Issaquah, WA

Economic vitality is a key component of a city's health. As real estate professionals, we have a vested interest in helping to build and maintain the the health and economic vitality of the towns and City's where we live and work. In Issaquah, Washington, the Chamber of Commerce is working with its members to encourage the involvement and participation of the business community to help ensure the long term economic vitality of the Issaquah community. A strong business community serves the community by providing jobs, a critical tax base, needed services and products for a community and a needed perspective for a city on how to achieve its desired vision for the community's long term plan. The City of Issaquah, Washington is working to progress economic vitality in the community to support even stronger sustainability. Visit Issaquah, WA. It is a great place to call home!

This is it. This is the weekend for the annual Tastin N Racin, limited hydro races on Lake Sammamish, Issaquah, WA. For the third year Realty Executives of Issaquah has supported this event and will have a booth at the event.

This year the weather promises to be great. We have been experiencing "summer" weather in the PNW - heat in the high 80's and NO RAIN. (Sorry Activerain) Realty Executives of Issaquah has been a participant in this event for the past two years and in those years the weather has been cold and damp. Not this year, the forecasters promise sun and the high 70's. Who Hoo!

Visit our booth and learn the latest benefits for first time homebuyers. Hear how you can still get zero down loans with NO PMI. Realty Executives of Issaquah is working with the Washington State Finance Commission and our partner Golf Savings Bank to provide education to first time homebuyers and access to Washington State supported loan programs by simply attending a 5 hour Seminar on first time homebuyers. Classes are held twice a month at different locations with no charge to participants. Attendees will receive a Certificate of Completion providing access to the State programs.

The other great benefit is the $8,000 tax credit for homebuyers who have not owned a home in the past three years. This money is not required to be paid back as was a previous program. To qualify for this credit you must purchase and close on your home by December 1, 2009.

D. Marty Nelson and Bob Peterson are Broker and Owner of Realty Executives of Issaquah.

Issaquah real estate is on sale! This historic little burrough is well located adjacent to the thriving City of Bellevue and is a welcome respite for the City weary. As a result of Issaquah's proximity to Bellevue, Issaquah real estate tends to lag Bellevue in terms of valuations. For most of us, that is good news. Issaquah real estate is affordable and underrated. Ready for its recovery, Issaquah real estate is poised for an upturn. With interest rates so low and tax credits for first time home buyers, this may well be the opportunity to build your wealth in real estate. Now is the time to buy Issaquah real estate!

If you are interested in learning more about Issaquah real estate, please contact me for more information or visit my website at www.coldwellbankerbain.com/pamelahughes.

Are you living through a short sale? Representing the Seller? It takes a ton of patience and skill to weather the endurance race mistakenly called a "short sale". There is nothing short about it.

My experience began with a listing that was inherited from a agent who had promised a Seller to perform a discounted commission - sale. The house was beautiful in a rural neighborhood and at the time it was worth the $700,000 it was listed for. The Seller was upside down with a negative amortization loan and no job. It was either sell the house or give it back in a foreclosure. Desparate moves resulted in a major price discount to create offers. The price reduction resulted in a solid offer for $655,000 and began the path to the short sale.

My inexperience in this situation began the frustrating process of dealing with two lenders and negotiate with them to accept an offer where neither lender would get back the principal of their loan. Calling the Loss Mitigation Department of a large lender can be a difficult process. Most often the 800 number goes to a call center and is answered by the next person in line. Rarely will you speak to the same person twice. It is very important that you have the client information documents in order before you get started in this process. Financial records, listing agreement, hardship letter, HUD-1 and other items are necessary before they will even begin talking to you about the process.

When you fax information to the Loss Mitigation Department it goes into a computer and is entered into a file without being managed by a real person. In my experience it took at least 4 attempts to fax the information before they acknowledged receipt. It took about two months of faxing and calling before I was able to speak with the person who would be dealing with me to negotiate this transaction. If you have two lenders you will need to deal with two companies in the same process.

Half way through the transaction I was encouraged to hand the process over to a local law firm who specialized in escrow and short sale negotiation. I would like to tell you that this was a superior process but sadly it was not. The communication between the law form and my client was difficult at best. If the law firm worked directly with the client and negotiated on their behalf it might have been easier but in my case I was in the middle and my client of 12 months expected me to be their advocate during the process.

It has been five months since we received our offer and thankfully the buyer was able to delay their closing and allow the process to work its way through the system and eventually close. We are not yet closed but the end is in sight. I recommend to any agent wanting to get involved in a short sale to educate themselves prior to jumping into the process. Take classes, read information about the subject and seek experienced support or make mistakes and jeopardize your sale and commission.

A local organization called Seattle Tilth is having a workshop this coming weekend in Issaquah to teach the public how to raise and keep chickens, they call it "City Chickens". I love the idea of it because then you can have fresh eggs, composting material for your gardens, and chickens naturally want to eat all manner of bugs and slugs. Thankfully, the majority of bugs they eat (and slugs) are non-beneficial to a garden so it's a great way to organically treat a yard for pests. For years I have grown organic vegetables so when I saw that most municipalities will allow up to 3 chickens, even in the city, I thought this could be a great way to expand that practice. Plus, Michael eats eggs all the time for breakfast. I loved the idea of having more local food sources for us and our neighbors to share.

I'm thinking about going to the workshop because I have a desire to keep chickens but I'm not sure I can convince my partner, Michael, that it will be a reasonable thing to do. The first time I brought it up we had 4 pets, and now we have 7, no thanks to a guy we helped out by fostering his cat whom he gave to us pregnant without telling us. So, now we have 3 dogs and 4 cats. The cats are all indoor animals so they won't attack chickens but our neighbors do have roaming outside cats so I'd be more leery of them and would need to make sure a coop was well closed up at night and also set up to keep other critters at bay during the daytime.

Be sure before buying any chickens for yourself that you check with your local city ordinances about whether chickens are allowed, and how many, in your area. Plus, for those of you who live in HOA developments, you'll want to make sure there aren't restrictions in your covenants.

Check out Seattle Tilth's website for many other gardening classes!