May 9th, 2008
Posted by Matt Thomson
Looking for something to do for mom this weekend? If you’re in the Gig Harbor area, why not take her on a tour of some open houses? Chances are you can’t buy mom that $1M home for mother’s day, but don’t you think she’d enjoy touring one? There are 2 homes priced at over $1M open in Gig Harbor this weekend, and Salmon Bay Estates, priced just under $1M, will also be open. Click on the map below for the 10 properties that will be hosting open houses this weekend.
Information is from the NWMLS and is reliable but not guaranteed. If your mom falls in love with any of these homes, give me a call. I’d be happy to talk with you about the process of purchasing these or any other homes in the Gig Harbor, Fox Island, and Port Orchard areas.
May 5th, 2008
Posted by Matt Thomson
It’s amazing how many opportunities we are given each day to make a choice between right and wrong. I’m not talking about major decisions here, this isn’t should I or shouldn’t I murder. I’m talking about decisions that appear small when you’re faced with them, but can just seem huge after the decision has been made. I want to quickly highlight 3 such decisions that I noticed this week:
- My wife and I were buying dinner at the new Costco in north Gig Harbor. Just a simple pizza. My wife noticed when we ordered that the guy who took our order seemed new, and it seemed like he didn’t do something quite right, and my wife told me that she felt our order never got placed. Sure enough, about 20 minutes later (it should only take 10) they realized they never took our order. We weren’t too bothered, didn’t make a fuss at all, yet the person running the orders brought us each a free frozen yogurt and a free pizza as well. Wasn’t necessary, we’d already paid, we didn’t ask for anything, she just did it. As a result, we took the extra pizza and shared a nice dinner with some friends we hadn’t seen in a while.
- My wife bought some cute shoes online for our baby daughter. They came with free
shipping which was a bonus. When the shoes arrived, the little flowers weren’t sewn in correctly. They weren’t ruined, just not quite right. My wife called the company to see how we could send this pair back and get a new pair 
without getting dinged for shipping, and the company offered to send a new pair while we kept the first. Not necessary, not what we asked for, but it certainly made my wife happy and took away the inconvenience of sending the shoes back.
- Western Oregon was playing Central Washington in a playoff implication softball game. A Western Oregon player hit a home run, but tore her ACL as she rounded first base (in her excitement she missed the bag, and tried to stop and turn around to touch the base when her knee tore). It was determined that since the runner couldn’t round the bases she’d be held to a single…if her teammates assisted her she’d be out (that rule was later found to be false, but at the time that was the umpire’s understanding).
CWU had a chance to turn a 3-run HR into a 2-run single…great! But two CWU players walked over and carried the Western Oregon runner around the bases (nothing in the rules said the opponents couldn’t help) giving up a run that they could have saved. CWU ended up losing by 2, but those players certainly take a win with them through life. Click the photo for the full story.
Doing the right thing matters, even if it appears small at the time. It’s something I strive for in my own business.
May 5th, 2008
Posted by Matt Thomson
If you are one who takes all of your information from the national news, go ahead and skip over this post, because you won’t believe any of it anyways. So many of the bloggers whom I “dialogue” with on other real estate blogs are convinced that our market is tanking, and Realtors such as myself are desperately and shamelessly altering the facts to try and save our jobs. So if you believe Gig Harbor’s real estate market is in a hole because your cousin’s house in Kalamazoo, MI, won’t sell, move on to another blog. If you want some facts, keep reading.
This chart shows the price range for the 33 homes and condos that sold in Gig Harbor in April of ‘08. As you can see, the $400,000-$500,000 price range saw the most sales. The median price of $427,000 was a 7% increase over the median price from April of ‘07. I know, I’m not allowed to say home prices are actually increasing, but Month vs Month they did in April. Sorry to bring good news, I’ll try and stop. To bring a bit of perspective back to the table, April of ‘07 saw 77 sales versus only 33 in ‘08. That’s a significant difference. In my opinion, that’s more significant than the median price increase.
