Adrian Willanger's Blog

We’ve all have heard the expression “when buying real estate its location, location, location.” Intuitively we get a sense of what makes a good neighborhood,  well keep streets and homes, low crime rates, good schools and close to shopping.

I tend to look at neighbors and communities in a circular or radius patterns.  A good example of this is with my new listing in Magnolia, 1911 31st Avenue W.  I tend to look at the location of the home in terms of how close are the  community resources, transit, open spaces and how walkable is the neighborhood.

When I asked the sellers what attracted them to this house, they previously lived just north of Dravus, and they mentioned that “a larger home was needed but the main attraction was its location.”  The 4 bedroom, 3 baths home is a five minute walk to “Magnolia Village” home to many specialty stores and professional services, some of Seattle’s top restaurants, and industrial and marine services. The amenity rich community also has strong connectivity to schools, parks, churches and public transportation.

Homes in this sought after  “walkable” area of Magnolia are blessed with many tree lined boulevards, open green spaces and fresh salt air breezes coming off Elliot Bay and Puget Sound.

Currently they’re 21 homes for sale with ½ mile radius of Magnolia Village prices range from $519,000-$5m.

New Listing

911 31th Avenue West, this 1950s home has its roots deeply embedded in a “new urbanism” theme, built in an extremely walkable community. The architecture design offers some subtle features from its counterparts, large inviting covered entry, natural daylighting from well thought out window placement, “BIG” rooms and an abundance of storage.  Extremely well maintained with some updating, a rare 2-car garage and 3 bathroom daylight-rambler located just east of Carlton Park in South Magnolia. Open Sunday May 20th from 1-3pm. Offered at $639,950.

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3. Seattle s intercity real estate activity proves location is once again a key price driver(11.8)
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Dateline Seattle Wa. May 16, 2012 – During the preparation and staging of a new listing in Seattle’s Magnolia neighborhood the stager suffered an ankle sprain and minor knee bruises.  The stager is reported to be in good condition and said “I’ll finish the job prior to Sunday’s public open house.”

The home is a 1950s daylight rambler, originally build as the personal residence for the homebuilder; the home has its roots deeply embedded in a “new urbanism” theme, built within an extremely walk-able neighborhood represented by its walking score of 80. Local residences, while passing by, can often be heard commenting about the subtle architectural characteristic of this home compared to other homes built in this era.

The home is located at 1911 31st Avenue West in Seattle features a large inviting covered entry, natural daylighting from well thought out placement of windows, use of stone & brick, “big” rooms, and an abundance of storage.

An extremely well maintained with some updating to kitchen and bathrooms, a rare home for the era, with a 2-car garage and 3 baths located just east of popular Carleton Park in South Magnolia.

Offered at $639,950

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1. Do You Need A Professional Stager When Selling Your House In Bothell (8.6)
2. Living in Seattle’s Magnolia Community (8.3)
3. The Art of Sustainable Building in Urban Seattle (6.8)
4. Getting a hi-performance home appraised (6.8)

You hear a lot of talk about the need to do home improvements to add value to your Seattle home. While some improvements will definitely add a lot of value to your home, there are some that won’t increase the price at all. When you are thinking of doing home improvements as an investment that will pay off down the road later, you’ll want to know what type is of improvements you should be doing to raise your Seattle home’s value.

The first thing that you need to realize before attempting to do any type of home improvements, is that the potential buyer is not even going to be able to see any of them if your Seattle house is a cluttered mess and your yard looks like it is the local neighborhood dumping zone. Make sure that you put the basics into place including landscaping, painting, carpet cleaning, wall cleaning etc. before doing any other improvements. The improvements you make need to be seen by the people that are viewing your Seattle home, and they won’t be noticed if your house is in a bad state of affairs.

The things that affect the value of your home the most include its square footage, where the bedrooms are located, the design and how many bedrooms there are. If you can improve on any of these factors, there’s a good chance that you will see the value of your home increase significantly.

Something like adding crown molding to your home is not going to increase the value. It will make your Seattle house look nice, which may give you a faster sale, but you can’t really expect to get any extra money out of your home by adding this molding. That’s where the confusion lies.

There are a lot of things you can do to your home to make it sell faster but that does not necessarily mean that it will increase the value of your home. These are two completely separate entities that need to be kept in different compartments. If you start assuming that you can raise the value of your Seattle home by doing small things that make your home look better, you’re mistaken in most cases.

Ask your real estate agent about any possible improvements that you can do to raise the value of your Seattle home. He’ll be able to offer some sound advice that will actually increase the price of your home when you decide to sell it later.

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Housing inventories in Lake Forest Park have been trending upward since late February of 2012; while the average days on market has continued to decrease since the high-water mark in February 2102, falling from 157 day average to a 117 day average into the first week of May 2012.

Inventory levels and selling prices both starting trending upward towards the end of February 2012, both coming off of two year lows, the median selling price now is hovering around $283,000.

