The Only Thing Scarier Than Selling Your Home is Realizing How Much You Overpaid on Commissions!

Home Seller Marketing Has Changed

Leveraging The Latest In Real Estate Marketing Technology

A solid real estate marketing plan is very important. It takes more than a MLS listing, sign, some paper flyers, and an open house to sell your home in today’s market. Make sure your real estate agent has real leading edge housing market intelligence. Our leading edge marketing plan is designed to sell your house as quickly as possible.

A FULL SERVICE REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE FOR HOME SELLERS

The Cascade Team provides a full service experience that is a step above; by executing a marketing plan that is unique to your home, rich in technology…

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The latest technology doesn’t just make properties more marketable. Learn how to use these smart devices to thwart danger when you’re out in the field.

Sure, smart-home devices can make a property more desirable, but have you considered how they can keep you safe as a listing agent or when showing homes to buyers? Open houses and vacant properties are the top places where real estate professionals report encountering threatening situations, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ 2016 Member Safety Report. Tara Christianson, technology and training director at Century 21 Redwood Realty in Arlington, Va., recently hosted a webinar and offered tips on how smart devices can protect your client’s property and yourself.

  • Smart…

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When it comes to Republican red-voting states, Democrat blue-voting states or the swing states, who fares the best in real estate? The National Association of Realtors research team evaluated the data to see which has the biggest homes, priciest residences, and the most home owners.

Note: The states that were considered swing states (and identified as “purple” in the study) were Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Priciest homes: Blue states

The median home value in blue states is $301,000, about 91 percent more than some of the more conservative areas of the country. Hawaii, Washington, D.C., and California have the most expensive homes in the country.…

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AT A GLANCE

                                                                                          
Population 50,248
Median Home Price      $802,275
Property Tax $7,179
Unemployment rate 4.3%
Commute time 28 minutes

Until recently, Sammamish was probably best described as an enclave of leafy neighborhoods rather than a city in its own right. Located about 20 miles from Seattle, the city sits on the east side of the seven-mile-long Lake Sammamish and wasn’t incorporated until 1999.

While Sammamish still lacks a proper “Main Street,” it ranks high because of its superb schools, proximity to major employers, and gobs of green space. The city is also making steady…

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Seattle Among Markets That Badly Need a Jolt of New Housing

There aren't enough new single-family homes being built in the U.S. Eighty percent of metro areas recently analyzed are faced with a “housing shortage crisis,” according to new research from the National Association of REALTORS®.

NAR reviewed new-home construction relative to job gains over a three-year period, from 2013 to 2015, in 171 metro areas. Markets in the West made up half of the top 10 areas with the largest shortages of newly built homes, NAR’s study shows.

The NAR analysis comes just as the Census Bureau released data on housing starts for August. On September 20, the bureau reported a drop in building permits for August 2016, compared with both July 2016 and…

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3 Clock Hour Course On Issues Affecting Consumers and Real Estate Agents

There is no shortage of fraud in our industry!  Join Natalie Danielson and get to know the signs!  Real estate agents, their clients and the properties are vulnerable in the marketplace. It is important to know when to avoid situations that may carry a greater chance for problems.

This Three clock hour course is an introduction to different types of scams and fraud that can affect a consumer and real estate agents. There  are times when a seller, buyer or the real estate agent may be vulnerable in a real estate sales situation. In this industry real estate agents and brokers need to be aware what decisions may affect their clients,  the property or themselves. It  is…

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By Mike Rosenberg Seattle Times business reporter:

There’s been a large increase this year in Chinese buyers looking for property in the Seattle area, and a new tax on foreign buyers in Vancouver, B.C., is expected to amplify the trend.

A growing wave of money from China and other foreign countries is pouring into the Seattle-area housing market, helping drive home prices even higher. And since July a new tax on international buyers in Vancouver, B.C., long a popular market for home seekers from China, has focused even more global interest here.

Seattle saw more inquiries from mainland-Chinese homebuyers than any other American city in four of the last seven months, according to Juwai.com, China’s biggest real-estate site for buyers looking…

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  I recently got this question from a neighbor of mine: "I keep reading that it’s a sellers’ market because fewer homes are available for sale than normal. And home prices are going up, so it should be a really good time to sell. Why aren’t more sellers selling?"

My not so simple answer was this.... This is a confusing real estate market, with both good news and bad news for almost everyone in the marketplace. Let’s start with buyers, who are having trouble finding homes to purchase that they like and can afford. At the same time, home prices are rising steadily, and sometimes dramatically.

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), there’s a paucity of homes for sale now and because of this, existing home sale numbers…

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cartoon illustration of many things comically wrong with a house

Bad homeowner habits could be undermining your house. Here's how to nip serial "oopses" in the bud—and how to make them right!

By Sal Vaglica of This Old House magazine // Illustration by Ross MacDonald

Your home means the world to you—of course you intend to do right by it, from the front door to the wood floors to the walls, the roof, the porch, and yes, the septic system. But sometimes you may (unwittingly) get it wrong, and then compound any potential damage you inflict by repeating your mistake again…and again. Luckily, we're here to help. Coming up: our list of common ways even the most well-intentioned homeowners habitually hurt their houses, with advice on how to do better from here on.

1 | Maxing out Closet Rods
Hanging…

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City Enacts Development Moratorium

The Issaquah City Council voted Sept. 6, 2016, to enact a six-month moratorium on certain types of development.

In 2012 — to protect Issaquah's existing neighborhoods and natural environment — the City adopted the Central Issaquah Plan (CIP), which guides the long-term evolution of Issaquah’s existing commercial core into an urban center.

Since the plan was adopted, several developments have been built, approved or are currently under review.

During a City Council work session in July 2016, the City assessed whether those projects met the community's vision for the CIP.

Several issues were identified, including:

  • Architectural fit with the community
  • Urban design elements
  • Vertical…

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