Archive for January, 2009
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Jan
30
Posted by Matt Thomson
If you’re looking for some entertainment after the Super Bowl on Sunday, swing by Borders Books on Point Fosdick Dr in Gig Harbor to hear some live local music. Local musician Marian Call will be playing at Borders on Sunday, Feb 1 from 7-8:30pm. Take a listen to some of her music on her website. If you’ve been around Gig Harbor for a while, you may remember her as Emily Pew. Get some great live music in Gig Harbor on Sunday night and support one of our local artists!
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Jan
30
Posted by Matt Thomson
Gig Harbor’s real estate market is saturated with new construction homes. New developments are all over town, and many have had little to no sales in the past year. ‘09 is off to a better start. So far in January, 1 new construction home has sold in Gig Harbor (Harbor Crossing) and 5 new homes are pending sale (non-contingent offers). The average list price of these 6 homes is $616k, another good sign that some of the higher end homes are moving. Crescent View Estates, Timber Crest, and Chelsea Park all now have homes pending sales, which is a great sign for those builders.
I’ll be spending some time this weekend at Chaffey Homes’ new development The Highlands at Rosedale. If you’re looking for an amazing house in a beautiful gated community in Gig Harbor, just minutes from Discovery Elementary and Gig Harbor High School, and even closer to the newly remodeled Rosedale Park, come by and see me Saturday or Sunday afternoon (2-4pm Sat, 1-3pm Sun). For a look at all of the open houses in Gig Harbor and Fox Island this weekend (it’s a small list), you can check out my interactive map here.
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Jan
28
Posted by Matt Thomson
It snowed yesterday, and I complained. Today, sunny and 48! A little glimpse of the spring weather in Gig Harbor, which is glorious!
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Jan
27
Posted by Matt Thomson
I like snow. I like winter. I grew up in Park City, UT, where it snows a lot, and tends to get pretty cold. Gig Harbor generally doesn’t get much snow, and our winters are usually pretty mild. So what’s going on this year? After our week of snow that resulted in nearly 10″ (unheard of in this area) we had a little break but woke up this morning to more snow (okay, it was only a dusting, but snow none-the-less).
For the first time that I can remember since I’ve lived in the Gig Harbor area (nearly 12 years) I’m ready for the winter weather to go away. Not good since it’s only January! I’ve never been bothered by the cold or the wet before, but for some reason it got to me today.
If you’d like to share any snow stories or snow photos, feel free!
Sebastian in the Gig Harbor Snow
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Jan
23
Posted by Matt Thomson
There’s a nice mix of open houses in the Gig Harbor area this weekend. From a view home on the Key Peninsula, to a brand new construction view home in Manchester with views of Seattle. From a restored classic home right in Downtown Gig Harbor to the Northwest craftsmans in gated communities. From a $227,000 condo to a $1.395M condo. It’s all covered! You can view my interactive open house map here for details and times.
I’ll be hosting an open house at my new construction view listing in Manchester. If you know of anybody who wants to be close to Seattle, maybe they work in Seattle, but they don’t want the crazy prices of King County, encourage them to come and visit me on Sunday from 1-4pm. This brand new home has stunning finish work, views of the Puget Sound and Seattle Skyline, and is priced at only $495,000. It sits just minutes from the Southworth Ferry, an easy ride to Seattle.
If you’ve got any questions about any of these homes that are open, or any other real estate in Gig Harbor, please let me know. I’d love to see if I can help.
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Jan
23
Posted by Matt Thomson
Here’s the third and final inspirational moment that I experienced this week while at a Keller Williams Realty Inspirational Event.
My final bit of inspiration came from a Realtor from a different real estate company in the area. Thach Nguyencame to us with an amazing message of hope. I’ve heard several “You can do it” speeches, but this was one that went a bit further. A Vietnamese refugee, Thach has learned to embrace hardships, love pain, and recognize turbulence for the growth opportunity that it is. One comment that he made that stuck with me was along these lines: “When you dream big, you make big waves. And your sailing won’t be smooth on big waves.” Different things affect people in different ways, but Thach’s story resonated with me. He’s gone through hard times…very hard. He’s made money…a lot of money. And like Mo Anderson he knows that money isn’t what it’s all about; it’s about what you can do with the money. Thach has bought several properties in the Seattle area (he’s smart enough to know a good time to buy when he sees one) and uses those homes as rentals for folks who otherwise may not be able to find a home. He doesn’t charge deposits, first or last, and even takes less than market value to help folks get up on their feet. I love meeting folks who use their wealth and their talents to improve the lives of others. Like Thach said, if you want to get away from your fears, go help someone else. You should read his story and watch a great video on him here.
I hope that you take the time to learn a little bit about Keller Williams Realty and what makes us different. I hope that you visit and support FareStart. I hope that you learn about Thach’s goal of “Contribution” and join him in his Contribution Game.
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Jan
22
Posted by Matt Thomson
Yesterday I posted about my inspiring 2 days in SeaTac with other members of my company. The blog I originally wrote was too long, so I divided it into 3 parts. Here’s part 2.
The second source of inspiration was much different. A representative from FareStartcame and spoke to us this morning. FareStart is an amazing organization in Seattle that provides a great 2nd chance for folks who are down and out. They take the homeless, folks straight out of prison, etc and teach them the culinary arts, provide them with housing, medical, whatever else they may need. The rigorous 16-week training that they get gives them a leg up when it comes time to get a job. They also have a restaurant that is open for lunch each day and dinners Thursday nights. Pretty amazing to watch the video and see how many lives they’ve changed, and how folks who were hopeless now have careers, successes, and purpose. Take a look at the FareStart website and try to visit their restaurant if you get a chance.
