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Tips from The Cascade Team Agents

While it’s usually the big schools that get all of the notice in the various ranking services, High School Football America believes that there’s great level being played at all levels of the game.  That’s why, beginning this year, we’re adding a Medium Schools and Small Schools Top 25 to our National Top 25.  All of our polls are created with our proprietary algorithm.

This year, the #1 Medium School is Eastside Catholic from from Sammamish, Washington.  The Crusaders also finished #23 in our national poll.

This past season, Eastside Catholic won its second straight Washington Class 3A title by overcoming a 28-point second half deficit to beat Bellevue 48-42 in overtime.

Finishing behind Eastside Catholic in the Medium Schools National Top…

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Likability is a powerful force to get prospects and your peers to trust you more. Deceit isn’t behind the following tricks to make you more likable, recently featured at Forbes.com, but a few traits to keep in mind that can unconsciously influence others to see you in a new light. Here are a few:

1. Use silence to your advantage.

“When you ask someone a question and they’re slow to respond, don’t feel pressure to move the conversation forward,” Forbes columnist Travis Bradberry notes. “Remaining silent plays to your advantage. Moments of silence make people feel as though they should speak, especially when the ball is in their court.” Silence can be a golden tool in negotiations and when in difficult conversations.

2. Open hands and open…

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New Roof Is Greatest Remodeling Value

Aside from the need to upgrade worn out features, two of the biggest reasons owners put money into remodeling are to increase the home’s value and to improve their enjoyment of the home. But according to a new report from the National Association of REALTORS® and the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), there’s not a lot of overlap between those two goals.

Interior projects the study examined:

New master suite
Kitchen upgrade
Complete kitchen renovation
Bathroom renovation
Add new bathroom
Basement conversion to living area
Attic conversion to living area
Insulation upgrade
Closet renovation
New wood flooring
Hardwood flooring refinish
HVAC replacement

The first-ever…

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A real-life gingerbread house! Known for her amazing themed home decorations, Christine McConnell showed her holiday spirit with this giant gingerbread house makeover. The incredible décor took a staggering effort of seven full 15-hour days of work to complete.  

When Christine McConnell decorates her house for the holidays, she decorates her house. Literally. She decorates the whole thing.

With Christmas fast approaching, the house has been decked out in peppermint candy trim and giant gingerbread man cookies. Decorating the house to this degree of detail was no small feat. After a few weeks of brainstorming, taking inspiration particularly from Clark Griswold’s Christmas efforts in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, she jumped into…

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  • Inventory Critically Low.
  • Housing Market "Red Hot" this holiday season.
  • Buyers finding less competition and are taking advantage of rates before they increase.
  • Pending sales increase by 10% continuing drop in available inventory.

KIRKLAND, Washington (December 4, 2015) – Inventory remains "critically low," but there are fewer house-hunters in the hunt during this holiday season so motivated sellers and buyers are seeing success, according to brokers with Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Its just-released statistics for November show year-over-year gains in pending sales, closed sales, and prices, but a steep decline in inventory.

"The housing market continues to be red-hot on a seasonal basis, but this…

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By Yuqing Pan

Thanksgiving evokes certain unshakable images: Long tables crammed with too much food. Beloved and bickering family members consuming way too much of that food. Overstuffed family members staggering away from the table to watch football. And once the crumbs and turkey bones and cranberries are cleared away, just about everyone gearing up for the biggest shopping day of the year: Black Friday.

While prowling the malls for fantastic deals has become enshrined as a traditional part of many Americans’ holiday season, it has long been considered conventional wisdom that this sales fervor doesn’t extend to shopping for a home—that there’s no deluge of would-be buyers surfing the Web for listings or slogging through the (presumed) snow to…

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Thanksgiving is just a day away!  But  before you sit down and eat your Thanksgiving meal, let's find out how well you know your Thanksgiving history...

1. FACT OR FICTION: IN 1863, ABRAHAM LINCOLN BECAME THE FIRST AMERICAN PRESIDENT TO PROCLAIM A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING.

2. FACT OR FICTION: NATIVE AMERICANS USED CRANBERRIES, NOW A STAPLE OF MANY THANKSGIVING DINNERS, FOR COOKING AS WELL AS FOR MEDICINAL PURPOSES.

3.  FACT OR FICTION: ONE OF AMERICA’S FOUNDING FATHERS THOUGHT THE TURKEY SHOULD BE THE NATIONAL BIRD OF THE UNITED STATES.

4. FACT OR FICTION: THE TRADITION OF PLAYING OR WATCHING FOOTBALL ON THANKSGIVING STARTED WITH THE FIRST NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE GAME ON THE HOLIDAY IN 1934.
 

Ready to check your answers?

 

…

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The U.S. is nearing the 10-year anniversary of the 2006-2007 housing bubble. Should Americans be worried that history could repeat itself? After all, home prices have risen above the bubble era in many hot markets like Seattle, Denver and San Diego.

Housing experts say there are many reasons why Americans shouldn’t be concerned about a housing crisis repeat anytime soon, including:

1. Fixed-rate loans have become more common. Many Americans have refinanced to a fixed-rate mortgage so when interest rates begin to rise – which is largely predicted to happen next month – there will not be as much shock with short-term Adjustable Rate Mortgages compared to the 2008-2009 era. In 2008-2009, many Americans had their ARMs reset and then could no longer…

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Team, as we head into the winter months and shorter days we wanted to send out a reminder to always be safe while out showing homes, meeting new clients, and performing your daily routines as real estate professionals. Please make sure you are up-to-date on warnings of thefts, strange occurrences and safety notices in your area by reading through the current safety alerts published on the “Alerts” tab on your local MLS home page.  Please put safety first and read these precautions to help make future showings as safe as possible:

  1. Be prepared. Find out as much as you can about new clients.
  2. Bring a flashlight to showings. It can be used to spotlight areas or as a weapon if needed.
  3. Use your cell phone for safety. Have emergency numbers…

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Written by Blanche Evans          

When you and your Real Estate Professional sit down to price your home, you'll be looking at competitive homes that are the most similar in size, location and amenities as your home. You may find that prices can be thousands of dollars higher or lower. It's tempting to pick the highest price and say, "Let's list it here." But what if your home doesn't sell at that price?

High prices are a strategy that can work in an accelerating market, but it's risky. Your home can sit for months without selling and you'll end up marking the price down, perhaps lower than it should have sold for in the first place.

Pricing your home is a science. The science is choosing the right price at which your home will sell…

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