pl

True story; I’m an old skier.  And what does that have to do with the NAHBR?  And what does any of that have to do with deciding whether to stay in your home as you age, or sell it and move in with a group of people you hardly know? 

Tens years or so ago I met a man who was also an old skier.  We’d both spent some of our youth living in the Rocky Mountains and devoting our time testing our balance while in frictionless motion sliding down steep hillsides covered in snow.  We were working together now on the renovation of a commercial building on the shores of Lake Union.  Mike was the project manager representing the general contractor.  Mike travels in a wheelchair.  I have this memory of him negotiating over a debris covered jobsite that’s probably more romance than reality.  His people knew better than to impede the progress of his chair.  His was the only chair that I saw on a jobsite in thirty five years of my experience in that industry.  He makes an impact.

Imagine my surprise today when I saw his name as a speaker at our weekly CBBain real estate forum.  I was fascinated to see the article that was written about him on the NAHBR website: Selling Universal and Green Remodels.  

The forum is entitled “Designing for Life”.  You’ll see from Mike’s website at

Stewardship Remodeling that he believes that home design should be for life and that if it is done correctly, it should allow us to live out our lives there.  When you understand this approach you can see that one of the paths that it leads to our interest in the impact of aging on real estate.

Is it fair to ask an elder to leave the home that they’ve grown to love?  Is there a way to recognize our own concerns for the safety of our elders and the possibilities that may exist for them staying home?

The value of a home is arrived at individually by a buyer and a seller when they agree upon a price and, incidentally, when they are able to close the sale at that price.  There are many situations where the sale price is not the listed price and is not the offered price. “Arms length” means that there are no other influencing factors like family ties, distressed sellers or bank ownership etc.
The best way to determine if a home is the right price for you, the buyer, is to educate yourself in the neighborhood where you would like to live.  Gathering information from friends and family and the internet is a good start but we will all have different (and sometimes confusing) opinions of what is right.  Websites like your county web site, Cyberhomes.com or Zillow.com have to be interpreted by someone who uses those sites all of the time.  Zestimates rely on county data and owner input, both of which are just not accurate for YOU!  Assessor values are far more complicated than being 20% below “market value.”
I find that not everyone can learn value in previewing just a few homes, and that it may take months to learn what your values are.  I’ve had clients rent in a neighborhood for a few months and visit every open house while they are there.  Pretty soon they discover that this neighborhood is affordable or not; that a 2 bedroom usually sells for X and a 3 bedroom sells for Y.  You learn how people take care of their homes and how they upgrade them.  What does it do to the value if there is a new bedroom, kitchen, bath or deck? 
You learn what is valuable to you. “And that’s all that counts.”  I agree with this.  It doesn’t matter what we think.
I’ll use the term Realtor, which refers to a person who belongs to the National Association of Realtors.  Their website is Realtor.org.  You can find some great questions to ask your agent there. This is a differnet site than Realtor.com, which is a great place to search for homes.
Realtors can use all of this information to estimate the market value of a home because they are immersed in it all day and every day.  They use this information to advocate for your opinion of value.  They are supportive of your learning curve and can provide as much time and information as it takes for you to understand what you value in a home.

Welcome to the community home page.  This will be developed into a resourse for informatioin on Seattle neighborhoods.  Watch it grow.

Welcome to the seller home page.  It is being developed to provide information about selling real estate and how to work into the process of selling a home.  It will eventually include links to selling property internationally as well.  Please feel free to make suggestions or comments.

Welcome to the buyer home page.  It is being developed to provide information about buying real estate and how to work into the process of buying a home.  It will eventually include links to purchasing property internationally as well.  Please feel free to make suggestions or comments.

The seller guides are designed to help sellers visualize their goals, understand and connect with their Realtor®, and execute their sale.  There are three of them:

1. the Seller Vision Guide
2. the Representation Guide – under development.  Please contact me for a copy.
3. the Reminder Guide - under development.  Please contact me for a copy.

 They flow sequentially through the selling process.  If you have any questions please call John at 206-729-0243.

The buyer guides are designed to help buyers visualize their goals, understand and connect with their Realtor®, and execute their purchase.  There are three of them:

1. the NWHOME Buyer Vision
2. the NWHOME Buyer Representaion
3. the NWHOME Buyer Reminder

They flow sequentially through the buying process.  If you have any questions please call John at 206-729-0243.

Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC Thursday announced the launch of the first-ever international home search application for iPhoneTM and AndroidTM-powered devices.  I’m really excited about this.  It adds another level of understanding to the notion that buying or selling a home can be accomplished most anywhere in the world.  There is a short clip on YouTube about it.  It you have any comments on the application, please don’t hesitate to make them here.

Read more>>   iPhone and Android App