Feb
13
Beautiful Bothell, WA
Posted by Sandy Noll under For Buyers, For Sellers, Regional News, Bothell
The beautiful City of Bothell is approximately 12 miles northeast of Seattle, also known as the Eastside because it is on the east side of Lake Washington. The great thing about Bothell is it is centrally located with a 20 minute drive to Bellevue, Redmond, or Lynnwood and 20-30 minutes to downtown Seattle or Everett for great shopping, restaurants and entertainment including cultural enrichment, The Mariners, The Seahawks, Seattle Center and the EMP to name a few. Just under two hours you are in the mountains for skiing and about an hour puts you on some great fishing rivers.
The city of Bothell is a great family community with summer events like Music in the Park and Movie in the Park. These events are held at a a wonderful park, Bothell Landing, where kids can play on the climber, feed the ducks, and there is a huge grassy area for having a picnic or just lying in the sun reflecting on the day or taking a nap. The amphitheatre is where they hold the music/movie events. The Burke-Gilman Trail runs along the park which can be taken into Redmond or the other way into the Seattle UW area. This bike trail runs along the Sammamish River Slough where you can see ducks, geese, Heron and an occasional beaver swimming along. There are the resident hens, roosters and bunnies to see as you stroll along as well. My son has even caught a fish or two from the slough! They also put in a Skate Park for the kids to keep them safe! Also on the agenda should be the annual 4th of July Parade complete with the SeaFair Pirates and all the usual parade floats and marching bands and hot rods!
Park at Bothell Landing Skate Park
While cruising down Main Street you won’t find any fast food restaurants, just family owned small eateries where you get a good home cooked meal. There are a couple banks and churches close to Main Street as well as a pet store and some specialty shops.
Beautiful Main Street Tree Lined Street in downtown
The school district that serves Bothell is the Northshore School District which ranks as one of the highest in the state! I attened two of the schools my boys will attend and am excited that programs such as Camp Casey are still in place and my boys will get to experience it as I did in 5th grade. Goin on a snipe hunt…….
For college courses you can stay right here in Bothell and attend either Cascadia Community College or the UW Bothell Campus.
Bothell is a wonderful city to call home. The people who live here are great, family values are high and parental involvement at the schools is strongly encouraged. I have lived here for a good part of the past 30 years, wandering off but always returning because it’s a great place to call home. My dad even retired from the City of Bothell after 12 years of service! For more information on the beautiful City of Bothell, click on this link New Resident Information Demographics
So if you think you want to make a move to the wonderful City of Bothell, be sure to contact me for a personal tour of our city! Sandy Noll Feb 13 KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY KIRKLAND IS OFFICIAL!!!Posted by Sandy Noll under For Realty Professionals Keller Williams Realty has opened another market center here in Western Washington! While the physical doors are not open yet (March 1 projected Grand Opening) we have an office number from the NWMLS and are recognized by the state!The Kirkland ownership group consists of the following: George Charles, President/CEO of Home Services Consulting, LLC. President of Loan Central LLC, President & Founder of Response Mortgage Services. Sam & Renee DiBello, Re/Max Hall of Fame Members. Best known for their TV commercials and their own television show, Home Lifestyles Showcase. Jill Jensen who had her own brokerage for 4 years, with 27 agents. Jacky Elmore, who owned her own Century 21 office is our MCA. Together this group will take the Keller Kirkland office to new limits!! We are opening our doors profiting from the git go!! If you are considering making a move to a company that is dedicated in helping you succeed and one that allows you to share in the profits, contact me today to set up an appointment to meet with Clay. You’ll be glad you did! What have you got to lose??? Anyone reading this from out of state that’s considering a move, you can contact me as well and I’ll help you find the right market center for you and get you in contact with a team leader (branch manager in other companies) in your area!
Sandy Noll Feb 13 Methow, WA Store & Cafe For SalePosted by Sandy Noll under For Buyers, For Realty Professionals, Listings, Methow I recently referred these properties to Windermere Agent Bob Gaines. We are working together to get these properties sold.
For more information please contact Bob Gaines at 509-429-5514. Great investment in the rapid growing town of Methow. Sandy Noll Feb 13 Words To LIve By In A Down ShiftPosted by Sandy Noll under For Realty Professionals Many agents are feeling the bite of a down shifting market. This in turn trickles down to lenders, title, escrow, inspectors and appraisers. While it does seem tough out there, below is an article written by Gary Keller back in 2001, but applies to todays market. Great words of wisdom! WHEN MARKETS SHIFT - Six Truths to Consider Truth One: Markets shift - this is a way of life. Markets go up markets go down. It is an ongoing and never ending series of progressions and regressions. The cycle lives on. So, you have a choice: to rise and fall with the tides (be reactive) or rise and fall with your own intent (be proactive). The bottom line is that people buy and sell homes in all markets. Only the number of units and sales volume change. And, the larger truth is that markets are always in a shift transition. They never (except in a true depression) stay at the top or bottom.
