Seattle One of The Best Places to Raise the Next Olympic Swimmer (More)

Seattle; Grab those goggles and hit the pool

While when it comes to the top cities to raise a great swimmer, most of the top towns are in warm, sunny states where it’s easy to be out in the pool: think California, Florida, Texas, and Hawaii, don't count out Seattle as the Seattle market came in at a solid number two! Metros in these states have the most access to swim lessons, pools, beaches, lakes, and sports clubs. And you’ll spend a lot of time honing your skills to make the cut: Of the roughly 1,850 swimmers that enter the trials, only about 50 qualify for the U.S. team.

Where you grow up may have some influence over whether you could become the next world-class athletic superstar. So which cities hold the best chances for raising the…

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Top Tips For Buying Your Dream Home in a Hotly Contested Market

As a homebuyer in today’s market, you’re no doubt at your wit’s end trying to find your dream home.

And when you find a home you love,  you’re competing with all cash offers and bidding wars driving the sales price above what it’s listed for, and many times, even above what the home is actually worth!

While there is nothing you can do to create more homes for sale, you can certainly arm yourself by understanding the trends and patterns in the areas you’re trying to buy in.

• Price. Price is not always the most important factor.  (We will help you learn the hidden secrets!)
• Earnest Money Deposit.  (How much to put down and on what terms.)
• How much are people paying for similar properties in the area?
• How Much can you…

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Agent Training Class: Setup Your Social Media Accounts!

This class we covered how to set up and post/share on: 

• Business Facebook 

• LinkedIn Profile 

• Google + and YouTube 

• Pinterest 

Below are the steps for setting up a page on each site. 

Facebook:  

• Go to the dropdown arrow on the top right hand corner of the page and select "Create Page" 

• Choose "local business" and select real estate from the dropdown 

• Fill out the information in the spaces and click "get started" 

• From there, you'll be taken to categories. Select "Real Estate Agent" and leave the subcategories as they are  

• Below, fill out your bio. Broader is better! You only have 155 characters 

• You can also include the link for…

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Good Schools Give 77% Boost to Home Values

Community And School Reports

Home values can get a big increase from having a highly rated school nearby. According to the new ATTOM Data Solutions 2016 Schools and Housing Report, homes in ZIP codes with at least one good elementary school have values about 77 percent higher than in ZIP codes without highly ranked schools close by.

Researchers looked at home values and price appreciation against 2015 average test scores in nearly 19,000 elementary schools across 4,435 ZIP codes. They considered a “good school” to be one that had an overall test score that was at least one-third above the state average.

The research team found that out of 1,661 ZIP codes with at least one good school, the average estimated home value was $427,402 – 77…

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37 New Listings this Week! New Record for The Cascade Team as Housing Inventory Begins to Open Up!

Thirty Seven (37) listing just this week for www.TheCascadeTeam.com setting a new single week record for the most listings and also a single day record of 23 listings in one day this Friday! All of this further pointing to signs that the local real estate markets are beginning to come into balance. Learn More Here: 

Those listings can be viewed at this link: http://www.thecascadeteam.com/greater-seattle-listings.php

This year has brought steady improvements in the real estate market. Prices rose driven by lower inventory in many markets, and consumers remained relatively optimistic about the economy and its direction—an encouraging indicator for real estate. While the long-anticipated increase in interest rates will likely occur in late…

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Western Washington Real Estate Brokers See Early Signs of “A More Balanced Market"

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KIRKLAND, Washington (Aug.4, 2016) – Home prices are still rising but the supply of homes is improving, prompting brokers to suggest some relief is in sight for would-be buyers. “We might actually be starting to move very slowly back toward a more balanced market,” said OB Jacobi, president of Windermere Real Estate, in commenting on July’s figures from Northwest Multiple Listing Service. 

The MLS report summarizing last month’s activity shows active listings (including single family homes and condominiums) are at the highest level since September 2015 and the volume of new listings added to inventory topped the 12,000 marked for the…

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Issaquah's New Salmon Run Park: Coming Soon

Overview
To protect nearby private and public property from flooding — and to help Issaquah's iconic salmon — a restoration project is happening at Salmon Run Nature Park.

The 2.31-acre park, at Fifth Avenue Northwest and Northwest Juniper Street near Gilman Village, is a passive park with views of Issaquah Creek. The area was formerly known as the Darren Pritt property. 
The project includes habitat restoration along 450 feet of stream, including the addition of more than 100 logs and stumps in the stream to provide pools and refuge for salmon. Excavation in the creek bank and floodplain will provide refuge for salmon during flooding.

Work will add gravel pedestrian pathways and viewpoints in both the City-owned park and along Gilman Village. In…

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5 Of The Strangest Things People Have Tried to Sell With Their Homes

Moving and decluttering go hand in hand. After all, what better time to offload all those unwanted belongings than when you’re planning to sell and leave your home? But sometimes home sellers take their inner Marie Kondo a little too far.

From BDSM rooms to snow machines, there have been some epically wacky things that sellers have tried to get off their hands—even, in some cases, the family dog. (That’s ruff!)

Read on for some stories of seller add-ons that sound too wacky to be true—but aren’t.

A dungeon in the master bedroom

Sometimes you can hide the dungeon, and sometimes you can’t. In this instance Dean Ferraro, a real estate agent in Oceanside, CA, was on a listing appointment at a house that was curiously overpriced. Upon…

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4 Challenging Visitors You Get at Open Houses

When you invite the public to view your listing, you attract many potential buyers who are on the fence and so will give you the runaround. Here are some tips for recognizing some of the people you’ll meet and how to tap into what they want.

The Dodger

He shies away from interacting with you, hoping you’ll leave him alone while he looks around. He doesn’t stay for long and tries to leave without giving you his name or contact information.

The bottom line: He hasn’t committed to making a move but is considering his options, and he’s afraid you’ll try to force a sale on him. He needs to make these decisions on his own time.

How to handle him: Give him space and watch for whether he lingers over a particular feature of the home. Pop over to…

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It’s a Pokémon Go Open House Weekend with The Cascade Team!

Seemingly everyone is playing Pokémon GO. If you’re not already playing it yourself, you’ve no doubt heard about it. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the new mobile and augmented reality game from Niantic Labs and The Pokémon Company is having an enormous impact on people’s daily routines. This has obsessed Pokémon players taking unusually long walks with their canine friends, people visiting Pokémon Gyms,  and a co-pilots double-fisting smartphones while you’re driving to dinner (please don’t drive and hunt Pokémon — get someone in the passenger seat).

For those not yet in the know, Pokémon GO uses your phone’s GPS and camera to turn the real world into a massive hunting ground for the iconic creatures, but it also transforms local…

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