Home Buyer Open House and Neighborhood Check List

Posted by Cary W Porter on March 25th, 2016

Open houses may be staged to look like a home décor dream, but don’t let that distract you from the real reason you’re there: to potentially buy a home. Make sure you can look past the neatly arranged furniture and focus solely on whether the house would be a good fit for you and your family. To help, here’s a home buyer’s checklist of things you might have missed at first glance.

Windows – Look specifically if they are facing the right direction to let sunlight in, and whether they open to a nice view (versus directly toward another neighbor’s window).

Under the Sink Cabinets – Check for possible signs of water damage due to leaky plumbing.

Electrical Outlets – Make sure there are enough outlets for the appliances and other electronics…

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Open House Treasure Hunt Kickoff Party!

Posted by Cary W Porter on March 3rd, 2016

Please join us next Wednesday for our Open House Treasure Hunt kickoff party!

The party will take place at Blakely Hall in the Issaquah Highlands, and we are giving away a ton of prizes!!

 

We have gift cards to Bed Bath and Beyond, Lowe's, Regal, Starbucks, Red Robin and Panera bread.  We are giving away Captain Morgan, Cannon Blast and Kraken rum too!

You'll also get to see Cary dressed up like a pirate!

Please let Allison@thecascadeteam.com know if you can attend!  

Join us to discuss the Open House Treasure Hunt, Project Crayon Drive, win prizes and get a sneak peak of our new Geofencing platform!

 
This year, we have really stepped up our marketing efforts when it comes to the Treasure Hunt and Project Crayon Drive.

Join Our…

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Taking Real Estate to The Next Level: Hi Tech/ Hi Touch Tools for Buyers and Sellers

Posted by Cary W Porter on February 18th, 2016

No matter if you are buying a home in this competitive market or looking to sell, The Cascade Team has you covered. From “Smart Search” which learns with you as your browse for homes to our PRIME Marketing program designed to stimulate high interest and multiple offers we have the information, technology solution and personal service designed to take your real estate experience to the next level!

School and community information is just as important as the right number of beds and baths when looking for a home and The Cascade Team has you covered. It's so important that we built school and community reports right into every listed property at our website.

For schools, we show you which ones are nearby and even how much they spend per student. 

…

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For Valentines Day: Discover How Men & Women Fall In Love With Homes Differently

Posted by Cary W Porter on February 12th, 2016

Sixty-nine percent of consumers recently admitting to having a “home crush”—a property they liked so much they were drawn back tolooking at it more than once online or in person, according to a new realtor.com® survey of 1,000 consumers. But men and women respond quite differently to these crushes, according to the survey.

For example, the survey found that women are more likely than men to have a crush on a home that was out of their financial league. Forty-one percent of women revealed their home crush is out of their price range, compared to only 30 percent of men who said the same.

Men were more likely than women to move from one home crush to another. Thirty-six percent of men surveyed say they find a new house crush weekly, compared to 29…

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Lack of Housing Inventory “A Game Changer” For Home Buyers

Posted by Cary W Porter on February 4th, 2016

KIRKLAND, Washington (February 4, 2016) – Depleted inventory is contributing to "overwhelming" traffic at open houses, shifts in strategies for both buyers and sellers, and escalating prices, according to officials with the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Dick Beeson, a former chairman of the MLS board, said the lack of inventory in almost every county is, "without question, a 2016 game changer." He described traffic at open houses as sometimes simply overwhelming. "There haven’t been any battle royals on the premises, but it could happen any day now," quipped Beeson, the principal managing broker at RE/MAX Professionals in Tacoma.

The latest figures show a drop of nearly 28 percent in the number of active listings in the MLS database…

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See Our Results in Trossachs!

Posted by Cary W Porter on January 26th, 2016

Trossachs Home SOLD in Sammamish By The Cascade Team

Proven Results:

Sold in 3 Days!
$35,000 OVER Asking Price!
No Inspection!
Seller Saved $19,200!

1132 268th Way SE, Sammamish WA 98075

Beautifully updated Trossachs home! The main floor has an updated kitchen with newer granite, backslash, cook top, dishwasher and a walk in pantry. The family room features a gas fireplace and builtin bookcases. Large formal living room with a gas fireplace. Formal dining room with french doors opens to a covered outdoor entertaining area. Main floor office.  The entry staircase and powder room have been nicely updated.  Newer paint and carpet.  The upper level includes the master bedroom with sitting area, french doors to huge patio, and large master…

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Surprising Holiday Home-Buying Trends

Posted by Cary W Porter on November 30th, 2015

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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Spooky Real Estate Stories

Posted by Cary W Porter on October 25th, 2015

www.TerrorAtTrossachs.com

We asked Real Estate Brokers and Agents from around the country for there best "Spooky Real Estate Experiences", but we didn’t want such great stories to disappear like ghosts in the night. So, in preparation for Halloween, we thought you might like to read through some of these narratives. Here are a few that sent tingles down our spines (lightly edited for style, grammar, and length).

I had a home on the market that was built in the late 1700s. The seller was putting his mom’s former home on the market, and it was vacant. Every Monday morning, I noticed a drip line running from the countertop across the fireplace to a doorway in the kitchen. I cleaned it up about three times. Finally, I called someone in to take a…

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New Listing in Sammamish's Windsor Heights - Cary Porter

Posted by Cary W Porter on October 1st, 2015

$1,050,000 - 2435 267th Ct SE, Sammamish    Bedrooms: 4    Bathrooms: 2.75    Sq. Footage: 3,980    Year Built: 1995    Garage Spaces: 3    Type: Residential    MLS® Number: 854909

OFFERED BY: PROPERTY DESCRIPTION:   Cary W Porter Designated Broker & Owner 425.891.7447 Schedule a Showing Request More Info For details contact Cary Porter at 425-891-7447. This absolutely stunning custom 3980 sq ft 4bd, 2.5ba Windsor Heights resale is sure to be the delight of many! Great open spaces, private retreats & spacious yard make this the ideal home for someone looking…

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Introducing SpyDoor: Your Home’s Value/ Your Neighbor’s Home Value/ Any Home Down the Street

Posted by Cary W Porter on September 18th, 2015

 Introducing SpyDoor; The Cascade Team’s Automated Valuation Solution  

1. The only home valuation tool to go “Hyper”-Local with communities as small as 10 homes. 
2. Blending fully integrated MLS Sold, Active and Pending data with Tax records and County Assessed values.
3. Ability to manually adjust values such as: # of Beds, Baths, sq ft, etc
4. Full demographics down to the Hyper Local level 
5. Pull school boundaries with regular updates from State and county websites.
   

Your Home’s Value/ Your Neighbor’s Home Value/ Any Home Down the Street

 

The Cascade Team has deployed a class of an Automated Valuation Model (AVM) that has stood the test of time. It employs both a Hedonic modeling approach and Market Comp approach yielding…

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