Snohomish County Wasting Money. This is NUTS.

  I am spending the weekend east of the mountains just outside of Yakima with family. I was told that builders from Snohomish County have been hauling their waste here to a dump. Why would they drive 3 hours to do this? Well, the cost to dump it here is about 1/10 of the cost of dumping in Snohomish County. It is cheaper for companies to pay for a driver, gas, & wear and tear on the truck than it is to dump it at the local dump in Snoho. This is America where we have the freedom to shop around and find the best deal.
I know what you are thinking. Greg, what does this have to do with Snohomish County wasting money? Well, Snoho Co Deputies have been following these trucks from west of the mountains to this small little town outside of Yakima. Why? Because they do not like to see that money leave their county. They have even followed them into the dump site and harassed the drivers and workers at the site. The site owners & workers have told the deputy officers that they do not have jurisdiction over here and to get off their property. I was told,  in one incidence the Police officer said they do have jurisdiction here, but the worker, a former police officer, said NO, only if there is a crime in progress.

 One the workers from the dump site told me that they asked a truck driver hauling a load from Snohomish County where the deputy was. The driver said that they had a decoy truck leave before their other trucks and when the Snoho Co officer followed the decoy truck the other trucks pulled out and convoyed to the eastside.

OK, long story short, this seems to me, to be a HUGE waste of money and valuable resources. Maybe the Snoho Co PoPo should focus on crimes and other community services and let the biz’s dump where they want to dump as long as it is legal

No Mo Snoho Co Po Po in Yakimo

Congrats to Bellingham’s Pizza’zza, National Geographic says “the towns best pizza”

Bellingham's Pizza'zza "The towns best pizza" says National Geographic

National Geographic came to Bellingham to do a story on the northern WA town. They called Pizza’zza “The towns best pizza“.  Pizza’zza and GregRBenson.com use the same marketing company CreateAMemory.net.

Way to go Pizza’zza!!!

Follow Pizza’zza on Twitter to get web specials and read the latest.

How to get your home sold fast and for the most amount of money..

 

   Sellers…. If you have to sell, you have to sell. Here is what needs to be done to get your home sold for the most money and the least amount of time. You have to get buyers to fall in love with one of two things if not both. First, they need to LOVE the price. You have to make them think they are going to lose a smokin’ deal, or you have to get them to fall in love with your home.  There has to be something absolutely amazing about your house. Something very desirable and hard to find. Here is an example. Remodel your kitchen and baths. I am not talking about getting stock materials  from the home super stores. Get the good stuff. If you don’t have an eye for design or know what most people desire, contact a good designer & contractor. Chances are they are offering great prices now.

 

   If you go the remodel rout and put $30K to $50K into your home you will have more buyers see your home because you have something special. The more buyers you have visiting your house the better the chance of a sale at a higher price.

 

  OK, let’s check out the other option. Your home is clean and well maintained but hasn’t been updated since the late 90’s or earlier. I believe you can still get your home sold quickly but you will have to attract the buyers with something else. Obviously, your average house is not going to attract many buyers. There are a boat load of average homes on the market. What will separate yours from the rest?? This answer is not an easy pill to swallow. You will have to give your house an incredible price. Take a look at the market (consult a real estate pro if you can’t find this info online) figure out what the “market value” is and beat it by 10% to 15%. If you think your home is valued at $499K ask $425K to $450K.  If you think about it, just about every retailer is dropping prices. They are not messing around with piddly price drops of 10%-15%. They are taking 25% to 75% off. They have to to compete and get their product sold. If you aren’t buying what I am saying, put a buyers hat on and lets go on a home search. We find 40 homes that fit your search criteria. After looking at the price and the pictures you weed out 35. All of those homes you weeded out were average homes with average prices, homes you didn’t like the style or simply over priced homes. Do you want one of those 35 to be your house?

 

Get your homes market value.   Search homes for sale.   Search luxury homes for sale.   Urban condo projects.

 

  I will leave it at that for now.  Thanks for visiting BlogWa With Realtor Greg. Please let me know what you think!

 

Luxuria. Luxury Homes & Real Estate in and around Bellevue WA

 

 

There are some new geo-specific luxury real estate websites created specifically for luxury real estate on the East Side of Lake Washington. The cities these sites cover are Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond. The folks at Luxuria also created micro-geo-specific sites for more specific areas. These areas are Clyde Hill, Medina, Hunts Point, Yarrow Point and Mercer Island and each have a median price over $1,000,000.

These new sites are in the early stages but can still help with your Luxury home purchase and sale. Search for homes in these specific areas or all over Western Washington.

  Why should a Luxury home buyer or seller have a specialist working for them? Well, there are many reasons. For buyers you need to have somebody with a proven track record for successful negotiation. Agents who specialize in luxury homes are usually very good negotiators. They understand the market & the comparable homes.  By knowing this and asking strategic questions they understand who has the negotiating power and how to use that power to get their buyers or sellers the best deal. Even if a person would think they didn’t have the negotiating power they have the skills and experience to get creative and are still successful. 

