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On Moving. A blog post from our very own blog writer :)
January 15, 2016 /I walked into my room the other day and was surprised to find some suitcases stacked in the corner. After a few moments’ reflection, I remembered that I’ll be moving in a week. It was a strange feeling, standing there and thinking about how easy it was to pack my life into three compact bags. I’m no stranger to moving. When I was four, my family traveled from New Jersey to Washington State by train. We spent the next few years moving around the Puget sound, shuttling our possessions to Burien, then Federal Way, and then Olalla, before finally settling in a house in the Crescent Valley neighborhood of Gig Harbor. Something about these trips must have given me the travel bug. In the last three years of my life, for instance, I’ve lived in Portland, Dublin, Portland again, and Austin. And now, a mere six months later, I find myself preparing to leave once again. Writing for Pickett Street has given me a different perspective on the concept of moving. Suddenly, after years of living out of a backpack (occasionally two backpacks, when I find myself acquiring more possessions than I ought to), I’m contemplating mortgages, property values, the…Read more
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Empathy
November 12, 2015 /By Margaret Smith, Executive Assistant Empathy is something I’ve spent the last two weeks thinking about in both my work and personal life. This word and topic seem to keep popping up in discussion and so I’ve decided to land on it. Empathy: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner. I’m going to rewind my tape to 2 weeks ago when I was in Portland for a conference called Behind Every Leader- put on by the Executive Assistants Organization. This was by far the best networking and learning opportunity I’ve been to for my role as Executive Assistant thus far. For two days, 260 of us sat together and had the privilege of listening to leaders such as Zelda La Grange - Former EA to Nelson Mandela, Cynthia Thomsen - EA to Microsoft CEO, Dave Rendall - Executive Coach, and Bonnie Low Kramen - President of Ultimate Assistant. What I loved about this conference, and what I love about learning in general, is that it always seems to reset my perspective. When Zelda spoke about her experience…Read more
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For everything there is a season – a market update from Pickett Street
April 15, 2013 /Happy Tax Day! I never feel like the prior year is over until today, which can make the first three and a half months a little like purgatory. Now that we've graduated fully into 2013, I feel like it's a good time to give you an update on how the real estate market is moving, and how our team, Pickett Street Properties, is changing with the market. It shouldn't be news that the real estate market has changed. After 5 years of depreciation, after 5 years of foreclosures and short sales, our local real estate market is rebounding, and in an aggressive way. Buyers shopping now are paying 15% more than last year in King and Snohomish Counties (year-over-year), and this upward trend in appreciation appears to have some legs. Simply put, demand is up and supply is down. The data can be confusing though. At first glance, housing sales are actually lower in both counties. Knowing that fewer homes are selling should usually worry sellers, but a closer look at the stats shows a different story. There are fewer homes available this year over last year (down over 4% in Snohomish County), fewer homes going under contract compared to…Read more
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Rising rental market good indication for housing market in the Puget Sound
May 19, 2011 /Two articles published this week indicate that after four years of a struggling real estate market, perhaps things are on the rebound in the Puget Sound. An article entitled "Expect 'new highs' for Seattle apartment rents" published in the Puget Sound Business Journal on May 13th states that the generation of new jobs, slow new construction starts, and low vacancy rates could push rental rates up almost 4% this year. This sentiment is echoed a similar article entitled "Renters finding landlords have upper hand in this market" published by The Seattle Times on the same day. The Times story is a little more allegorical, detailing the struggles of local residents as they adjust to a stronger rental market. A strengthening rental market is a good indication of a coming housing recovery, as higher rents will prompt more buyers to look to the affordability of home ownership. The largest growing segment of our clientele are investors buying homes to either hold or rehab - yet another indicator that our market is on a path toward recovery.Read more
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Andy O’Shea & Jesse D. Moore – 5-star agents 3 years in a row!