Bottom line is that homes, when priced correctly and in prime condition, are still selling. Click the map below for an interactive tour of the home sales in Gig Harbor. Hover your cursor above any pushpin to see the asking price, final sales price, and days the home was on the market. Remember that the asking price is the list price at the time of the sale…it does not take into consideration any price reductions (it’s not necessarily the original asking price). Information is taken from the NWMLS and is reliable but not guaranteed.
May 4th, 2008
Posted by Matt Thomson
A friend of ours from church recently gave us some free smoothies at the new Gig Harbor Jamba Juice. He’s a manager there, so he can do stuff like that. 3 things stood out:
- Gig Harbor’s new Uptown Center has some good eatin’…Jamba Juice, Ben and Jerry’s, and Panera Bread are the places I’ve tried at the Uptown Center.
- Jamba Juice is good stuff, and they make it seem like it’s good for you with vitamin boosts or calcium boosts and healthy stuff like that.
- The large cups contain A LOT of smoothie. Neither my wife nor I could finish our fruit smoothies, and I’m usually pretty good at finishing food.
Give the new Jamba Juice a try next time you’re in Gig Harbor. Located in the Uptown Center right off of Pt Fosdick Drive.
May 3rd, 2008
Posted by Matt Thomson
If you’re out and about in Gig Harbor or Fox Island this weekend, there are 18 open houses for you to view. Just click on the map below and you’ll be taken to my interactive Gig Harbor open house map. Hover your cursor above any pushpin to see stats, time and date of the open house, and which real estate agent has that home listed. For a view of the neighborhood, click on “Birds eye view”…it’s pretty neat but remember that the pushpin may not be on the exact property that’s for sale.
Be sure to drive out to Fox Island and check out the grand opening of Salmon Bay Estates. They’ll have exciting prizes and great food. All of the information given on these homes for sale is from the NWMLS and is reliable but not guaranteed. For more information on these or any other available homes for sale in Gig Harbor or Fox Island, please give me a call!
May 2nd, 2008
Posted by Matt Thomson
I entered this photo of my daughter in the Warm106.9 radio station’s “Baby of the Week” contest. She was chosen as one of the finalists for this week. I think she’s the cutest, but the question is do you think she is? If you get a minute, click here to vote on who you think the cutest baby is. If you think it’s our daughter, thank you…if you vote for somebody else, I guess that’s okay.
April 30th, 2008
Posted by Matt Thomson
I’ve posted several photos of Gig Harbor in the past several months, including many of these. I don’t think you can ever get enough of the beautiful Gig Harbor photographs, so here are some of my favorites. For more incredible photos of Gig Harbor (and any area for that matter), log on to Flickr.com and type in “Gig Harbor” under search. You’ll be amazed at some of the photographers that find priceless shots in Gig Harbor.
If you’ve thought of relocating to Gig Harbor, and these photos have helped to convince you, please give me a call! To see my posted Gig Harbor photos, click here. Don’t forget to check out “Gig Harbor” on Flickr.com…Jim Nelson and John Pleau are two of my favorite local photographers, but there’s too many to mention!
April 30th, 2008
Posted by Matt Thomson
I think I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m not a super handy guy. I drive a big truck to try and make myself feel tough, but really I’m not. I own a few tools, some I even know their names, but I can’t use many of them correctly. My wife’s parent’s are selling their waterfront home here in Gig Harbor, and I tried to use my handy skills to give them easy access to the beach. It didn’t work too well.
That’s my father-in-law checking out my handy work. Lucky for me I gave him a cute granddaughter. So I called Gig Harbor excavator Tony Dulas, owner of Harbor Point Excavating to help out. I wrote about Tony once before, highlighting some of the excavating, landscaping, and rockery work he does around Gig Harbor. In only 3 days, Tony’s crew had this new path down to the beach! I still don’t know how they did it. I can make it from the beach up to the house in 35 seconds now, where as before it was inaccessible!
If you’re looking for a local Gig Harbor resident to do some landscaping for you, or you want to build a new water feature in your yard, or you need some drainage work or any other excavating work done, give Tony a call. Truly amazing!
