Rob Graham

I have an inspection this afternoon that I helped a buyer client of mine purchase which brought this little nugget of wisdom to mind. 

You should always plan on attending the inspection. 

Inspections take about two hours for the average size home.   If you need to get a sitter, put in for a day off or just plain play hooky, you want to be there.  The inspector will go over the entire house.   They will look at all major systems and offer all kinds of advice.  An inspection is not a pass fail thing. 

Every inspection will find something that need to be addressed even on homes that are just built.   

While the inspection is going on, it is good to be present as a buyer because a good inspector will point out things that you will want to know even if they are not things that need to be addressed immediately.  For example the approximate age of the roof and hot water heater, recent code updates, how to earthquake proof appliances, etc.  All things that you as a home owner, especially first time home owners, will want to hear.  It is all great information and the more you have the more you can avoid problems in the future. 

Give me a call if you need help.

Ok, I am a big enough person to admit when someone else is better at something then me.  I was on You Tube and found these fantastic videos about various neighborhoods in Seattle.  They do a far better job showcasing the neighborhoods and are hosted by some great local people.  There are several I love, but rather then inundate you with all of them, I think I will sprinkle them in on occasion among my other posts.  Here is one about Pioneer Square. 

Enjoy!

When you are considering buying a home visit the home at different times of the week and at different times of day. During any one visit you may not notice that there is no sunlight in the backyard or that there is significantly more road noise during rush hour. A bedroom my get significant morning light which can effect heat and the ability to sleep late. The more different perspectives you get on a home, the more informed your choice will be.

Happy Hunting.

Another agent in my office came across this in a title report and I had to share it.

It isn't unusual for neighborhoods or housing developments to have covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&R's) similar to condominium complexes. Many of them state that there is a fee for common features like maintenance of a park or bike path. They usually specify that the house needs to be maintained to a certain standard and that you can't park an RV in the front yard yadda, yadda, yadda. All very common items. But this, I was not ready for.

When CC&R's are recorded for a neighborhood they are also recorded on title. If the property does not change hands for many years those restrictions are often not updated. The following, dated April of 1941, was included on a recent title report under the CC&R's:

"No person of any race other then the White or Caucasian race shall use or occupy any building or any lot, except that this covenant shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of a different race domiciled with an owner or tenant. "

Thankfully the agent read the title report and had the offensive paragraph removed. While such restrictions are now illegal, they were quite common in yester year. I guess you can look at this one of two ways. You can be shocked, horrified, saddened or even guilty.

OR (as I choose to look at it)

You can be glad that we have come out of that era. Granted, we haven't come as far as we could, but still, I think we are better off then 1941 as far as race relations in this country. A black man is leading in the polls to become the first black president after all. (and yes I said "black man". For those of you that prefer African American feel free to insert your term of choice. I choose to say "black" because my "black" friends prefer the term "black". I mean no disrespect.)

Who knows what another 67 years will bring us. Just think the 40's are nearly half way between us and the Civil War. In another 67 years who knows what we might see. We might even have an all gay republican ticket. (and yes I said "gay" because my "gay" friends prefer the term "gay". I mean no disrespect) In 67 more years, perish the thought, we might actually start referring to individuals and not even refer to their race, creed, sexual orientation, etc. and not have to apologize in parenthesis for using the term black or gay.

Dare to dream.

Everyone loves to see the progress on home projects so here is the first update from the Magnolia Estate Sale.  Here is a quick update.  Myself and another agent were contacted to list an estate sale home in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle.  We gave a list of preparation suggestions that the family is happy to follow through on.  Here is the progress so far. 

First here are some pictures of the house as it looked when we first saw it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we had an estate sale to get rid of the contents:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we had it painted:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today the sanding and finishing of the floors starts.

Later this week we are going to stage and do landscaping:

Total price to the owner is in the neighborhood of $10,000.  Money I am absolutely positive they will make back on the sale.  The house should be listed next week. 

Stay tuned.