Seattle is a city where mountains, hills, neighborhoods and Puget Sound blend to bring interest and character for both the tourists and locals.  Here are a few of the hot spots that I like.  Especially the restaurants.

• The Pike Place Market – Pike Street screams Seattle, from the top of Capitol Hill where it intersects Madison to the western end in the Pike Place Market.  It connects Seattle to Puget Sound by bringing together the fruits of the region’s entrepreneurs and the oceans that surround it.  There are handcrafted and commercial products of most every kind; groceries and seafood to suit anyone’s tastes; all perched above the Elliott Bay with views of water and the Olympic Mountains beyond. Any of the restaurants are fun because of the atmosphere. I particularly like Campagne; they have a café for either lunch or dinner and a restaurant that serves exquisite French meals. Le Pichet is another of my favorites for something a little less formal.
• A ferry ride to Winslow or Alki beach – The views from the Washington State Ferry decks can make you tingle. The ride to Winslow is an easy one that takes you across the sound to Bainbridge Island and the town of Winslow.  The town is a five minute walk from the ferry landing and has a number of small restaurants and shops to explore.  The foot ferry to Seacrest Dock in Alki can be developed to include a 4-5 mile walk around Alki Point on a level seaside path with views along its entire length.  I usually allow myself a stop at Spud’s Fish and Chips because some of the calories will be burned off on the walk.
• Queen Anne Hill – Views, entertainment and great food make this a very desirable urban neighborhood in which to live.  From the Westlake Center, take the monorail to the Seattle Center.  On the “must do” list is the Space Needle and the Experience Music Project (EMP).  Don’t eat.  From there take a bus or taxi to the top of Queen Anne Ave; the counter balance.  Find your way to Kerry Park and enjoy another view over Seattle to Mount Rainier.  Follow Highland Drive to the west around the corner to see the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound.  My favorite pizza spot is Via Tribunali on W Galer.  How to Cook a Wolf is another one of Ethan Stowell’s great restaurants there.
• Ballard – Founded on the bounty of the sea and more recently by young and restless, Ballard is a beautiful mix of young and old.  The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, Shilshole Bay Marina and Golden Gardens give you a true sense of how the people and landscape of Seattle are connected to the sea.  There is lots of night-life on Ballard Ave.  I really enjoy Bastille for a special meal.
• Miscellaneous – To fill in moments of boredom here are a few more things that will warm your cockles.  Fly to Roche Harbor on Kenmore Air for the day and have lunch at the McMillin’s.  Enjoy a concert at the Benaroya Concert Hall; I think that this is what it must be like to be inside a cello while listening to musical concert.  The sound is unparalleled in the world.  Have dinner at Poppy or lunch at Boom Noodle my favorite restaurants on Capitol Hill.

Coldwell Banker, Coldwell Banker Bain and NWHome sellers are tickling Washington and Oregon real estate buyers with an added incentive to buy this summer.  Sellers who opt into the program will be giving qualified buyers a credit on closing costs.  For more details about the program view the attached CBB Buyer Bonus FAQ.

PMI Mortgage Insurance Co has published their second quarter report and the Risk Index indicates that 93% of the nation’s 384 MSA’s (metropolitan statistical areas) are showing “Improved Risk”.  Real estate in Seattle is ranked in the Moderate catagory which is an improvement over the 2009 risk rating.  Assuming that this isn’t the type of calculating that took place in the Mortgage Backed Securities Market, it looks like a very positive sign that we have found the bottom to the housing market.

We might take some comfort in the understanding that PMI has included data from a number of sources, identified in The Report, to calculate a risk factor for each of the markets.  “The Risk Index uses economic, housing, and mortgage market factors (including home price appreciation, employment, affordability, excess housing supply, interest rates, and foreclosure activity) to determine these probabilities”.

According to an article in the Seattle Times this weekend, Puget Sound has experienced an increase in residential vacancy rates in the last twelve months, moving  from 4 to 7.2%.  With an the increase in inventory the market has to adjust to the increased pressure to lower rents.  The article is a good one and suggests that rental rates may decline as much as 8%  in 2010 and that rental incentives are now on the table. 

