Gig Harbor Undressed

“Best” house ever

I was asked an interesting question yesterday, and it got me thinking that it’d make a fun discussion.  I was holding an open house in Tacoma yesterday, and a visitor asked me, “What is the best house you’ve ever sold?”

I had a few answers for a few reasons.  One of the best houses I ever sold was a 1500+sq foot home in Olalla, just north of Gig Harbor.  Nothing too special about the home, other than it was the buyer’s first home, fits their needs and their lifestyles perfectly, and I think has truly helped bring them joy.  Another best home is an 1800 sq ft home in North Tacoma.  Again, nothing spectacular about the house, but this young couple and their infant son are now in a neighborhood that they love, close to mom’s work, and near to friends that before they lived nearly an hour away. 

I sold a tired old home in Gig Harbor that I’d consider amongst the best, as well.  The home may have been tired, but it sat on over an acre, with 180ft of prime Puget Sound Waterfront with a view that doesn’t stop, and I sold it to family, so now they can be closer to us.  Finally, I’d consider a 5000 square foot, brand new view home on Fox Island to be the most spectacular, hence “best”, home I’ve ever sold.  Not only is the 5 acres a great setting with a great view, and it isn’t just that the home is truly awe inspiring, but the family whom I sold the house to turned out to be good friends.  My wife and I really enjoyed meeting this out of state couple and their young children, and they became involved with our family as they went through the experience of the birth of our first child with us.  All four of these sales were memorable, and all of the families involved have become friends with my family (one already was!).  I guess “best” home has several different meanings.

I’d be curious to know, what is the “best” house you’ve ever lived in, had friends own, visited at an open house, etc.  What made it the “best?”

Waterfront Home Sales in Gig Harbor

Each market seems to have a type of housing that ranks as the most desirable.  When I lived in Park City, ski-in-ski-out housing was prime.  In Santa Barbara, the Montecito Estates were the benchmark.  Here in Gig Harbor, waterfront homes seem to garner the most interest.  Gig Harbor is unique in the astounding numbers of waterfront and waterview homes that we have.  It makes navigating a bit tricky, because you can’t judge where you are in relation to the water, because we’re surrounded by water.  I wanted to take a look at waterfront home sales in our area, looking at Gig Harbor, Fox Island, and the Key Peninsula.  Often I’ll include Fox Island homes as part of Gig Harbor, but for waterfront I decided to separate it out, mostly for my own curiosity!  Here are the number of homes sold and the median prices.

As you can see, prices in Gig Harbor and Fox Island are very similar.  The Key Peninsula offers more affordable waterfront, but you’re going to be further away from many of the necessities and amenities of Gig Harbor. 

2005-2006 are yearly sales, 2007 are YTD sales, and Current are homes currently on the market.  For current, I used median list price, rather than sales price.  Info is taken from NWMLS, and I believe in some cases the listing agent took some liberties with “waterfront.”  Information is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed.

If you would like to view the current homes for sale, check out my home search site or contact me directly. 

Harbor Ridge Middle School

Gig Harbor is known for several great attributes, two of the top being the scenery and the highly ranked school system.  Gig Harbor’s schools, all in the Peninsula School District, are consistently rated among the highest in the state.  Harbor Ridge Middle School has combined academic excellence and the scenery of Gig Harbor.  Could you get much studying done with this view?

Harbor Ridge, not to be confused with nearby Harbor Heights Elementary School, also has some nice athletic fields that serve the community for soccer, football, softball, and track and field.  Gig Harbor takes a lot of pride in our schools, and Harbor Ridge is just one of several examples.  Be sure to visit the Peninsula School District’s website for more information. 

Living Nativity Scene at Gig Harbor’s Discovery Baptist Church

I have to admit I wasn’t prepared for what I discovered at Discovery Baptist Church’s living nativity scene.  Discovery Baptist, located at 4902 Gustafson Dr NW, is hosting their annual Living Nativity Scene.  It runs Friday the 14th through Sunday the 16th from 6-8pm.  I had read that over 150 live characters and animals make up this great event, but I guess I didn’t put that in proper perspective.  I thought we’d drive up, see some smiling wise men and a few donkeys, wonder if the baby Jesus was real or a doll, and move on.

I was wrong.  When you enter Discovery Baptist’s parking lot, you enter Bethlehem.  Beginning with the Roman guard taking the census and demanding how many are in your party, through the market places and tax collectors, you are really transported to another time.  Animals, guards, bakers, children and more walk in and amongst your car, offering you spices, bread, and more.  My best advice is to park and walk through the scene, you’ll get much more from it.  I made the mistake of taking our 2 month old baby and our dog, thinking it’d be a quick trip.  Not a good idea to roll through Bethlehem with a screaming baby and a confused, protective dog.  My sister-in-law (who just earned a 3.8GPA her first quarter at Cal Poly SLO!), made the great observation that we had our own nativity scene…”The mother Mary (my wife), Joseph (me), Baby Jesus (Reese), the animals (Seb), and a wise woman (Kami)”!  