 Why should a seller have a luxury homes specialist list their home?  Luxury home specialists KNOW luxury homes. They know how to price them correctly. They know what needs to be done to get a home ready to sell and what will return the most money to the seller. Luxury home specialists are also experts at marketing these homes. They use their network of other luxury homes specialists to find buyers. They strategically post these homes to special sites that luxury buyers visit to go along with the other more traditional real estate sites. These homes need national exposure.

 Picking the right luxury home specialist is vital to the sell of your luxury home or condo. The specialist at Luxuria are those people.

Contact Luxuria Real Estate

Click to have Luxury Home/Real Estate listings sent to you

Click here to visit Luxuria Real Estate for Bellevue, Kirkland & Redmond

Should I sell my home now in Seattle/Bellevue? Aug/Sept 2008

Is it a good time to sell now? This is a follow-up posting to my January ‘08 post.

 Well if you are a regular reader of my blog you probably saw the posting “Should I sell my home now?” back in January of ‘08. Well, the market has changed since then. The good news is this makes it a great time to sell for certain sellers.  Home values in most of Western WA have dropped since the beginning of the year.  In some areas the drop has hit the double digit percentage. How could it be good to sell when your home may be worth $50,000 less then last year?

  Here’s how… 

For move up sellers. Seller who plan to move up to a more valuable home.

Last year your homes market value was around $500,000. For the ease of calculation I will use 10% in this example. This year your homes market value dropped by 10% ($50,000)  and now is valued at $450,000 . Your plan is to buy a $900,000 home. The home you choose also had a drop of 10%. That $900,000 home last year had a market value of $1 million a difference of $100,000. You would actually save $50,000 by buying up.

  How did I get that #? $100,000 (the drop in value for the home valued at $1 million last year) - $50,000 (the drop in value for the home valued at $500k last year) = $50,000 savings.

  Who shouldn’t sell now?

 Sellers who are freaked out by the market and have no plans to “buy up”, should NOT sell. Think of.. buy low, sell high.

 

 

Don’t forget, in order to sell your house the price has to be better than all of the comparable homes. If it’s not, expect the potential buyers to move on to the better priced home. Inventory is up.  Buyers know this and will move on to the next house if the price isn’t right.

 For more info about your homes market value & selling your home please contact me @ 206-465-7257.

To search for homes/real estate in the Seattle & Bellevue areas click here.

Visit www.GregRBenson.com for more info about buying and selling a home or condo

About Me

After spending 12 years in the sales, support and service field, I made an exciting career change to be a Realtor. The last six of those 12 years I was a corporate trainer. I trained customer service, retail, and I.T. support. Now I am helping people with what I became fascinated with many years ago when my wife and I purchased our first home, buying and selling homes.

 

What I have done and how I did it. I have been in the business since early 2005 and in my first full year I was in the top 20% of the nation in commisions and in the top 10% in my 2nd, and the top agent in my office of 110 agents. I think I have been able to acheive these numbers by living my life with honesty and integrity long before I got in the real estate business. A mjority of my business has come from my friends and family and they knew they could trust me with the sale or purchase of their home. I also have worked very hard to get my websites up on search engines and since mid 2007 about 50% of my business has come from my websites. I use that same honesty and integrity when working with internet clients. I was nominated to be part agent leadership council for my office and I am also a trainer and personal mentor for new agents to our office.

   I grew up on the Peninsula and moved to the Seattle area in 1992. My wife and I were married in 1998 and have lived on the Eastside since then. We purchased our home in what turned out to be a very close knit neighborhood. We have regular neighbor nights, we help coordinate an annual 4th of July block party, and host an annual Halloween haunted house in our yard and garage. I look forward to helping my clients find this sense of community in a neighborhood whether it be a starter home or a dream home.

 

  In my free time I enjoy playing softball, working in my yard, entertaining friends and family, and going to estate sales.

  It is my goal as your full service realtor/real estate consultant, specializing in the Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah, Woodinville and Bothell areas, to provide you with superior service at all times. My local expertise and extensive real estate experience will benefit you whether you are serious about buying or selling a home at this time, or are a returning client checking out the many homeowner resources I offer.

 

Selling link goes to a testimonials or blog

Buying a home? I look forward to helping you select the home of your dreams by taking time to listen to your needs and desires.

Selling a home? My real estate expertise and many effective marketing programs will give you the exposure and edge you need to sell your home quickly for top dollar.

Returning Client? I appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve you and hope you take advantage of the valuable resources I provide. Come back to visit often!

I consider these communities excellent places to reside and would love to share with you my enthusiasm for the many neighborhoods that encompass it. I pride myself on providing unparalleled service and look forward to developing a long-term relationship with you. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss how I can best assist you with your real estate needs.

