Whether you are a Buyer or Seller, these are the basic steps most transactions take through the escrow closing process…

1. You’ve gone under contract and escrow is opened at the 3rd party escrow company identified in the contract.
2. Buyer makes an earnest money deposit within a contractually-specified number of days.
3. During this time, the closing team reviews the Purchase & Sale Agreement.
4. The closing team also reviews the Title Report on an on-going basis, through to the closing date.
5. The transaction reaches a mid-term with weekly status updates to bring visibility to the process.
6. Loan Documents received from the Lender, if any.
7. A Lender-approved Closing Disclosure/Settlement Statement is sent for review.
8. Appointment times for all parties to the contract as set for signing.
9. The signings are completed by a Notary and confirmed with escrow.
10. Funds are received and transaction documents are released to the county for recording.
11. The recording is conformed by the county and the transaction is considered closed.

By Tara Hickock

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It’s easy being green in Seattle. The Emerald City got its nickname from the lush plants and trees that make up a big part of our ecosystem. It also means most homes have at least some kind of landscaping that boosts home values in the real estate market. But the sophistication and design can make tens of thousands of dollars of difference in the offers you get. Let’s take a closer look at how home landscaping design affects the value of your home.

More Green = More Green

An oft-cited study out of Virginia Tech found that most homebuyers rank landscape design as the most important factor. The most preferred landscape has big trees, lots of colorful annual flowers, and a colored hardscape, like a patio or walkway.

Another study from Michigan also found landscaping is critical when selling a home. Researchers found sophisticated landscaping increased the value of a home by anywhere from 5% to 12%. The median price of a home in Seattle sits at $880,000 – so that comes out to anywhere between $44,000 to $105,600 more.

Put Your Landscaping To Work

Your landscaping is more than window dressing. It can play a part in how energy efficient your home is. Big trees can serve as a windbreak in the winter and shade your house from the sun in the summer. Planting one of the best grass types for Seattle, such as perennial ryegrass or Kentucky bluegrass, makes your lawn more eco-friendly and low-maintenance. The lawn will help with storm drainage, prevent erosion, and help keep the property cooler during the warm season.

Standing Out

There’s only so much you can do to change the actual structure of your home, but your landscaping can help your home stand out and appeal to buyers. The Virginia Tech study also found that plant size is important. Mature trees and flowering plants will boost your curb appeal. It can also help differentiate your property if you’re in a subdivision or neighborhood where the architectural styles are very similar. Standing out from the crowd is easy if your landscape design is thoughtful and planned.

Low Maintenance

 

Homebuyers want to spend time enjoying their yard, not working in it. Automatic irrigation systems are essential. Drought-tolerant gardens with native plants are also eco-friendly, requiring little water or maintenance. Keep in mind, the more hardscaping features you have, the less lawn there is to mow.

Things to Avoid

Landscape design – or lack of it – can conversely drag down the value of your property. Whether it’s neglected and overrun with weeds and uncut grass, or just poorly planned, a bad landscape design can affect the value of your property. Other things that lower the value include:

● Sloping lawns
● Too many leafy trees too close to the house
● Poor drainage
● Poor lighting
● Too many lawn ornaments

High-maintenance landscaping can definitely impact the price at closing. If you’re not sure how to fix it, a professional landscaper can be a great return on investment.

Houses are selling fast in this market, but you can’t afford to let your guard down if you want the best price. A little bit of landscaping will help you get a lot more at closing time.

Tara Hickock is an interior designer who also designs and decorates outdoor living spaces. Her designs focus on bringing the outdoors inside to give homes a natural touch. She recently remodeled her own home and created a screened-in sunroom for her guests to enjoy the outdoors, even in winter.

When residential home sales picked up speed in the wake of the initial quarantine of the pandemic, many experts weighed in on this outlying trend. A year later, as Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty examines the data from the Eastside to Bainbridge Island and markets in between, it’s easy to see that a lack of inventory and an onslaught of buyers wasn’t a one-off. The question for many following the trendlines now, is when will median sales prices start to plateau, and the number of homes available for sale starts to tick back up.

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Chris Kallin, shares about a recent significant sale that illustrates the importance of choosing your representation wisely.

In mid-July, I was contacted by the desperate owners of a struggling West Seattle listing along highly-desirable Beach Drive.  I had been made aware that they might wish to speak with me and was prepared for that call.  The backstory goes that they had a longtime broker-friend who had helped them buy and sell several homes over many years.  They gave her the opportunity to list their West Seattle home despite the fact that this broker had moved to Gig Harbor several years prior.  It was suggested that this was done out of loyalty with no thought given to potential consequences.  This broker enlisted the help of another, who happened to live on the Eastside and do most of her work there as well.

 

When the sellers and I spoke, it was via Zoom.  After having been presented with the backstory, I was asked to shared my thoughts about the listing.  My general response was that the home was under-prepared, that it suffered from unusually poor photography, made worse by a lack of staging, and that it was overpriced by more than 10%.  I supported these statements by showing several of my past listings, to demonstrate what proper staging and excellent photography should really look like.  Then I took them through a spreadsheet with up-to-the-minute market data that strongly suggested their pricing error.  And finally, we looked together at what was currently on market, showing them where their home logically fit relative to what was currently on market.  They agreed on all counts.  The original listing was grossly misrepresented.