Lake Forest Park

The City of Lake Forest Park is located just north of Seattle, it’s occupies the northwest corner of Lake Washington.  Lake Forest Park is anchored by the Lake Forest Park Town Center which has over the years become a “third place” for many residents.

The average days a listing in Lake Forest Park stays on the market has declined sufficiently from early February 2012, when the average days on the market for a listing reached 157 days.  Active listings in February reached their lowest level since September 2011 and have little by little starting to gain numbers.

Lake Forest Park is filled with residents who love outdoor activities and being right next door to the Burke Gilman Trail provides health enthusiasts a convenient outlet to walk, run and cycle along the shores of Lake Washington from Gas Works Park through Lake Forest Park and continuing to Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville.

Sign up to have FREE WEEKLY UPDATES on the latest Greater Seattle real estate market activity e-mailed to you weekly.

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Upper tier homes in NE Seattle selling quicker

Homes in the median price range of $525k in northeast Seattle are selling faster than less expensive homes in the area. Northeast Seattle which is made up of Maple Leaf, Victory Heights, Pinehurst, Lake City, Cedar Park and Meadowbrook neighborhoods.

The homes in top quartile are selling on average in 81 days while homes in the lower quartile are taking 142 days to sell.  This could be because there are a greater number of distressed properties in the lower price range and these properties just take longer to close.

The upper price homes in northeast Seattle tend to be newer, with an average of 40 years compared to 51-55 year old homes in the middle price ranges.  Also, buyers are looking for that extra bathroom, typically found in the upper priced homes in northeast Seattle.

You heard it before and you’ll hear it again – stay neutral to sell your home. If you’re painting your house to get it ready for the market look at neutral colors so that you’ll attract the most potential buyers. In a world where it’s common to try to please everyone, this can work. There are, however, reasons why you shouldn’t make everything neutral since a Seattle home for sale needs to have some color show some kind of life in at.

It has been proven time and time again that bright colors can lift your mood. You would think that a person that is walking in your home would be affected by the colors that surround him and will react to them. Therefore, you want to make sure that you can lift a buyer’s mood by offering some bright colors without overdoing at. You don’t want buyers to feel humdrum about walking through your home and seeing neutrality almost attacking them. A Seattle home for sale should be a balance between neutral colors and some bright contrasting colors that lift the mood of the viewers that walk through the home.

Here are some interesting facts about colors and how they may influence your Seattle home for sale.

Yellow

Adds happiness and brightness to any room and is known to be the optimistic color. An optimistic buyer will think positive thoughts about your home when he sees the color yellow.

Red

Red is a strong color that brings out the emotions in a person. If you’re potential Seattle homebuyer is looking at your house and likes it, adding some red to the environment may make him love it by the time he leaves.

Blue

This is a relaxing and calming color that will make your viewers be more at ease and comfortable in your home. When you’re trying to create a warm and homey environment for your Seattle home for sale this is the color that you should be adding to the different rooms in your house.

Had a bit of spark to your Seattle home for sale and don’t keep everything neutral. Neutrality is good to a limit but when it is over done it may just put your potential buying customers to sleep.

Sign up to have FREE WEEKLY UPDATES on the latest Greater Seattle real estate market activity e-mailed to you weekly.

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Have you taken a good look at your bathroom lately since you’ve put your Seattle house for sale on the market? If not, you may be missing something that others are picking up. The bathroom is the place where people will be inspecting the cleanliness and you’ll need to make sure that it is tidy as well. If you have kids you know that this can be an enormous feat but it is necessary when your Seattle house is on the market.

One of the easiest things that you can do yourself is to make a schedule for bathroom cleanups. Get everyone in the house involved and have a set time where someone visits the bathroom and makes sure that it is clean. This is only important if you have a family since if you are a single person you’ll be able to take responsibility for the bathroom yourself. When kids are involved, however, it becomes quite a different story. 

Make sure that the paint on the bathroom walls still looks good and do any spot cleaning where necessary. Take a look at the lighting and see if the bathroom is bright enough. If not, you might want to pick up a cheap bathroom light fixture that can take high wattage bulbs. People love to see a well-lit bathroom when they are looking through your Seattle house is for sale.

Check for any mold around the bathroom tiles. Mold has become quite an issue these days as more and more health studies are revealing that it is dangerous. Black mold can easily develop in a bathroom and it is very easy to handle. There are cleaning products sold in grocery stores that can break down the mold between your tiles for a quick and easy cleanup.

The flooring on the bathroom should be checked as well. Make sure that the area between the baseboard and the floor is totally clean. This is often a place that is overlooked when you are anxious to get your home ready for a viewing. It will definitely stand out, however, if somebody is looking at your bathroom and inspecting it for cleanliness.

Does your bathroom pass the clean and tidy test? If not, take a few moments to make it look like it is a bathroom fit for the fussiest buyers.  When you have a Seattle house for sale every little thing counts.

Sign up to have FREE WEEKLY UPDATES on the latest Greater Seattle real estate market activity e-mailed to you weekly.

 Related posts:

1. Sell Your Bothell Home Faster By Fixing Up Your Bathroom (16.4)
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