We’re very excited to walk through Bethlehem next year with our 1-year old daughter and taste the bread, view the videos, and interact more with the characters.

 For more information on all of the details, please visit Discovery Baptist’s website.

Trillium Park in Gig Harbor

As I’ve mentioned before, Gig Harbor is divided up into many smaller pocket neighborhoods.  Our street name system is so goofy around here (Do you live on 54th Street, 54th Street Court, or 54th Avenue Court?  Was that Kamus Dr, Kamus Way, or Kamus Ave?) that it is more helpful to identify where you live based on neighborhood names than street names. 

Trillium Park is one of Gig Harbor’s quieter gated communities.  Located off of Canterwood Blvd, just West of Canterwood Country Club, Trillium Park is a elegant loop of quality homes.  In addition to having the gated entrance, Trillium Park has the privacy of surrounding forested areas and the conveniences of Gig Harbor North just minutes away (Costco, YMCA, Target, Albertsons, Home Depot, Pier One, etc).  It also provides quick access to HWY 16 for the commuting home buyer.

Trillium Park also offers the security and communal feeling of long term residents.  Only 3 homes have sold in Trillium Park in the past two years (of 5 that were listed for sale).  There are currently 3 more homes available for sale, running from $449,950 to $675,000.   These homes were built beginning in the mid 1990’s and can range from the low 2000’s to mid 3000’s in square footage.

If you’re looking for a quality home in a safe neighborhood, close to schools and many of Gig Harbor’s conveniences, I’d be honored to introduce you to Trillium Park.

Learn to avoid foreclosure scams

Even here in Gig Harbor, home foreclosures are taking place.  It’s not very common when compared with other areas of the country, but some home owners are still falling victim to foreclosures.

The St. Paul Real Estate blogger alerted me to this very short but very informative video that may help you avoid foreclosure scams.

Good, Bad, and Ugly of Marketing

In a small community like Gig Harbor, it can be a challenge for small business owners to succeed.  Marketing is necessary, but it can be expensive as well.  I’m curious what marketing is deemed most effective.  How do we choose our professionals?

There are several TV ads that stick in my mind.  Recently there has been a disgusting ad for a divorce lawyer that shows a couple clearly angry with each other watching TV when a commercial comes on with a lady exclaiming how she made her ex-husband’s life miserable by hiring this lawyer.  The couple on the couch then go into a scene that disturbingly resembles domestic violence as they fight for the phone to try and make each other’s life as miserable as the other lady did to her husband.  Seriously, that’s on TV.  There’s also an insurance company that has some screaming farcical cowboy with other odd characters dancing around behind him.  It’s non-sensical chaos that I truly thought was a joke the first few times I saw it, then I realized it was actually advertising for a real insurance company.  I’m ashamed to admit I remember the name of the company, but happy to say I’d never insure anything with this side show. 

On the flip side there is a commercial for a local mattress store (Silverdale is where they is…you have to see it) that is probably the most entertaining thing on television.  I don’t care how much they charge, next time I need a bed I’m going to the Mattress Ranch in Silverdale (you can view a YouTube commercial here…it’s from his Alaska store, but same guy and same idea).  Each week in the Peninsula Gateway (our local newspaper), there was a doctor or chiropractor who ran an interesting ad.  It looked like a basic Dear John letter, and it was real personal and mushy and completely contrary to anything I’d ever do.  Yet I’m pretty sure that if I ever needed a doctor or chiropractor, I’d call this guy, ’cause I kind of liked his unique ads.  Problem is, I don’t know his name and I don’t even remember what kind of doctor he is. 

Makes me think of my own advertising.  A few years ago when I first got into real estate, I sent 100’s of postcards out each month to people I didn’t even know (I’m sure you get this kind of stuff frequently).  I bought a nice little campaign piece that featured a different doggy postcard each month, with cute doggy pictures and fun sayings like, “Matt Thomson…your best friend in real estate” and “HUNTING for a home?   Let Matt Thomson be your pointer” and “Matt Thomson can sniff out the best home deals for you.”  I never got a single phone call, email, or any other type of response from those cards, despite spending $100’s of dollars.  Maybe people didn’t want a dog for their real estate agent.  I’ve since changed my approach and no longer mail out junk mail.  I do my marketing in other ways. 