February 1, 2011 /For the third year in a row, Jesse D. Moore and Andy O'Shea were selected by Seattle Magazine as 5-Star Real Estate Agents, Best in Overall Satisfaction. The designation is given to less than 7% of the agents in the Puget Sound market, and even fewer have won it for 3 consecutive years in a row. In addition to this, Andy and Jesse finished the year off as the #1 and #3 agents in their office of 142 agents in 2010 (Keller Williams Realty Bothell). Andy ended up as the tops agent overall, and Jesse as the top resale listing agent overall. Pickett Street Properties was the top team for the largest office in Snohomish County, closing 80 real estate transactions in 2010, and we expect to do even greater things in 2011!Read more
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How I lost my roommates
December 12, 2010 /Trevor is my brother-in-law. I've been helping him and his wife to find their first home over the last couple of months. We made an offer on a bank-owned home in Edmonds that was accepted, but in a long and twisted tale of banking regulation gone wrong, they had to give up that home and start their search over again. They also had to move - they had given notice at their apartment complex and their unit had already been rented out. So that's how I gained two roommates :) Trevor and Liz were originally hesitant to consider properties sold at trustee's sale, but being forced to live with me encouraged them to look at all options. After watching a few properties that would normally be outside of their price range sell well within their range, Trevor and Liz threw themselves into the process. They were pre-approved to borrow funds at auction, received a username and password to search our trustee sale database, and started driving properties that they were interested in. Trevor bid on a home at auction every week for three weeks prior to Thanksgiving, barely losing out on all three. He was being conservative at my insistance…Read more
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Buying a home at trustee’s sale in Washington State
November 9, 2010 /Remember 2006? When there were basically only two types of real estate to buy - resale or new construction? Most people, including real estate agents, hadn't even heard of short sales, and bank-owned properties made up such a small percentage of the market that finding one was a little like hunting a rainbow. It's a different time, and our team has done our best to diversify. It started by educating ourselves on the short sale process, extended into representing local and national banks on marketing their foreclosures, and in the last six months we've developing an effective system of representing buyers purchasing properties at trustee's sale in King and Snohomish Counties. What is a Trustee's Sale? Sometimes generically referred to as auction, county auction, sheriff's sale, or foreclosure auction, trustee's sales are the natural process in our state for foreclosing on a home. There are two types of foreclosures in our country, either judicial or non-judicial. Judicial foreclosures require banks to go through the court system to foreclose on a property - non-judicial foreclosures, like those in Washington State - don't go through the court system, but instead follow a set of established laws and notices that eventually lead to…Read more
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All the things short sales are. And those that they are not.
July 28, 2010 /DISCLAIMER: This was initially published as part of an email newsletter to my clients. It made the rounds, and I was asked to post it on the blog to make it more accessible. I wish that there were more short sale jokes - in the same way that there are lawyer jokes, blonde jokes, or jokes about North Dakota. This would mean that there was at least a level of understanding about short sales that was shared among a large group of people. And it would mean that there was something humorous about the process... I've had a couple of painful weeks with short sales. Most real estate agents don't handle short sale transactions because they (1) take a long time (2) pay less money and (3) are frustrating beyond measure. When some of my own clients were faced with the possibility of having to short sale, I decided to educate myself on short sales to ensure that they received the same measure of customer service as my other clients. Negotiating short sales is a lot like navigating a minefield...only it's on a giant treadmill where the environment is constantly changing, and the threat of danger has to be reassessed…Read more
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Keller Williams & Pickett Street give back: RED Day 2010