Before we spoke, I had learned that they’d already made a commitment to stage the home with a top-tier stager.  Prior to our conversation then, I had pencilled a reservation with my preferred photographer and worked out the timeline such that I could have the home on market the morning after the 3-day staging was completed.  If you’re a frequent seller of homes in our area, you know this to be a nearly superhuman feat.  I pulled numerous strings to produce such a rapid deployment, but it allowed me to get them back to market two weeks earlier than their existing representation was prepared for.  This was important because we were in the final weeks of summer, racing to beat the start of the new school year (a time when you generally don’t see families move).  Beyond these details, I made commitments to host two mid-week broker’s open’s and public open houses every weekend in both the daytime and evening.  And lastly, I committed to private showings between the stated open houses.  This would permit me to show the home in great detail, discuss the hyper-local market with prospective buyers and their broker’s, and report back to the sellers in real-time with my finger squarely on the pulse.  I offered to do all of this, starting immediately, but not without the a $288,000 price reduction.  They spoke briefly in private and awarded me the listing on the spot.

Despite being in a sellers market, where the vast majority of homes are priced below expectations with a tight offer review date, I felt that we could not list this way.  A home can only be freshly listed once, you see.  I felt strongly that we were now in damage control, forcing us to list at the home’s true value, reviewing offers as they came.  At five days on market, we received an offer just below asking price and it might have been a winner if not for strange terms.  I had shown the home to this buyer a few times and cautioned the sellers that the extremely lengthy inspection period smelled fishy, relative to what I knew about his intentions.  I believed that he was attempting to use a lengthy inspection as something of a feasibility period during which he would try to get clearance for a structural change with the city.  On my advice, we verbally countered that detail and continued to show the home.

At 11-days on market, we received a full-price cash offer with very favorable terms.  I called brokers with serious buyers to suggest now-or-never and, after consulting with the sellers, they happily chose to sell to this ideal buyer.  If you’re keeping up with the details, this meant that I had the home under contract before the previous agents could even bring it to market.  Well done, if I don’t say so myself.  Once we were closed, one of the sellers wrote this amazing Google review which I’m very proud of:

 

 

“Professional, proactive, positive, intelligent real estate agent who handled everything from getting top notch photos in record time,  early afternoon and twilight opens on first two weekends, two brokers’ opens two and four days after home went on market on and over 20 private showings. In just 11 days we had a full price all-cash offer from excellent buyers.  Chris offered immediate availability, wise advice, a charming sense of humor, timely home showing reports and every imaginable detail taken care of, well beyond the call of duty, with total class. Seamless experience from our first meeting with him to closing. It is obvious he not only loves and takes pride in his job as a real estate agent but cares deeply about the process of buying/selling homes and loves people. Amazing and very pleasant home selling experience with Chris Kallin! Thank you Chris!!!”

I am proud of the referral that produced this opportunity, proud of the work, and very happy for the seller’s outcome, but that review…. WOW!  That’s real estate gold right there.  If you’re thinking about buying or selling a home and you’d like to have a consultation, it would be my pleasure.  Whether you ultimately choose to work with me or not, I will appreciate the opportunity and show respect for your time.  I can be reached at chris@seattlebydesign.com or 206-999-6920.

By Kimberly Park

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Those of us in the Pacific Northwest’s temperate climate aren’t typically concerned about our apples getting sunburned. But a recent heatwave may have everyone thinking more about protecting their landscaping. And some are wondering if what they plant can impact how they weather the next round of abnormally high temperatures. Here are six ways to use your landscaping know-how to increase your home’s energy efficiency.

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By William Hillis | August 10, 2021

 

The year started hot for the real estate market. And the second quarter of 2021 continued these trends as low inventory, rising median home sales prices, and fleeting time on market put sellers in the driver’s seat. Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty examines five key markets each quarter to find out where the market has been, and where the trends might lead us next. A lack of inventory has been apparent since the height of the pandemic, and while more sellers are entering the market, the need of buyers didn’t diminish in Q2-2021 as mortgage rates hovered near historic lows and competitive offers escalated sales prices. Whether a seller preparing to list your home and receive the best possible offer or a buyer seeking your next opportunity, with the right advisement, preparation, and marketing, which you can find with an RSIR global real estate advisor, it’s still a great time to enter the market.

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There are a lot of factors that go into deciding where to start your home search. One of these components is choosing the right school district. Whether you have a family or are considering starting one, buying a home in a neighborhood with highly rated schools can feel very high-stakes.

Our team has compiled all the necessary resources to help you navigated the Seattle school systems with ease.  Check out the links below and then reach out to the team, and we can help you find your dream home in your ideal school district.

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Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty waterfront report is compiled by over two years of waterfront transactions in many of the communities in which our brokers are hyper-local waterfront experts. From January 2019 through March of 2021, we look at the trends among waterfront sales, starting with the 12 Western Washington counties below.

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A year of strong home price growth amid a shift to remote work.

Here we take an in-depth look at how the emerging work-from-home trend may reshape our communities. The Index reported that Seattle ended the year ranked second in the nation for residential price growth for an eleventh straight month. At third place, San Diego failed to close its narrowing gap with Seattle. The mix of urban, suburban, and exurban development within the MSA means that the Case-Shiller index for Seattle does not only reflect residential price trends inside the city but also prices in suburban and exurban towns beyond the city.

Homebuying demand has not fled the Greater Puget Sound: It is simply realigning with the preferences of the millions who enjoy the quality of life this region offers.