Sincerely,

Greg Benson

Testimonials for Realtor Greg

  Thanks for visiting my testimonial page. Below are just a few of the happy clients I have helped to get into a home or condo.

P & J Smith- “Thanks you so much for all of your support, work and advice!We appreciated your help so much. Your time spent on us was invaluable! Thank you!”

R & S Drake- “We will continue to recommend you highly in the future.”

Susan Smith Keller Williams Real Estate agent in Colorado regarding her referral to me- Betty is so thrilled with your performance and her new home! I really appreciate the good care you took with her and now you are my ’send to’ guy for anyone else I run into headed your way.

Thanks again,

Susan

 

Steven & Jennifer Bandy- We feel like you took the time to find out what our needs were and showed us appropriate properties. I don’t think we could have ask for more from any agent. It was fun working with you and getting to know you.

Vacant home with no mortgage, should you wait to get your asking price?

Overpricing your home can cost you bundles even if the home is paid for. It’s called missed opportunity costs. It’s pretty obvious to all of us that a vacant home for sale with no mortgage will cost us taxes and utilities, but not many people think about the missed opportunities costs.  Here is the scenario….-A seller puts their paid for, vacant, home on the market.-The market value of the home is $475,000.-The seller thinks since the home is paid for they can over price the home and wait for an offer, thinking they are in a good negotiating position.-Seller has an asking price of $510,000-The seller has purchased and has a mortgage on a new home. Here is the problem with this scenario. The seller still has taxes they have pay on that vacant house aprx. $300-$500 per month. They also are paying utilities to keep the house from getting musty maybe $50+ per month. These are commonly known costs and many sellers are willing to risk these costs to get a few thousand extra dollars, but not many sellers think about the “missed opportunity costs.” If the real estate market is flat or dropping then there are better places to put that $475,000. I am not an expert in the financial advising but I know there are many mutual funds that return 5-15% regularly. Another option would be to buy another home in an area that has bottomed out and get a great deal and use it as an investment. With that kind of money you could put 20% down on many properties.

  So sellers, don’t forget about those missed opportunity costs. It’s best to list and sell your home at market value (see Should I sell my house now/Pricing it correctly) and put that money in other investments than let your house sit for months maybe years just to try and get a few thousand extra dollars.  Greg R Benson – Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland Real Estate

Get Your Home’s Market Value?          Click Here to Search for Homes.         Click here to have listing sent to you.

Contact us.

Downtown Bellevue has a bowling alley. Is it a strike out?

 Downtown Bellevue has “Lucky Strike”

  As of early January 2008 downtown Bellevue has a great new active place to hang out. The hip national  bowling chain made it’s way to Bellevue. With 16 locations across North America Lucky Strike Lanes obviously thought Bellevue was worthy enough to bring this hip and vintage, lounge style bowling alley to town.

 My review of Lucky Strike Lanes (LSL) is….. 7 out of 10. The cool things about this place are the location, the mix of the vintage Hollywood lounge style with the technology we expect here in Microsoftville. This could be a good or bad thing depending on what you like but I like it that they have about half the lanes of most bowling alleys. The obvious downside is the alley fills up fast so make your reservations. I didnt have any food so I cannot review that but the wait staff service seemed to be adaquit. Here is the reason I didnt give LSL a higher rating… The check in and check out desk is tiny and not very well planned. Check in wasnt too bad but check out was a hastle and a mess. We had a group of about 16 people, everbody paid for themselves and instead of charging us on a per game basis they charge by the hour with a group that size. We were all backed up at this tiny desk trying to figure out how much we owed. We had people leave early and come late so we couldnt just devide it up 16 ways. It took us a while to get it all worked out. Over all everybody that came had a great time. Check it out!

 

White vs. Color? Interior painting to sell your home.

  What should you do to help sell you home quicker and for top dollar?

  “Let’s just keep it white that way the buyer can paint it the color they want.” Have you heard this? Maybe you have said this. Believe it or not this is still a misconception in the real estate market. Logically it makes sense but a majority of the buyers do not want to make changes to their new home. Moving is plenty of work as it is. We are all very busy and taking a few days out of our lives to paint a few rooms or maybe all of the them is not our idea of taking time off.  White is also considered a very stark and cold color not to mention it doesn’t look that good in the pictures on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service).

Here is what buyers want…

-Warm and stylish colors

-Coordinated contrasty colors (here is where you can keep your white) for mill and trim work.

Here are a few examples of how color helps a room look better.

Painting is a very inexpensive way to give your house a mood and make it look fresh and new. Don’t save money in this area.

 I can help you get your home ready for sale. Visit www.GregRBenson.com or www.O-Condo.com for your home or condos value, my contact info and other real estate info.

Get Your Home’s Market Value?          Click Here to Search for Homes.         Click here to have listing sent to you.

Contact us.