June 10, 2010 /Pickett Street Properties Team joined Keller Williams associates across America on May 13th - and took the day off! But it was hardly a day of rest. Over 25,000 associates across the US and Canada spent their day giving back, as part of the company’s community service initiative called RED Day. Short for “Renew, Energize, and Donate,” RED Day was created to unite Keller Williams Realty office and associates in an international day of service. Andy and our team coordinated the activities for our Keller Williams Realty Bothell – and it was an incredible and very rewarding experience. We ended up with 60+ associates and several vendor/partners volunteering, serving in several projects throughout the greater Bothell area: Home Renovation: We scoured our community for a home that needed some work, and approached several owners to see if they’d be interested in our help. It took a while to find someone who would accept our “no strings attached” offer. Once we started working – they were thrilled. The family home we served had not been touched in over 30 years. Our team of volunteers gave it an entire “exterior makeover”, including: complete house scraping, sanding, cleaning, and painting (with colors chosen…Read more
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Signs of a stabilizing market? Neighborhood indicators and trends emerge…
May 11, 2010 /There was a time when real estate agents helped people buy and sell homes. Then the market changed, and now we do a lot more counseling, some financial advising, negotiating short sales with banks, and on the flip side - evaluating properties for banks as they liquidate their foreclosed assets. Regarding the latter, banks ask real estate agents to complete BPOs (broker price opinions), to give them an understanding of the local market and an evaluation of the property's value. Banks do not pay agents well for this service, but agents (including myself) do them in the hopes of listing bank-owned properties. When completing BPOs, I have enough experience that if I'm familiar with the neighborhood I have an intuitive idea what the price of the home should be before I go about the work of proving it. My intuition is not enough for the banks though, so I have to complete a fairly rigorous form that goes over statistical averages for the neighborhood of the home that I'm evaluating. I hate BPOs - but the truth is, doing them on a regular basis makes me a better agent. It's easy to take what's true for a majority of neighborhoods…Read more
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Happy St. Patrick’s Day – from the Irishman of the Pickett Street Team!
March 17, 2010 /St. Patrick’s Day is always a special celebration for me - even though I’m a few generations removed from actually being very Irish. But I do know that my O’Shea family originally came from County Cork and County Kerry in Ireland. I also know that I’ve been saving money so that my wife and I can go tour castles in Ireland on our 20th wedding anniversary! If you decide to experience some authentic Irish celebrations – here are a few local Irish Restaurants and PUBs: Seattle area: Kell’s Irish Restaurant and Pub – Pike Place Market, 1916 Post Alley, 206-728-1916 (come early!) The Dubliner – Fremont, 3405 Fremont Ave N, 206-634-3161 Fado Irish Pub – Downtown, 801 First Ave, 206-264-2700 Paddy Coyne’s – Lake Union Northend: Mick Finster’s Pub & Grill – Edmonds, 24001 Hwy 99, 425-775-2121 Shawn O’Donnell’s Rest. & Pub – South Everett, 122 128th St SE, 425-338-5700 The Irishman – Downtown Everett, 2923 Colby Ave, 425-374-5783 Eastside: JJ Mahoney’s – Redmond, 8932 161st Ave NE, 425-558-1866 Wilde Rover Irish Pub – Kirkland, 111 Central Way, 425-822-8940 Celtic Bayou – Redmond, 7281 Sammamish Pkwy NE, 425-881-0704 (shuttle bus from Marymoor Park every 15 mins from 4pm to 2am)…Read more
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Pickett Street goes to New Orleans
February 26, 2010 /We recently returned from a business trip to New Orleans (and before everyone asks - no, it wasn't during Mardi Gras!), which was host to the international convention for Keller Williams Realty International. The trip yielded many new ideas and philosophies for our business, but I won't bore you with that right now. Instead, we want to share with you our five favorite things about The Big Easy. 5) Everything but Bourbon Street - We got to our hotel at about 1:00am on Friday night, and while our initial intention was to find a blues club and a glass of wine, I thought our late arrival would surely shelve these plans. One of our friends had arrived earlier, and in waiting for us, had brewed himself a pot of coffee, and there wasn't any way he was going to let us go to bed without a quick walk down Bourbon Street. Our hotel was two blocks from Bourbon Street, so within a couple of minutes we were introduced to New Orlean's most renowned destination. I won't get into everything we saw, smelled, or stepped on, but we all left a little wide-eyed. The street is woven in debauchery, and the…Read more
