Greg & Brian Perry, Working-for-you

By Greg Perry, Kirkland Realtor
www.425realty.com

    I am the proud father of a U.S. Marine who served a tour in Kuwait and Iraq.  Over the weekend, we celebrated Kevin's birthday. 

Kevin has always been the ultimate team player.  As a youth hockey player, he was always the inspirational leader of every team he played on.  Just as he was graduating from high school, Kevin decided to enlist in the Marine Corp.

Kevin had a problem, however.  He suffered a knee injury in his last year of hockey and he failed his physical.  Military doctors told him that surgery was his only option, and there was no guarantee he would pass the physical after rehab.

Kevin had his operation, and worked like a man possessed to rehab his knee.  His goal was to become a U.S. Marine.

It took him a year to earn his way into the Corp.  Kevin never took his eye off his goal.  He went through basic training with flying colors.  The day of his graduation was an emotional day for me.

Kevin was gung-ho when he got the call to serve in Kuwait, where he was at the time the war started in Iraq.  He was more than willing to go and serve and felt the importance of what he was doing in his every fiber.  Again, as a Marine, Kevin was the ultimate team player.  Thank God, he made it back.  I hated it when Kevin was in harm's way.

As a parent, we try to raise our children to beome contributers to society.  We want them to make independent decisions.  We teach them how to set goals and hope they become givers to others. 

It is not easy, however, when your child volunteers to put himself into harms way.  Kevin made a hard decision and he matured quickly in the Marine Corp.

Now at 26, Kevin is married to a beautiful woman, Sherry, and they own a lovely home.  He is doing well with his occupation and taking college classes in the evening. 

I am so proud of Kevin.  Happy Birthday, son.

Here's tribute to all the men and women who are serving in our armed forces.  I pray for them.....and their parents.

Kitchen yes, bathrooms yes -- but the living room often gets left out when it comes to writing about home improvements.

In fact in some house designs these days, great rooms are replacing formal living rooms.

But what if your living room could use a face-lift?

Generally speaking, remodeling your living room means doing one or more of the following projects:

• Replacing or renovating the floor.
• Refinishing walls.
• Upgrading lighting and other electrical systems.
• Adding or changing features, such as a new fireplace or built in bookcase.
• Applying moldings, wainscot or a new mantel.
• New window coverings.
• Expanding the overall space.

Your living room is one of the most straightforward of rooms to remodel. And, because it's your home's most public space, redoing the living room gives the whole house a new look.

Greg Perry, Kirkland Realtor
www.425realty.com

Absorption rates are the ratio between ACTIVE and PENDING inventory. Using this ratio, we can see how many Months of Inventory an area holds. Residential sales --not including condo sales.

0-3 months = Seller's advantaged market
3-6 months = Balanced market
6 plus months = Buyers advantaged market

Here are the Absorption rates for the Eastside NWMLS areas:

In March, both NWMLS areas 510 and 530 East Bellevue have improved to Balanced Markets.
The upper end inventory is hurting many of the Eastside areas from showing better overall absorption. For instance, Redmond Area 550 would easily qualify as a balanced market without the upper end. Area 550 had only 4 sales in the last 7 weeks out of 68 homes on the market. The price range in Area 550 under $500k is approaching a Seller's advantaged market.

Here are the Absorption rates for the In-city NWMLS areas:

For the in-city areas, NWMLS 705, 710, 720,140,700,385 and 715 have all improved to Balanced markets. Many of the low end price ranges in the in-city areas are currently Seller's markets.

Send me an email or give me a call if you would like more detailed information for your area.

Information compiled from but not published or verified by NWMLS.

By Greg Perry
Eastside Realtor

It's finally clear. Seller's are asking for more, but not getting it......at least in NWMLS AREA 530, East Bellevue.

I assembled a complete study of SOLD residential (not condos) properties for Area 530 by price ranges comparing the 3 month period between January 15 and April 15 for both 2007 and 2008. Some of my findings confirmed what I was thinking.......and there were some surprises.

Why don't we clear up a little terminology. OLP = Original List Pirce, LP = List Price (at the time of sale), SP = SOLD price and CDOM = Continuous Days on Market.

Let's see if we can make some sense out of NWMLS Area 530.The first chart is for SOLD inventory $500,000 and under:

The first thing that we notice is that Sellers got almost the same money for their homes in this price range as they did last year, yet their starting price was about 5% more! In 2007, the average Seller's starting price was $449,968. This year they started out with an OLP of $472,345. At their starting OLP, sellers found themselves right at 6% away from their eventual sales price. Buyer's still negotiated another 3.41% after the sellers dropped their prices from the LP at the time.

In 2008, only one home (102.10%) sold for over list price and 4 homes sold for full price. The best negotiation in this 2008 group was 86.40% of the LP. In 2007, 13 homes sold for over LP, and another 11 homes sold right at the LP. The best negotiation in 2007 was 92.20% of LP, and one home sold for 114.30% of LP.

Here's another interesting tid bit. Bigger homes were in the mix. Sellers needed to throw in an additional 300 square feet to get their deal, and as we can clearly see, the price per square foot was quite a bit less in 2008.

