Rob Graham

Here is another great resource for public school information anywhere in the state of Washington. The Office of the Superintendant of Public Instruction (OSPI) maintians a web site that can be accessed indepentdently or from many school district web sites. The site offers information on the entire state, a given school district or any given school. Information provided includes demographic information on students, teacher information and testing results. You can choose the most recent year or go back to previous years to see progress.

OSPI Washington State Report Card

Related Topics:

Seattle Area School Information

I attended a class on Tuesday to get familiar with the new distressed property law that goes into effect on the 12^th. There is a bit of a different wrinkle in the state of Washington so I thought I would share.

The law is intended to protect people facing foreclosure from being preyed upon by folks trying to take advantage of them. You know the ones. The guys advertizing on billboards to buy your house from you and rent it back to you to avoid foreclosure. They then tell you, that you can buy it back from them at a later date. If you read the fine print you find that the obstacles to actually buying your house back are pretty steep and it is easy to lose your house. Then they get your house for a bargain and turn a nice profit.

The legislature (I think rightly so) sees this as predatory and has enacted a law to try to prevent it. The problem is that if a seller is facing foreclosure and is selling their house with an agent, the agent unwittingly falls under this law. We become what the law deems a "Distressed Home Consultant", and our job becomes much more difficult. In recognition of this most states have enacted an exemption for agents, since agency law requires that we are "acting in the best interest of our clients". Agency law would therefore prevent us from engaging in practices that would harm out client. But for some strange reason Washington didn't see the need to provide such an exemption.

The fall out is, that we have additional paperwork for sellers to fill out, to indicate if the property is in foreclosure or the seller has concerns about possibly facing foreclosure in the next four months. So, if you are a seller, please inform your agent if you are distressed (although they should be making you aware of this). If you are a listing agent, check out the new forms on line. They are there to protect you from suspicion of predatory practices. It will be at least until next April before the legislature can consider providing us with an exemption, so for now we are stuck with it.

US News and World report's June 9^th issue, ranks pediatric hospitals across the country. The survey ranked 113 hospitals based on the responses from 1,100 pediatric doctors from across the country. I won't bore you with the details of the survey and like a five year old skipping straight to dessert, I'll jump right to the results. Needless to say Seattle Children's scored amazingly high. As a volunteer, I am always ready to share great news about Children's.

General Pediatrics:

•1. Children's Philadelphia

•2. Children's Boston

•3. Cincinnati Children's

•4. Johns Hopkins Baltimore

•5. Children's Cleveland

•6. Texas Children's Houston

•7. Children's Denver

•8. Children's Seattle

•9. Children's LA

•10. Children's Pittsburgh

Seattle Children's ranking in other categories:

Cancer Care: 5^th

Neonatal Care: 23^rd

Neurology & Neurosurgery: 8^th

Respiratory Disorders: 9^th

Congratulations Children's. It is an amazing gift that we have a world class institution like that in our own backyard. If you would like to read the entire article, follow the link:

http://health.usnews.com/sections/health/best-childrens-hospitals

If you would like more info on Seattle Children's or would like to make a donation, give me a call or go directly to their web site:

http://www.seattlechildrens.org/

A woman contacted me today asking about Seattle Schools. After responding to her question I thought I would post the information in case anyone else had similar questions.

The Seattle Times actually maintains a great web site about local districts. The map feature is really helpful to see current boundaries of school Districts. Click on a given district to get a brief synopsis of that district. I think it is really helpful for anyone basing a purchase decision on district reputation.

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/schoolguide/districts.html

In addition there are a couple of other web sites I would recommend.

GreatSchools.net is an excellent resource for parents of school age children. It has all kinds of articles about being a parent of a school age child.

http://www.greatschools.net/

SchoolMatters.com is another excellent resource to find out information about specific teachers, schools and districts. In fact you can look at other parent's comments about specific schools and
teachers.

http://www.schoolmatters.com/

Here are web sites to specific districts:

Bainbridge Island: http://www.bainbridge.wednet.edu/

Bellevue: http://www.bsd405.org/

Edmonds: http://www.edmonds.wednet.edu/

Everett: http://www.everett.k12.wa.us/everett

Federal Way: http://www.fwps.org/

Highline: http://www.hsd401.org/

Issaquah: http://www.issaquah.wednet.edu/

Kent: http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/webnav/

Lake Washington: http://www.lwsd.org/Pages/default.aspx

Mercer Island: http://www.misd.k12.wa.us/

Monroe: http://www.monroe.wednet.edu/

Mukilteo: http://www.mukilteo.wednet.edu/

North Shore: http://www.nsd.org/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectionid=1

Renton: http://www.renton.wednet.edu/

Seattle: http://www.seattleschools.org/area/main/index.dxml

Shoreline: http://www.shorelineschools.org/

Snohomish: http://www.sno.wednet.edu/

Vashon Island: http://www.vashonsd.wednet.edu/

Info current as of 05/28/08

Wallingford is a great neighborhood but often over looked. It has experienced the same phenomenon as much of Seattle in that it has seen the addition of many condos. The Cosmopolitan Condos are actually a hotel conversion. The market therefore is very different for condos vs. single family homes. Condos are taking nearly twice as long to sell and are seeing a buyer's market. The homes for sale are still showing a very balanced market and have the time on market.

As a side note, there are two marinas in Wallingford on N. Lake Union that have house barges. There are only a few available but they are sitting for considerably longer time. If you have ever thought of living on the water, this could be your chance.

As a residential real estate specialist, my focus is on finding and selling first and second homes all over the Seattle area. If you are in the market for a home or looking to sell your existing home and need help, please don't hesitate to call, click or e-mail me. I'd love to help.