Truth Two: When markets shift up, both reactive and proactive work. When markets shift down, only proactive works. Think of a shift up as a “might/might not have to” market. Think of a shift down as a “have to” market. The hard part is always fighting inertia or habit, and facing the key question: can you shift?
Truth Three: Make no mistake, when the market shifts new strategies are required. Market shifts require strategy shifts. Market shifts create new rules. New rules require new strategies.
Truth Four: You can put your faith in the Theory of Equilibrium. This is an economic concept that, in our industry, says: the number of agents in a market equals the amount of gross commission dollars that the market generates. The Fed knows this concept they use it to influence the economy. They lower interest rates to help more people qualify for home loans. Lower rates lead to more buyers. Higher rates lead to fewer buyers. The law of supply and demand lives on. For us, the law works like this: the amount of gross commission dollars that the market generates determines the number of agents in a market. Here is the example I lived through in Austin, Texas. In 1986/87, we had about $1.5 billion in sales volume and there were about 5,000 agents in the Board of Realtors. In 1987/88 the market shifted down to $600 million sales volume and the number of agents dropped to below 1,800. Oddly, I had never done the math on this until yesterday. But, here is an interesting point you cannot ignore: the $1.5 billion divided by 5,000 agents equals $300,000 volume per agent. In 1987/88, the $600 million divided by the 1,800 agents equals $333,333 volume per agent. This is incredible - the number of agents dropped in nearly direct proportion to the closed sales volume. So, the point here is, while others back off, you press on. Maintaining your sales volume and your net income is actually, in the downshift, a massive increase in business relative to the market. When the next upshift occurs you explode.
Truth Five: The issue is not the so much the shift, but how long the lag continues before equilibrium is hit. No one knows how long this will be, so you just have to get after it, be more focused, cut expenses to the bone and hang in there. The larger point to consider is that the drop off of agents is quicker in a downshift and the increase of agents is slower in an upshift. This explains why agents who hang on during the downshift, grow and prosper when the upshift occurs.
Truth Six: In a downshift, it is “all hands on deck” time. No matter what your role or what you like to do to get business, when the market downshifts it is “back to basics” and “prospecting rules” time. There are two ways to get business: prospecting and marketing. In a downshift you keep doing both, but you personally (and all your team members) now spend a fair amount of time each day prospecting. You don’t drop marketing. You think “marketing plus” adding call followup and personal contact to all marketing. And, to that you add straight up prospecting. Cold calling, warm calling, door knocking, open houses are now back in style! No more cherry picking leads. Followup, personal contact and servicing are key. Why? Because real business leads are precious and few. Let this phrase keep you focused:“I am an opportunist . . . and, this is an opportunity!” Thanks for the great words to live by!! Sandy Noll Feb 13 The Tale of the Fix-n-Flip Nightmare!…..Part 2 (Scroll down for Part 1)Posted by Sandy Noll under For Realty Professionals, Humorous So Investment Partners show up, help pull out the kitchen cabinets still remaining and a few other things. All of what they removed from the house they left in the front yard!! Why? I don’t know, we had a dump truck sitting in the driveway. to lazy I guess. Actually, we thought they’d return to clean it up! They never did! So by now we are about a month into the project, windows had been replaced, by Travis. Exterior painted, by Travis. Backyard Big Toy Play-system dismantled and yard cleaned up with a Bobcat, by Travis. Are you getting the picture??? Mind you we all had regular day jobs, except Mrs. Investment Partner. I was also planning my daughters surprise 18th birthday party. There were days my boys didn’t even see their dad because he’d leave for work at 6am, go to the investment house from there and work until midnight or 1am. All total, Investment Partners might have put in 20 hours total between the two of them at this point. On a particular weekend when we were working on the backyard, my husband was in a Bobcat moving dirt. My brother-in-law was building a new section of fence, my two sons and nephew were trying to stay out of the way and I was moving a wood pile from the house to the dump truck. At one point Chandler, my 8yr old, came to help me and was jumping on a piece of plywood that was put down on top of some of the wood. Now…..I know rats live in wood piles, but I figured with all the construction we’d been doing and the Bobcat running they would have vacated a long time ago. The movie Stuart Little came to mind and I imagined them packing up their little suitcases and moving on.
