Marlene Scheffer, Realtor to Kitsap County, WA

You've just gotten back from three months at sea. The sun is shining, it's nice and warm, and it's 4:00 Friday afternoon. What are you going to do now?

Rolling Hills Golf Course In Bremerton, WA, may just be the thing for you! The 18 hole, regulation-length golf course is open to the public. Built in 1972, the course is apptly named -- the fairways are long expanses of sogtly rolling hills of green grass and water features.

The atmosphere at Rolling Hills is very laid back, perfect for a lazy afternoon of golf. Dress is casual, of course.

Rolling Hills includes a driving range, strategically placed next to Putters Restaurant and Lounge, where cold beer and hot fries are easy access. The beverage cart careens through the course on a regular basis, offering more cold beer and chilled soda and water to thirsty golfers.

The course is easy enough for beginners and kids, and very amenable to hosting groups also. The par 70 course is also very affordable, with green fees ranging from $35 to $45.

If you are new to Kitsap County and have just reported to Naval Base Kitsap, you may be wondering what to do in the area as spring approaches.

Silverdale Waterfront Park is a wonderful 17 acre recreation facility by Kitsap Parks and Recreation located right in the heart of Silverdale! The park as well as the attached Port of Silverdale will thrill both children and boaters alike.

The park boasts covered and uncovered picnic benches, a beach for beachcombing, several barbeques, and a fantastic playground. In the summer, a gazebo is often the gathering place for free concerts and movies.

We especially like the playground area at the park. The playground equipment is in great condition, and I have little fear of my son being hurt there thanks to the soft ground under the playground. It was resurfaced last year with a play surface made from 24,000 recycled athletic shoes!

As boaters, it is really nice to pull the boat up to the Port of Silverdale's pier and use the playground next door to help my three-year-old burn more energy. There is a popular boat launch at the site, which can handle boats at most but not all low tides. We learned that the hard way with our last, smaller boat...

The pier is open from April to October. There is no permanent moorage at the Port of Silverdale pier, but transient moorage is available for up to three nights. Cost is between $5 and $10 per night, and includes fresh water hook-ups, electricity and pump out station. For more information, see the Port of Silverdale website.

Right across the street is Old Town Silverdale, a quaint collection of restaurants, personal services, and speciality shops and boutiques. It's very easy to make a day of it, whether you arrive by boat, on foot, or by car or bus!

I've been a navy spouse for eight years now, and was a navy brat for more than, well, I won't tell my age. I like to think I am a pretty well-informed military spouse, but I had no idea how easy it was to get over-the-counter meds free from the Bremerton Naval Hospital until recently!

I had heard that you could get certain meds free, but I always assumed that it would be a huge pain in the rear to do so, like so many "benefits" of the military are. But my good friend, Barbara A., told me to go check out the drive-through refill pharmacy at Jackson Park, near the Bremerton Naval Hospital.

Sure enough! It only took ten minutes, and I didn't even have to get out of my car. A really cool thing, especially since I am on crutches right now and had my three year old son in the car.

Take the second right turn of of Austin Drive into the Jackson Park navy housing complex, and the refill pharmacy is immediately on your right. As you pull in to the drive-through window, you will see a box of forms on the driver's side. Grab a form for each of your family members, and fill it out as you wait in line or pull back into a parking spot to fill it out if the line os short.

Military is allowed 3 unique products per family member in any 30 day period. I got adult acetamenaphine, children's liquid acetamenophine, cough suppresant, antacid, and a cream for hubby's athletes foot (welcome to hot days on deployment in the gulf in bad shoes and socks!). Free!

Do understand that these are not name-brand products, but they have the same ingredients and work just as well. When you realize how much it would have cost me to buy these items in a drug store, it was definitely worth the drive and a few minutes of my time. And, they are open on Saturdays!

PS I thought I was the only navy spouse who didn't know about this, but then I ran into my friends and past clients Chris and Tammy K. at Wal-mart, and they were surprised that it was so easy too!

I made a mistake today. I gave a knee-jerk reponse to someone asking for my advice, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I was wrong.

A fellow Navy spouse and Kitsap Moms Meetup member emailed me earlier. She and her family will be PCSing in early summer of 2009, and she wanted to know when I thought they should list their house. My quick response, based on past experience, was January 2009. Many buyers will wait until just after Christmas before beginning their home search in earnest, and typically five or six months is enough time to sell a properly-priced, well-staged home.

Then I thought about the current absorption rate in Kitsap County. In the last 30 days, only 8.25% of the homes listed for sale in Kitsap County actually sold and closed.

Then I thought about the fact that, if no more houses were listed and we just had today's listing inventory to sell, it would take more than 12 months to sell all the houses for sale in Kitsap County.

Then I thought about the fact that Warren Buffet used the R-word yesterday. You know, recession? Not a good sign. So many people actually listen to that self-made billionnaire.

Then the realization that we are in an election year hit me. Whenever there is a change in power in the oval office, chances that the financial climate in the country will stay the same diminish significantly. Who can really predict what the economy will be like one year from now? We can guess, but we really don't know.

Then I really put myself in her shoes. I am a navy wife. I know what it is like to PCS across country with a moving company, the pain of a DITY move, and the inconvenience of a local move using cold beer and pizza to pay your neighbors and co-workers to help you. I know the financial stress of a navy family's salary.

What is more difficult to bear? Let's look at the two extremes. She could list the house soon, sell it 6 or 7 months before leaving the area, and have to live in an apartment for a while. Alternatively, she could wait until January of next year to list, not attract a buyer, and have to move with the house unsold. She will then have to pay a mortgage and rent at their new duty station, or worse, pay two mortgages.

So what would I rather do? What do I tell her to do?

Mandi, I was wrong. List it sooner. If it sells before December, we should count ourselves grateful and I'll help you move into your apartment. I'm thinking sometime between July and September. I wouldn't wait past September. Now is not the time to be betting recklessly. Let's go conservative for a while.

What is the absorption rate in your area? Do you know? Do you use them in your listing presentations?

The absorption rate is the percentage of homes on the market that sell in any given month. The absorption rate assumes that no other homes will be listed before the current inventory runs out. Therefore, make sure your sellers realize that the absorption rate is used as a guideline, that other homes will come on the market in the meantime.

When used in a listing presentation, the absorption rate will give sellers a good idea of how long they can expect it to take before their home sells. It may help sellers realize that their home needs to be priced in the lower end of their price range. Agents, if your sellers need to lower the price of their property but are reluctant to do so, you can use the absorption rate to show them that they need to be aggressively priced in order to sell in today's market.

You can use the absorption rate of the entire county in a general newsletter, or you can figure out the absorption rate for similarly-priced homes in a specific area in a market analysis or price reduction. Use your best judgement to decide the parameters for finding your absorption rate.

To figure the absorption rate, find out how many homes are currently on the market in your area. In Kitsap County, there are 2,037 homes currently for sale.

Then, find out how many homes sold in the last month. From January 27 to February 27 of this year, 168 homes closed in Kitsap County.

If you divide the number of homes available by the number of homes sold, you get 12.125. So, in Kitsap County, we have just over 12 months of inventory on the market. If no other homes are listed, it will take just over a year to sell all the homes on the market today. Sounds daunting, doesn't it?

The absorption rate is the exact opposite formula. Divide the number of homes sold by the number of homes currently for sale. Therefore, in the Kitsap County real estate market, only 8.25% of homes listed sell in a given month. The absorption rate in Kitsap County is 8.25%.