If you want an incredible Gig Harbor waterfront home, with easy beach access and views that just won’t end, for only $750,000, give me a call! Truly amazing (the property, not necessarily me…though I’m pretty good).
April 29th, 2008
Posted by Matt Thomson
Sorry it’s last minute, but I didn’t hear about this until just recently. Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream shops across the nation are giving away free ice cream cones today, and asking for donations to help support the local Highway Patrol. Gig Harbor’s new Uptown Center is now home to Gig Harbor’s newest ice cream shop–Ben and Jerry’s. Today only, until 8pm, you can swing by the Uptown Center on Pt. Fosdick Drive and get your free ice cream cone and donate to the Washington Highway Patrol. My wife chose the cake batter and I got the Mint chocolate chunk…great stuff!
April 28th, 2008
Posted by Matt Thomson
It’s interesting when you live in an area how easy it is to forget what makes it special. You tend to get into your little routine, travelling the same routes, doing the same things, seeing the same people, and while it’s comfortable and nice, you can miss what else your town offers. When I lived in Park City, Ut, I took the skiing for granted. When I lived in Santa Barbara, Ca, the beach was just kind of there. Now, living in Gig Harbor, Wa, I can tend to miss the true beauty of our neighborhoods and the kindness of our residents.
I had the pleasure of touring Gig Harbor again this weekend, as I had some clients in from out of state. It was busy (we had 34 homes to tour, added 2 more to the list, eventually crossed 16 off the list, but saw 4 homes twice!) but it was a lot of fun for me (and my clients too, I hope!). 
I runjog or walk through Canterwood nearly every day, but driving through it and seeing it through the eyes of a potential resident, it just jumps out at you again how nice Canterwood is. I’ve loved the Millbrooke neighborhood off of Rosedale ever since it was built about 4 years ago, but visiting there with potential residents made me that much more aware of the impeccable condition of those homes and their yards. Driving through Cromwell Woods and Trillium Park, and so many other fantastic Gig Harbor neighborhoods just re-invigorated my love for the whole Gig Harbor area.
I also had some interesting interactions with several of our residents. How do you schedule appointments for 36 homes? How do you give ample notice and maintain minimal inconvenience? I guess I found out that you don’t. I cancelled 16 appts (and by cancelled I pretty much mean didn’t show up for) this weekend. 
With one exception, every seller whom I had requested a showing and then ended up not being able to make it was very gracious. That’s not an easy thing to do, as the process of getting your home ready to show, vacating the home for a period, and getting your hopes up that these might be the people who will want your house, is a very taxing process. I truly appreciate all of those sellers who made their homes available and accepted our inability to visit their homes. I apologize to the one seller who was angry…it’s just the way it goes.
In addition to getting to speak with gracious Gig Harbor residents, it is always fun to have conversations with amiable sellers as you schedule the appointments. Many ask about my business, some ask about the buyers, a few leave out candy or bake cookies. It’s really a fun way to “meet” the folks in our community. There’s one home in particular, in a great gated community in a very good location, that I really wish I could find a buyer for. The yard is fully fenced and huge, the house is spotless and very large, and the seller is just plain kind. She made a baby cap for some buyers of mine a few months back (my clients were pregnant at the time of showing), and she had fresh snicker-doodles made for us this time. I’ve never met her, she doesn’t know me, but she’s always fun to talk to and makes her home extremely inviting. Unfortunately it just hasn’t worked for either client to whom I’ve shown it.
As a resident of Gig Harbor I can tend to get stuck in my routine rut. Spending a weekend like this past one, driving through so many of Gig Harbor’s fine neighborhoods, seeing yards decorated for birthday parties, passing picnics in the City Park, watching the Gig Harbor Little League field covered with excited young future Mariners, speaking with residents whom I’ll most likely never meet but still feel as though I know, is a real treat. If you haven’t visited Gig Harbor recently, or if you’re a resident of Gig Harbor stuck in your routine, take a weekend and just tour the town. Maybe go to some open houses or call a Realtor and go view that home for sale that you’ve been wanting to see. It’s a great way to reconnect with our community!