I’d be curious to know how you choose your professionals.  When you need a doctor, a dentist, a plumber, or a Realtor, do you open up the phone book, scour ads in the paper, call a friend?  I’d love to hear your thoughts. 

All I want for Christmas is at Harbor Greens Market

Have you ever been to a play where the fan in the rafters starts blowing cotton all around and it looks like it’s snowing in the theater?  It makes you smile, it’s kind of pretty, it feels like Christmas.  Have you ever been in a real snow storm?  Not a blizzard, but one of those snow storms where big fluffy flakes are slowly drifting down, where you can catch them on your tongue and they taste good even though it’s just water, where everything is still and the blanket of snow makes everything quieter, where it’s cold but you don’t care or even notice it, where it’s so much fun even the adults come out to play…one of those kinds of snow storms.

The difference between the theater snow storm and the real snow is kind of like preparing for Christmas at a major grocery store versus preparing at Gig Harbor’s Harbor Greens Market.  The grocery stores aren’t bad, they have food and drink and usually one of those Christmas tree lots out in the parking lot with the single strand of light bulbs and the piles of trees leaning on one another.  You can get what you need, but it just doesn’t feel right.

Harbor Greens Market is a totally different experience.  You can make an incredible dinner with prime rib, ham, turkey, whatever you wish.  You can even pre-0rder the meats if you wish to have the cuts that you need.  You really have to taste the freshness to understand the difference.  They’re more than willing to let you sample their deli meats.

They are also overflowing with fresh produce that beats anything else you can taste.  Not sure what type of apple makes the best apple pie?  They’ll be happy to slice some up for you so you can taste which is best.  

Walls of wine (many from Washington), rows of cheese, homemade candy canes, wide selections of gift baskets, tables of fresh garland, huge fresh wreaths, and rows and rows of trees from the Sumner, WA, area are just some of the things that Harbor Greens offers.  The trees are special, too.  They are not only locally grown Douglass Firs, Grand Firs, and Nobles, but they are stored in water keeping them looking, smelling, and feeling fresh.  Harbor Greens staff will trim the tree to your taste, load it on your car, everything. 

If you haven’t been to Harbor Greens yet, you owe it to yourself to try it.  At the very least, walk in and smell the pine, sample some fruit, cheese, and meats, and see if you don’t agree that your entire Christmas meal and decorating needs can be met locally!

Santa spotting in Gig Harbor!

It’s still two weeks until Christmas, but a strange clatter caught my attention tonight as I ate dinner.  I wasn’t sure what the noise was, so I snuck out onto my front porch to see if I could get a glimpse of what was going on.  Sure enough, it was Santa Claus!  There were no reindeer, just a big fire truck playing Christmas music.  It’s that time of year, when the local Fire Departments usher Santa through all of the neighborhoods, passing out candy canes to the kids and giving tips on fire safety at Christmas.  Hopefully Santa visited your neighborhood and reminded you to be safe with the lights, candles, and trees!

Great Gig Harbor Coffee Shops

I hope I don’t lose too many readers by admitting this, but I don’t like coffee.  I don’t like the taste, I don’t like the smell, I don’t like it grande or venti, vanilla or minty, double shot or extra hot, and I don’t like it with green…sorry.

I may not like coffee, but living in the Northwest I’m surrounded by coffee shops, and even for a guy like me, coffee shops have some great value.  Here in Washington, there seems to be a Starbucks on every corner (or 3 if you are at the corner of Olympic and Point Fosdick!), but I’m not really a Star-Mart kind of guy.  There are two local shops that both offer distinctive experiences and are both well worth visiting.

Kimball Espresso Gallery is a must visit if you’re in Gig Harbor.  They serve my absolute favorite drink in the whole world…the Yoguccino.  In their own words, the yoguccino “is the best tasting healthy drink we’ve ever found…only 130 calories and no fat (16 0z size). ” In my words, the Chocolate-Peanutbutter-banana yoguccino is the kind of drink I imagine will be served in heaven.  Kimballs also serves as a great local photography gallery and has a very nice seating set-up for meeting with folks.

Just down the hill from Kimballs is Java and Clay.  Right on the waterfront across from Skanskie Brothers Park, the atmosphere is wonderful.  It is also a great place to bring kids, as they have a clay painting studio that is really pretty cool.  A few years ago my wife brought home some pretty neat coasters that she made there.  In terms of drinks, the peppermint hot chocolate is a nice treat on the cold days like today. 

When you’re in Gig Harbor looking for a good spot to have coffee (or some alternative), try Kimball Espresso and Java and Clay.  I’d finish with, “Tell them Matt sent you,” but that won’t get you anything!   

You can click here for a map to these shops.