I dropped the plywood and started screaming mouse, mouse. I was totally freaked out!!! At the end of September we had a sit down. Investment Partners said they would put $25k of their own money into the project as well. We were pretty much on track to finish in 30 days, they said they were going to be at the house more to help get it down, things seemed to take a turn for the better. Mrs. Investment Partner and I were going to go to Lowe’s to buy the kitchen cabinets the next day. They were against the slab granite idea, but I told them about a company I’d found Affordable Extras and they had given me a quote for $3100 and some change for the 1-1/4″ granite, 4″ back splash and installation. Mrs. Investment Partner said she wanted to get a bid from her tile guy for 12″ squares (YUCK). I said OK, let me know what he says. We meet at The next week I ask about the tile bid and get the “oh I havn’t heard yet” response. So I decide to call Randy myself. The quote was for $2722, only $500 less then slab granite. I’m ordering the slab. I tell Mrs. Investment Partner what I’d learned, and that I need a 50% deposit for Affordable Extras. First she tries to say she’ll come in and lay the tiles herself. I almost laughed in her face. Everything she’d done up to that point was AWFUL. Even her husband thought she should just stay home, because she was making more work for them. She proceeds to say, fine then that’s all I’m paying, 50%. Period. Trying to stay nice and calm I ask why when the difference is only $500 and she says because she doesn’t think we should do slab granite so she’s not going to pay for it. I said FINE I’ll pay for it and get reimbursed in the end. She said FINE! So now we are at about mid October, fall is setting in We were onto the recroom and when the cedar paneling was removed the old glue remained so the entire room had to be resheetrocked. We got a bid for $4100 and Investment Partners said NO we’ll have to do it ourselves because there wasn’t enough left in the budget. So, a job that would have taken 5 guys one week to complete, took Travis six weeks to complete. More HELOC payments! Never once did Investment Partners show up to help hang sheet rock, mud/tape or texture. When Mr. Investment Partner was asked about Mrs he said “oh she’s really busy.” Fast forward it’s now December. I had noticed that market starting to turn and prices were coming down. I told Mr. Investment Partner we NEEDED to get this house on the market, even though we were only about 95% complete. We could finish while we waited for closing. He agreed. Prior to giving him the listing agreement at the advice of my team leader/broker, I gave them a Quit Claim Deed adding mine and Travis’ names. You’d of thought I was asking for the moon! I completed the listing agreement, delivered it to Mr. Investment Partner, he pulls it out, looks at it and says “you’ll need to change it to DRS, LLC” I thought I was going to be sick. When I got home to enter the listing, enclosed was a piece of paper with all their demands for closing. No where was there any compensation to Travis. They were now saying my commission was part of my profits. They thought the 6% was going straight to me and wanted to match that before splitting any profits. Because they had said they’d run out of money, we put $10k of our own money into completing the remodel. It was not going to be repaid because they never “asked” us to put in any money. I sent them an email explaining the 6% was LOC and SOC, asked about Travis getting paid for his time (about $40k in labor) and said what happened to you getting an extra $1000 for financial risk taken and the rest was split 50/50? I never got a response. Well long story short we sat and sat and sat. Thought we had an offer and I was going to do both sides (there’s some redemption for us) but they backed out because the neighbors had told them some lies. Finally got an offer and closed May 31st, 2006, 10 looooong months after successfully bidding at the auction. Moral of the tale: NEVER NEVER NEVER TRUST ANYONE WHEN IT COMES TO BUSINESS! My good friend Matt said when emotions and money got involved it was impossible to reason with them. That project nearly cost me my marriage for a myriad of reasons. My boys got yelled at way to much for getting into things they shouldn’t have, but what else were they to do? Mr Investment Partner even had the gull to get on Chandler one day and I phoned him later and said I’m done bringing my boys over to get yelled at. He’d need to help Travis finish up. I did contact an Would I do another? ABSOLUTELY!!! I would love to do another fix-n-flip. It was very exciting even with all the drama. Obviously I’d do things very differently. I think it would actually be a waste to never do it again and apply what we learned. I’m a firm believer in learning from one’s mistakes. Plus there is the new Flip book with better guidlines to follow Months later Travis was at a another local hardware store and in walks Investment Partners. Mrs says “oh look it’s Travis” and waves as if nothing happened. Mr walked to the back of the store. Travis was just thankful he was next in line at the cashier and turned his back to them. He said he started shaking and felt sick and was surprised by his reaction. I asked him if he’d read this post and he said No! Sorry this is soooo long, but thank you to everyone for reading. It’s like therapy for me! Sandy Noll Feb 13 The Tale of the Fix-n-Flip Nightmare!