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Jan
21
Posted by Matt Thomson
Yesterday and today were great days of inspiration for me. Not because of what you might expect. It’s not President Obama that has me inspired, though I do love listening to him speak. Rather I found my inspiration the past two days from a gathering hosted by the Vice Chairman of Keller Williams Real Estate. There were three sources of inspiration the past two days for me, and I wanted to touch on them here. I’m going to divide this into 3 posts, one each day, as I found it was too long!
Mo Anderson, the VC of Keller Williams, was recently inducted into the Council of Real Estate Brokerages’ Hall of Fame. Mo has been recognized not so much for her amazing business sense (though talks to the Yale MBA students and the like speak to her business mind), but more for her passion for people. Mo, nicknamed “Mama Mo” in the company, is widely known (and somewhat feared) for her fierce passion for the culture of Keller Williams Realty. The value that she finds in each individual, the burning desire she has to see each of our 72,000+ associates truly succeed, her unwavering protection of our company and its values are all sources of inspiration in themselves. With Mo on board, you don’t cuss. You don’t cheat, steal or lie. You don’t bad mouth another company or agent. You show professionalism. You love. You care. You run a business the way it’s supposed to be run–fairly, ethically, and for a profit. Running a profitable real estate business is something that I love. I don’t apologize for making good money in real estate. I work hard at what I do. Most importantly–to me and to Mo–is that the purpose of earning a profit is so that the money can help others. Money is meant to be earned, cherished, protected, and given away. We are stewards of the money. Many folks are shocked to read in the Bible that Jesus tells us to use worldly money to make friends (Luke 16:9). Money is not bad. The love of money is. Money is good and necessary when used to help others. Mo passionately reminded me the past two days how to streamline my business, how to re-launch my career, to earn the money that I need to help others. Keller Williams’ mission statement for their associates is “To build careers worth having, businesses worth owning, and lives worth living.” It was nice to remind myself what each of those mean to me.
I hope you’ll take the time to learn a little bit about Keller Williams Realty and what makes us different. Tomorrow, I’ll talk about an amazing organization helping the down-and-out in Seattle
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Jan
21
Posted by Matt Thomson
One of the main reasons that Gig Harbor is such a desirable place to live is our great school system. The Peninsula School District, which serves the Gig Harbor, Fox Island, and Key Peninsula areas, is widely regarded as one of the top school districts in the state. Coming up on Feb 3, we have a very important vote to continue to show our support for the great schools in Gig Harbor. Visit the Support Great Schools website to learn more about what this levy will mean, cost, and accomplish for the schools of Gig Harbor. Since I don’t have any school-aged children, I’d love to hear your thoughts–good or bad (but clean and non-attacking)–about the school system in Gig Harbor.
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Jan
19
Posted by Matt Thomson
There are over 580 homes for sale in Gig Harbor right now. That means that anybody planning on selling their home in Gig Harbor most likely has some pretty stiff competition. During a buyer’s market such as we’re in now, it’s imperative that your home is the best value out there. Best value doesn’t necessarily mean lowest priced, it means that for the price, you are offering the buyers the most bang for their buck. One way you can assure that your home is in selling condition is to have it professionally inspected before you put it on the market. “Wait a minute,” you think. “Isn’t it the buyer’s responsibility to inspect the house?” Yep. So why am I telling you to do it first?
Take this instance that I just went through. I had the rarest and most valuable commodity that a seller can have in my car–a ready, willing, and able cash buyer. Ready isn’t hard to find, willing is a bit tougher, able is a rare find, and cash is a treasure! My buyers and I found a great home, put in an offer, and after only 1 counter offer we had a deal. The very next day we had the home inspection. Game over. It wasn’t that the inspection turned up anything really bad. The inspector certainly didn’t do anything to frighten the buyers. There was some pretty common, basic issues with the house. There was rodent feces in the attic, insulation missing from the walls, water in the crawl space and a rotted floor joist. Sounds worse typing it here than it really was. It was all things that the seller even said he’d fix. Problem is my buyers now have it in their heads that this “perfect” house isn’t perfect. In their minds, they can see the rats, and are always going to wonder about the water under the house each time it rains.
Had the seller done a pre-inspection (paid for a home inspection himself prior to putting in on the market) he would have found all of these issues, addressed them ahead of time, and by the time our buyers had our inspection we wouldn’t have found anything to complain about. The perfect house would have been perfect! Problem is most sellers (mine included) don’t take this step. For $375, I think that this may be the best investment a potential seller can make. Eliminate all surprises, get your house ready to sell, don’t give the buyers any room to back out of a deal.
Some would argue that it’s my job to make my buyers realize that the inspection findings were normal, and that once fixed the house would be perfect again. That’s not how I operate. It’s the inspectors job to inspect the home and report back to us what he finds. It’s my job to help decipher the findings for my clients, give advice about what to and what not to call on the inspection report. It’s my buyer’s job to decide what they’re going to do. Using the information that my inspector and myself gave them, they decided that this wasn’t the house for them. Bummer indeed, as getting deals done is far more fun (and profitable) but I’d rather have a happy potential buyer than an upset buyer.
If you’re looking for a thorough, honest home inspector in Gig Harbor, call West Coast Home Inspection at 253-380-2922 . Matt Sorensen and his crew can make any home you want to sell some buyer’s perfect home!
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