Seattle Realtor Courtney Cooper Seattle Real Estate, Seattle Washington

Happy Halloween Seattle! Looking for something fun to do? How about a nearby pumpkin farm?

Hope everyone has had a great week and that you have a wonderful Halloween tomorrow! There are a ton of great in city events tonight and tomorrow, but heading out to a pumpkin farm is always fun and there are surprisingly many of them just outside of Seattle neighborhoods! Here are some recent shots from our little trip out to the country to go to the pumpkin farm:)

Happy Halloween! Have fun and be safe!

Backyard cottages are a nice solution that many Seattle homeowners have been interested in for a variety of reasons. A Seattle backyard cottage, officially known as a detached ADU or accessory dwelling unit, can be a nice solution for a college aged child or aging parent among other things and a great way to financially make ends meet. Southeast Seattle has allowed them since 2006 and the Mayor introduced legislation to allow them across the city back in March of this year under a certain set of rules and regulations.

Upcoming meeting to discuss Seattle Backyard Cottages: Nov 2nd at 2 PM for council vote on Backyard cottage legislation. This is still tentatively scheduled, but you can get more info here: http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/Planning/Backyardcottages/Overview/

Seattle Backyard Cottages Guidelines:

Since introducing the idea in March, 18 homeowners have applied to add one in their back yard. Certain rules and guidelines must be followed to qualify. Here are some, but you can find more details on the city site.

1. Lot must be at least 4000 square feet in area with additional minimum width and depth requirements.

2. The house and the backyard cottage together can not exceed the current 35% limit for lot coverage.

3. Cottage square footage limit is 800 sq feet.

4. Height limit of cottage is 15-23 feet high depending on the lot width.

5. Parking is required.

6. The owner must live in either the primary residence or the backyard cottage (like a Seattle ADU).

Are you interested in finding a Seattle home where you can add an ADU such as an interior one in the basement or a backyard cottage? Seattle real estate offers many opportunities like this and knowing the rules and guidelines is key to making it work for you financially. Let me know if you have questions!

Thinking about converting your basement or attic into rental income? Seattle has a great policy for allowing accessory dwelling units (ADU) on residential properties. This is a great way to be able to rent out part of your home and allow someone to legally live in a separate part of your home while you live there. Additionally, you can live in the ADU yourself if you choose and the renter can live in the main home. It doesn't matter as long as you stay within the city's guidelines for establishing an attached accessory dwelling unit.

Seattle ADU rules, rquirements & guidelines (you have to meet all of them although there are some variances allowed if applied for properly):

1. the home has to be occupied by one or more owners and the owner has to have at least a 50% interest in the property. Additionally, the owner occupant has to live there for at least 6 months a year.

2. Unless all residents in both units are related to each other, the limit is eight people in the entire structure.

3. One off street parking space must be provided for ADU( you can apply for a waiver on this one).

4. Only one ADU for each home (this includes backyard cottage or ADU).

5. ADU can only be 1000 square feet although there are some more details for getting around this if the ADU is all on one floor and structure was in existence prior to 6/1/1999.

6. Usually only one entrance can be located on front or side street locations. Ther eare some exceptions.

7. Window for sleeping room has to be a certain size - according to city literature:

"In sleeping rooms located in buildings constructed after Aug. 10, 1972, or in rooms converted or established for sleeping purposes after August 10, 1972, there shall be at least one operable window or exterior door approved for emergency escape or rescue. The window or door must be operable from the inside. All emergency escape windows shall have a minimum net clear opening of 5.7 square feet (grade floor openings allowed to be 5 square feet), a minimum net clear openable height dimension of 24 inches, and a minimum net clear openable width dimension of 20 inches. The window must have a finished sill height not more than 44 inches above the floor. The sill height may be measured from the top of a constructed step with a riser of not more than 7 inches."