…..Part 1Posted by Sandy Noll under For Realty Professionals, Humorous One of the main reasons I got my RE license was to have a means to gain access to comp info for investment properties. For two years my neighbor and good friend Mary Ellen and I had been watching and learning all we could about investment real estate. Her cousin was going to fund whatever she wanted to do so we did lots of drivebys, researched and then attended foreclosure auctions and got close to doing something a couple times. Each time I’d needed comp info I’d call up my good friend Matt. a KW agent, and after two years he finally said “you know Sandy you could do this for yourself?” I had NEVER given any thought to getting a RE license, but he was right. So I talked to his team leader, he signed me up for the online Rockwell course in Oct 2004 and I sat for and passed the licensing exam December 8, 2004! I was pretty jazzed when I walked out considering only 2 of 20 passed the exam and I was one of them!!!! Now I was ready to get serious about finding that perfect fix-n-flip property. Then came the bad news….Mary Ellen’s cousin was to wrapped up in his own ventures building condos in Costa Rica, that he didn’t have time to look any of our plans over. To say I was disappointed is an understatement, but I decided to dive into working as an agent, after-all I did have a license. In comes my husband, Travis. He had been a licensed residential remodel contractor for 10+ years at this point and one of his customers overheard him talking to me about fix-n-flips. She said she had actually been doing a little research herself and would love to do a project with us. We scheduled our first meeting for Monday, Memorial Day 2005. At that meeting they told us they were going to get a HELOC for $300k to use for the home purchase/repairs. I was to do all the research on the upcoming foreclosure auctions and zero in on a few properties to bid on. For those who don’t know, watching properties can be a very long process. Often times the day before the auction, the property owner will get the auction postponed or stopped. So you have to be very patient and have several properties to potentially bid on. During that meeting we also presented them with two options. Option 1 - hire Travis to complete all the work, I’ll be the listing agent and they’ll keep all profits. Option 2 - we ALL work on the remodel together, which gets it done faster and we can get onto the next project sooner. They said they liked option 2, we agreed and said we should form a small LLC. They said their attorney had suggested that as well, but they didn’t think it was necessary,we were all friends and they regarded Travis as family. He’d worked on their home on and off for 7 years. They wanted to split profits 50/50 and only wanted an extra $1000 for their financial risk. I told them we needed to eat, breath and sleep the property to get in and get out in 60 days or less. I gave them the MREI
So I go about researching properties. We sent letters directly to the homeowners of a couple we were interested in hoping they’d be willing to sell prior to the auction, but no go. At the end of July we were set to attend the auction for one home in King county and the sale was cancelled. So we settled on a home in Snohomish county. I’d done my research and determined that we should set our limit at $280k. Other then a photo we had never seen the home. It’s not uncommon to bid on a property sight unseen. Unless it happens to be listed for sale, you don’t go knocking for a look-see of the home you are going to potentially bid on! We arrived at the court house and there were hundreds of people there to bid and three criers auctioning off the foreclosed properties. I had attended previously to observe and there was always just one crier, so three made it a little crazy, but we finally found the right one for the property we were interested in bidding on. Prior to bidding you must verify funds with either actual greenbacks
The first week in August Investment Partners left for vacation that they had previously planned. On August 8th I couldn’t wait any longer (the letter stated they had to vacate by the 15th) so I went to the home to snoop around. The letter from the attorney was still attached to the front door so I snuck around back. The black paper was a little scary. Was there a meth lab there? Transients? I did have with me a letter stating I was entitled to be on the property even though our Investment Partners refused to add our names to the deed.
As I snooped around I went up the back deck and found the sliding glass door able to be opened. The home was vacant! It was time to get to work. I called Investment Partners and told them I was in, that the home was vacant and per our attorney if it was vacant we didn’t need to wait until the 15th. Everything was very outdated and would need replacing. The recroom downstairs had cedar paneling that was so dry there was actually a fire extinguisher hanging down there! I asked them if they minded if I ordered the dumpster and got started demoing the house. They said go for it, so my daughter and I went to town! We ripped out carpets, cabinets, molding, vanities. By the time Investment Partners returned, the house was pretty much gutted with the exception of some kitchen cabinets we couldn’t get up and some laminate flooring that needed to come out. We were raring to go. Travis had given me a schedule of what should be done and in what order and I had my 60 day calendar laid out. Investment Partners stopped by for a couple minutes to see the home and what was needed to be done. They stayed about a half hour then they had to go. Monday rolls around then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and no sign of Investment Partners. I called Mrs. Investment Partner on Saturday and asked if they were planning to help. She said they’d come by but Mr. Investment Partner was mad because a Husky Football game was on and he wanted to watch it! We actually had to call to see if they were coming!! Remember I had told them we have to eat-breath-sleep this thing to get it done!!