Will this impact residential sales until it becomes less expensive to buy than to rent?

Zillow is emerging as a powerhouse of unfettered opinion in the housing sector, based on their love for housing market data.  Regional recovery is still mixed so we are going to need more than optimism to believe that this market is beginning to stabilize.  Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries has been in the public eye in the last few days and he outlined the housing market drivers that could stimulate or stall any recovery on CBS Moneywatch.  In the true spirit of journalism, here is a voice that doesn’t have ties to your net worth or your bonus.

Abuse to one person may be fair play to another.  Where do you stand today on the field of credit?  Many of us have watched our net worth plummet and our retirement savings disappear. Some of us have received handsome performance bonuses for generating substantial profits based on formulas that don’t take into consideration looming write-downs that substantially influence our financial system.  Do you think that regulation will help curb the instability?

I’ve attached a list that I was given for your review.  The list was described to me as potential costs that might be included in the APR (Annual Percentage Rate) of a mortgage.

Do you see anything that shoudn’t be there?  Or should be added?

APR_fees

Do just what a good GC would do on a very custom job:
 1. Break the project into known and unknown scopes.
  a. Known – for example 42 electrical outlets at $75 each, 5 doors at $200 each. These are items that you can see and there isn’t any reason    to believe that these costs may vary.  If you are uncomfortable doing electrical work or plumbing work these may be subcontracts    that you get fixed bids on.  Again the point is NO CHANGE in the future.
  b. Unknown – these are tasks that may change in scope.  For example, you are too lazy to pick out a light fixture, tile or plumbing fixtures    now, or you want to make the choices later.  Establish an allowance budget for these items now.  Be realistic but don’t sweat the    details.

 2. Confirm (price) the known scope – this can be accomplished by going to the store with a shopping list and pricing it or asking subcontractors to   give you prices on their specific trades.

 3. Make allowances for the unknown scope -  if you have to remove a wall it is very easy to estimate how long it will take to remove and replace the   GWB.  It may not be easy to estimate how long it will take to repair the rot behind the wall but don’t give up on the whole process as being too hard to  estimate.  To repeat; estimate the knowns (fixed priced) and document them.  Make a guess at what you can’t see.  It really burns me when   subcontractors try and tell me that because it is a remodel they will only work on a T&M basis.  Do you mean to tell me that a plumber doesn’t know   how long it takes to rough in and set a sink or toilet?  OKI believe that those costs are known and it is the vast majority of their work.  When you   pulled the wall apart, it turns out that he has to run 16’ more copper to get around a column or spend a few more minutes notching a beam for the   toilet.  OK, those are unknown, but how much did they cost?  What we’ve done is control the risk.  We’ve isolated the allowances and they are a very   small part of the project.

 4. Give yourself a contingency; the size depends on the size of the project.  Start out at 25%.  Do your estimate and revise your scope (eliminate or  add back things you need or don’t need) if you want to.  Revise the estimate and only use a 20% contingency.  Make some more decisions and get  subcontractor quotes.  Do you feel comfortable going down to a 15% contingency?  Remember, no matter how detailed your estimate is, something  will change and you will need (or want) a little more money than the “bid.”
 
 5. Use your estimate as a sounding board.  If a subcontractor says they need more money, get really specific: what is actually different than was  estimated.  The more detailed the original estimate from the contractor, the easier this step is.  If it looks sketchy to begin with, the little red flag goes  up.  If you over spent on plumbing fixtures, under spend on electrical fixtures….. You will find that the allowance budgets are far smaller that the known  (fixed) budgets.  If you watch the allowances closely you won’t go over budget.

 6. If you live with a mate, tell them you love them on a daily basis, even if you are tired.  If you live alone, include a friend for support.

You deserve to know a little about the  law that governs real estate agency in Washington State.  The Law of Real Estate Agency is required to be given to every potenial client considering entering into an agency relationship with a real estate licensee in our state.

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 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.