8. The ADU has to meet all current Seattle residential standards for building, mechanical, electrical, and energy codes. (Look for good ceiling height and egress. )

9. Electrical boxes either have to be located in common areas or in the areas for the units they serve.

(Make sure and check out the city's application here: http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/publications/cam/cam116a.pdf)

Seattle Mother In Law, Backyard Cottage, ADU...

These are all different! An ADU is different than a mother in law (MIL) apartment which is a separate residence within a home and allows you to rent out the MIL apartment without having to live in the other part of your home. Backyard Cottages are also different. An ADU us the best way to live in your home and have either legal separate living quarters fro your nanny or housekeeper or make extra income to offset your mortgage.

Are you interested in finding a Seattle home that you can convert part of the space into an ADU? Seattle is ADU friendly and Seattle real estate has opportunities for just this type of set up!

Upper Queen Anne is beautiful - I especially love the retail all along Queen Anne Ave N and the walkability that most of the homes in this area offer. I wanted to look at homes in the Upper Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle that score extremely high on Walk Score so I looked at the market just from 4th Ave W all the way East to 4th Ave N and from W Smith Street and Queen Anne Dr to the North down to W Lee St and Lee St where the hill starts really impeding walkability. I would expect that all of these houses score in the high 80s to well over 90 on Walk Score's site.

Queen Anne's real estate market has been very active this year and Upper Queen Anne especially. These numbers do not include townhomes which I will pull out separately in another post. There are currently 16 Active homes in this area of the Queen Anne neighborhood. There are 6 pending homes and 37 sold in the last six months. Queen Anne homes are selling!

Active Queen Anne lisintg: These are Queen Anne homes that are available right now on the market. These range in price from $525,000 to $1,545,000 with an average of $826,557 and a median list price of $783,835. I have previewed or toured most of these and there are some amazing offerings included so let me know if you are interested and I can show you my favorites. Pending Sales: This is Queen Anne Real estate that has not closed yet, but has offers. Sold homes: 37 in the last 6 months!!!! This is great news! They range in price from a very affordable $375,000 to $1,900,000 with an average of $741,5111 and a median of $660,000. Average days on market was 68 days for Queen Anne homes.

Average listing price per square foot is $309 for these homes and average selling price per square foot is $306.

Happy Halloween Queen Anne!

Eastlake is interesting because although there are single family traditional homes, most of them don't come up for sale very often. That has been the case for the last six month of sales and also for the current Eastlake homes for sale that are available now. Excluding Eastlake condos, single family Eastlake homesare comprised of mostly townhouses, then houseboats, then regular single family traditional homes. Eastlake Townhomes have been the dominating factor for single family residential in this Seattle neighborhood recently.

Current Eastlake Homes for sale:

There are currently 25 Active or Contingent homes available in the NWMLS in the Eastlake Neighborhood. 24 of them are Active and 1 Townhouse on Minor Ave E is listed as Contingent. Out of these 25 Eastlake homes, there are only really three traditional historic Seattle homes-historical and not floating because we all know that houseboats are extremely historical. Speaking of Seattle houseboats, there are three available in Eastlake right now that are Active. The other 19 Active listings are for townhomes or very townhome like homes. You can see this is a major part of the market!

Eastlake Homes Moving!

There are 8 Eastlake homes in escrow right now marked as some type of Pending status in the MLS - four townhomes, 3 floating homes, and one home which is probably a tear down on Louisa right behind Louisa's Bakery. It is pending feasibility right now because the prospective buyers probably need to find out if the height restriction on one portion of it will work for their building plans (this history on that one is kind of cool).

Eastlake sales: There have been 13 in the last six months that have closed. Houseboats and townhomes are really driving that number with 6 closed Seattle houseboats and 6 closed townhomes in the last six months! One 1921 little cutie sold as well - a traditional single family residence with 1 bedroom and 1 bath.. more townhomes there? I hope not - it was so cute!

If you are interested in Eastlake real estate we are happy to help you find your perfect Lake Union home!