There were 11 more homes closed last year during this period and they sold 13 days quicker on average in 2007.

Conclusions for this price range: Buyers did the best job negotiating in this lowest price range than any other price range in area 530. This was a suprise to me. I expected to see buyers in higher priced home achieve more in negotiations. Clearly it took "more home" to get the money as the price per square foot dropped significantly in this price range. Market times showed just a modest increase.

Price range $501,000-$700,000:

In this price range, the sellers again tried asking 5% more for their homes than sellers in the same period last year. Again their starting point was close to 6% away from their eventual sales price. Buyers were able to negotiate an average of 2.16% from the LP at the time of sale.

Sellers received on average the same as they did last year. The price per square foot was virtually the same, as well as the eventual average sales price.

13 more units sold in 2007, selling in about half the time. In 2008, only 2 homes sold for over listing price and 10 homes at LP. The best negotiation in 2008 was 84.80% of LP. Last year in 2007, the majority of homes in this price range sold for at LP or higher (31 out of 55).

Conclusions for this price range: It's fairly easy to see that Sellers were pushing for a 5% price increase, but did not get it. I always expect the SP % to LP ratio under 3% and in fact it was in this price range. This was an apples-to-apples price range comparison as the average square feet was virtually identical. Market time doubled from 62 days to 123 days.

Tomorrow, we'll look at the price ranges $701,000 to $900,000 and $901,000 to $1,500,000.

Information compliled from, but not verified or published by the NWMLS

By Greg Perry
Eastside Realtor

A New Dog For Your New Home!
By Greg Perry, Kirkland Realtor
www.425realty.com

For many, having a pet to love is one of the criteria used in a house selection. We include memories and experiences of our loved dogs, cats and other pets in our experience we call "home".

In our family, we've always had a dog (often more than one). Our dogs have always been integral part of our family experience. In the last few years, our love for dogs have actually turned into our hobby (or passion), as we now exhibit purebred cairn terriers in conformation shows and performance events.

We work with many clients who cite a new dog as one of their goals. I always ask them what kind of dog they like. I love to hear the dreams.

Selecting a dog is always a very emotional experience. For all the dogs in the world there is little education on actually how to acquire one. In fact many people see a cute little ball of fur in a pet store and make an impulse decision to buy....never knowing or thinking about the consequences of that action.

In fact, buying pet store puppies propagates extreme cruelty to dogs. Those puppies come from from puppy mill breeders. The breeding stock live in horrendous conditions and the puppy mill owners consider them an agricultural crop.

Last Friday on the Oprah show, she exposed puppy mill practices and good ways to pick your next dog. I have to admit that much of this show sent me sideways. I shed more than a few tears, especially when they showed dogs being rescued from brutal conditions and being placed into loving homes with wonderful care.

I thought the show was well done. Oprah knew that dog lovers would have a real problem watching this segment. She implored anyone who loves dogs to do the hard thing and watch the show, for a better understanding of the shady side of the dog world, and what to do about it.

Oprah exposed the horror of the puppy mills in a way I've never seen. The puppy mills visited were run by the Amish. The Amish and other puppy mill breeders consider the dogs an agricultural crop, similar to an ear of corn. The dogs are raised and housed in brutal conditions. A mid sized dog may live in a 2x2 rabbit style hutch with a wire bottom for his/her entire life. These cages are stacked so feces and urine move through to the lower inhabitants. Most of the dogs had severe coat and skin problems in addition to being filthy. The brutality of their practices know few boundaries. Their product is sold through pet stores.

They spotlighted a cocker female, who at 7 years old, a Humane Society rep was able to rescue. He estimated that she could have whelped as many as 140 puppies in her productive breeding life there. The farmer couldn't believe that anyone would let that girl walk inside their house on a carpet. He laughed at the thought.

The piece also showed the public what it was like to euthanize up to 40 dogs a day because of the over population problem in a big city shelter.

Oprah featured her personal vet who made a plea for spay and neuter, and the benefits of a spayed or neutered dog. They actually filmed an neuter operation to attempt to show how simple the procedure is.

She also showed committed dog lovers who run "no kill" shelters who are responsible for placing thousands of animals into homes.

The adoption of an old, blind dog was also shown. This was a sweet moment.

The AKC (American Kennel Club) had a statement about using responsible breeders.

The show was summed up with education about how to acquire a dog. They emphasized several times DO NOT buy puppies from a pet store. The vast majority of dogs in shelters ARE purebred dogs, and a new owners are likely to get any breed at most any age they choose. They also highlighted purebred rescue groups and individual breed rescue groups who are committed to taking care of their individual breeds. Reputable breeders who are committed to the care of any dog they whelp -- for as long as it lives-- was also explained and endorsed as a good way to acquire a dog.

If your vision of home includes owning a dog, please do some research and.....buy responsibly.

Here is a link from the Oprah website on "What you need to know before getting a dog"

To see a complete review of the Oprah segment and Lisa Ling's startling expose of puppy mills, CLICK HERE

To see more on our cairn terriers, go to our cairn terrier website, Crofters Dream, Working Cairn Terriers