Burien, WA

Come to Burien Town Square this Saturday, June 13th for the opening of the Burien Transit Center, the new Burien Library, City Hall, Town Square Park and condominium and retail building. There will be the ribbon-cutting at the new library/city hall building first, and then tours of all the new facilities will be offered.

There will also be programs and entertainment, as well as sponsor booths. Come by and visit us at the Prudential booth! It will be a fun day, and a big celebration for the city of Burien. Don't miss it! Festivities start at 10:00 a.m. See you there!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

You can reach me at 206-595-5866, or e-mail me: LisaBosques@PNWRealty.com

Or visit my website: www.98146online.com

I am an Associate Broker and Marketing Specialist with Prudential Northwest Realty Associates. I specialize in homes located in the Burien/North Highline/West Seattle area, and I am here to serve all of your Real Estate needs.
Your success is my goal!

• What Is My Home Worth?
• Search For Properties
• Search Foreclosures
• Search Sold Property Data By Neighborhood

Prayer

We have two agents in our office who, for about the last year and a half, have had what we've come to call, "career listings". You know, those certain listings that you really want to sell, but fear that in your heart of hearts never, ever will.

These poor ladies - every week at the office meeting they've had to endure questions from us, their peers: "So, how's your listing in ___?"

"It's still there..." is the usual reply. We can all relate, can't we?

Well, this past weekend one of the agents(let's call her Sharon) walks in the door and loudly exclaims, "OH MY GOSH! I just sold (let's call her Pammy)'s listing!" Now, "Pammy" has a number of listings, but we all knew the one she was talking about. Then she says, "and my sellers got an offer on their house!" We knew which listing she was talking about there too. Needless to say we broke out in applause. We were truly happy for these ladies because it's been a long hard road for them to get these listings sold.

Yes, it took a year and a half of hard work, but to what else does "Sharon" give credit for this? Lots of prayer. In fact, she had a prayer group of 20 people praying for these transactions to come together after all else failed.

Now, we all know that we can't conclusively determine that this was the reason for the sale. Then again, the power of prayer has been widely discussed and documented. Why not give it a try?

Frustrated Pleas

I have some listings in my Listing Cart that I am watching for a client. A week ago, I noticed that a new comment had been added to the Marketing Remarks of one of those listings.

It read: "FOR THE LOVE OF !@**?#! PEOPLE! WHAT'S TAKING YOU SO LONG? BUY THIS ALREADY!!!

I just checked on it today. It's Pending.

Superstition

I don't really have a personal story for this, but I am intrigued by the number of accounts that I hear about sellers and real estate agents resorting to burying St. Joseph statues in the yard. People who have done this have sworn by its success, they say that provided that you and your seller BELIEVE in the power of St. Joseph and open your mind to the possibility that this can work, it indeed will.

Well, at this point I'm open to anything. So I'm off in search of five St. Joseph statues; while I'm at it I think I'll rummage through some boxes to see if I can find that container of holy water that someone brought back for me from the Vatican. It can't hurt, right?

UPDATE: What a coinky-dinky! I just looked at the blogroll and saw Sharon Cobb's blog about St. Joseph working for her. Check it out: http://activerain.com/blogsview/1106721/any-realtors-out-there-using-st-joseph-and-i-m-not-talking-about-aspirins-

P.S. I hope no one's offended that I refer to ST. Joseph as a superstition. I'm just using that at its most literal definition. I don't believe religion is superstitious, and have respect for all religions!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

You can reach me at 206-595-5866, or e-mail me: LisaBosques@PNWRealty.com

Or visit my website: www.98146online.com

I am an Associate Broker and Marketing Specialist with Prudential Northwest Realty Associates. I specialize in homes located in the Burien/North Highline/West Seattle area, and I am here to serve all of your Real Estate needs.
Your success is my goal!

• What Is My Home Worth?
• Search For Properties
• Search Foreclosures
• Search Sold Property Data By Neighborhood

There's a phrase we sometimes like to use in our office that goes something along the lines of, "It's better to under-promise and over-deliver" than vice-versa. Sometimes I wish we would remember this when taking photos and creating the marketing for our listings.