Sandy Noll Feb 13 NIGHT TERRORSPosted by Sandy Noll under For Buyers, For Realty Professionals, For Sellers, General Information, Medical Tips & Advice There was a comment on my post from “Helpful” who directed me to nightterrors.org. While there I kept seeing a common thread in that the kids were always sweaty. Well…..good news! I also noticed that Chandler was quite sweaty during an episode, so I have eliminated one of his blankets and he decided not to use his pillow. It looks like we may have found the solution! Chandler has not had a night terror in over a week!!! (Hopefully I didn’t just jinx it!!). I have always bundled him up since he was a baby mostly because I’m always cold. Since removing the blanket and pillow he hasn’t been cold and he’s sleeping like a baby!! THANK YOU HELPFUL!!! I decided to write this post because my 8 year old son, Chandler | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
MLS #27155934 $275,000
MLS #27156083 $275,000
Mrs. Investment Partner called me up (remember I hadn’t seen or heard from her in two months by this point) and chewed me up and spit me out!!! She threatened to give the listing to someone else. She told me it was my fault my kids weren’t seeing their dad because I wanted to do to much. Funny thing is, everything we did, they agreed to and wrote the checks for. She said there was no way they were going to add our names to the deed! I didn’t really respond to her except to say she had reneged on the agreement to help, that Travis was doing all the work and that I’d hire an attorney if she gave the listing to someone else. She hung up on me! Shaking, I called Travis, told him what she’d said and wanted him to talk with Mr. Investment Partner who was at the house working with him. Travis is so non-confrontational that he didn’t say anything. Mr. Investment Partner upon returning home and hearing what Mrs had to say, proceeds to send me an email and the long and short of it was that the one with the gold makes all the decisions and he’s the one with the gold!!!! Can you believe it???? I did not respond to his email because I just wanted to get things done and move on. Obviously we wouldn’t be forming an LLC with them and there wouldn’t be any other projects!!
Finished product! With the exception of 2 toilets & a jetted tub everything was new. There ended up only being a $6k profit because of $14k paid in HELOC payments and do you think they paid Travis? Nope. In their minds it was my fault and Travis would have to take it up with me. We did not get our $10k back either, so essentially my commission covered that so neither Travis or I received anything for all our hard work. I developed tendinitis in my elbows and worked in December with pneumonia. Travis missed out on time with his kids and his back went out a couple times.
OK so that’s RED FLAG #1, we should have turned and ran away right then and there. But….we were so excited about the prospect of fulfilling our dream we agreed to proceed without forming an LLC.
or with a cashiers check made out to the trustee. We verified funds and lucky for us there was only one other person bidding against us. The opening bid must be at least one dollar greater then the opening bid amount set by the trustee. We started the bidding and with each bid my heart beat a little faster. It was very exciting and such a rush! We ended up successfully bidding on the home for $276k. $4k under the max amount I’d set. Mrs. Investment Partner & I celebrated with lunch and called everyone to tell them we were official RE Investors. I’d finally accomplished what I’d set out to do nearly three years prior! I could hardly wait to get started!
Here’s our beauty!! We immediately called my RE Attorney and she drafted a letter to be delivered to the current occupants. Now we had to wait for 20 days for them to vacate. Mrs Investment Partner and I decided we should do a drive-by of the home we now owned (or she owned as she’d remind me later). When we got there, there was black paper on the windows, the yard was about 4 feet tall and it was hard to tell if anyone lived there. We didn’t want to snoop around to much in case someone did so we waited for our attorney to deliver the notice. My sister lived by so I asked her to drive by daily to see if there were any signs that someone lived there.
, suffers from Night Terrors almost every night. When he was invited to spend the night at a friends house I explained to the mother about Night Terrors and she replied that she had them as a child and never knew what they were. My little Chandler, bless his heart, tried staying awake all night because his friends mother might not know how to take care of him. He finally nodded off about 3am. When he’d spend the night at my sisters he was OK because he knew his aunt would be able to help him. I reassured him that if he ever spends the night somewhere I wouldn’t let him stay if I didn’t feel confident that they’d be able to care for him
Comments (0)