It's understandable to want to point out every single feature of the property and highlight their benefits. It's our job as real estate agents and marketing specialists to do what we can to make the property as appealing to potential buyers and their agents as possible.

However, I believe that often times we can be guilty of not looking at the property through the eyes of a potential buyer. By not doing this we risk offending the buyer and his/her agent, possibly to the point of not being able to see past the embellishments, or even to the point of venturing all the way out to your listing only to feel so deceived that they choose not to go inside.

Why do I bring this up? I was showing properties on Saturday to a client, whose one and only must-have is a decent view of the water and mountains. I had previewed several homes and ruled out the ones that boasted, "View!" in the marketing remarks but that indeed did not have one. Late Friday night, I found four price reductions on the Hotsheet. The marketing remarks and photos led me to believe that we would be rewarded with decent views once we got inside their listings. I kept them on the list, and we went out to see them the next day.

Out of those four, only one had a view that was accurately described by the agent...it was awesome...and the house was gone by Tuesday. The other 3 homes had NO VIEW WHATSOEVER. Yes, they were one block away from Alki Beach, but, alas, no views from any window anywhere in the houses. You had to stand on the roof to see that kind of view. This is how they've been marketed for months; alas, they are now subject to short sale. Why wasn't it enough to just say that they were a block away from the beach?

Also over the weekend, I spoke with another agent in my office who was out showing homes. One of the homes had the most amazing photos; it looked absolutely stunning from the outside. The photos had so much brightness and color that they looked like oil paintings. But when the agent and buyer got to the house, they were shocked to find that though they did have the right address, that the real house looked nothing like the one in the MLS photo. The buyer was angered, and insisted on going on to the next property without even going inside that house.

When I heard this agent's story, it made me remember a time a few years ago when my husband and I thought that we wanted to move. We also saw a house that looked absolutely stunning from the picture; the yard looked like a neverending prairie, and the exterior of the home had not one single flaw. We got in the car and drove over there, and were so disappointed to find that the house looked a hundred times worse than the picture that we didn't even bother to go inside.

This is really happening out there...don't let it happen to your listings. If you advertise a view, buyers expect to see that view, while sitting down, from the main floor windows; they don't want to have to stand on a coffee table on their tip-toes and peer over a neighbor's roofline. And taking Photoshop to the point where the house doesn't look like itself anymore is pretty much like putting lipstick on a pig...no one will fall for it.

Happy Selling!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

You can reach me at 206-595-5866, or e-mail me: LisaBosques@PNWRealty.com

Or visit my website: www.98146online.com

I am an Associate Broker and Marketing Specialist with Prudential Northwest Realty Associates. I specialize in homes located in the Burien/North Highline/West Seattle area, and I am here to serve all of your Real Estate needs.
Your success is my goal!

• What Is My Home Worth?
• Search For Properties
• Search Foreclosures
• Search Sold Property Data By Neighborhood

Q. Where can you buy these...

and these...

and a loaf of this...

and a bunch of these...?

A. Why, at the Burien Farmer's Market, of course! And someone in particular would really like to know...

Are you gonna be there or not?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

You can reach me at 206-595-5866, or e-mail me: LisaBosques@PNWRealty.com

Or visit my website: www.98146online.com

I am an Associate Broker and Marketing Specialist with Prudential Northwest Realty Associates. I specialize in homes located in the Burien/North Highline/West Seattle area, and I am here to serve all of your Real Estate needs.
Your success is my goal!

• What Is My Home Worth?
• Search For Properties
• Search Foreclosures
• Search Sold Property Data By Neighborhood

Spring Garden Art Sale 2009

Studio Artists' Annual Spring Garden Art Sale

Moshier Community Art Center

430 S. 156th Burien, WA 98166

Saturday, April 25th, noon-6pm

Sunday, April 26th, noon-6pm

My friend, Dana Lasswell, is one of the featured artists at this annual Spring show highlighting local potters. You can learn more about her at her website: www.lasswellarts.com

salmon on the rocks

Leaf Spirits