Federal Way Real Estate

Outdoor Living

 Today’s homeowners are turning the great outdoors into additional living space, complete with comfortable furniture and decorative lighting. 

TIPS – FOR ENTERTAINING IN YOU OUTDOOR SPACE -

Decorating Tips

Decorate tree trunks with small white string lights for a magical look at night.

Line the path leading to your backyard with potted flowers or luminarias.

Use white butcher paper to cover your tables..have some crayons available for  children and the young at heart to creative their own masterpiece.

Create easy and attractive centerpieces with pots of colorful flowering plants or even glass bowls filled with lemons and limes. Once of my favorite things is filling a decrotive bowl with water and fresh rose pedals….Yummy!

Another nice touch is to place a small table top fountain on a corner table. The sound of water is  beautiful music.

Weigh the corners of tablecloths (or butcher paper) down with washers or small stones to keep them from catching the wind.

If you need more table space, lay a sheet of plywood or an old door over a couple of sawhorses, then cover it with a tablecloth.

What about the bugs?

For a more natural (and less offensive) repellent, use posts or springs of parsley, tansy or rue to keep ants away, and lavender or mint arrangements to discourage flies.

My sister statisticallyplaces dryer sheets around her out door living space, to discourage mosquito’s and bee’s.

Your outdoor living area can be simple or elaborate, but the most important thing is to, have fun and enjoy.

Ground Breaking News at Wynstone in Federal Way!

WYNSTONE MOVES DIRT!

A…few weeks ago all the excitement around the Wynstone sales office was centered around the news of our Final Plat approval from the City of Federal Way.  Now all of the excitement comes from seeing heavy equipment busy moving dirt on two lots in our community.  Lot 41 recently sold and is a custom home being built on the upper portion of Wynstone right near our current temporary sales office.  Just down the hill we are starting the foundation on lot 18 which will be our new MODEL HOME at Wynstone.  Next week I’ll be sending out an email to everyone featuring the model home plan being built on lot 18 and give you some details on anticipated standard features and upgrades going into our new model.

For those of you interested in the mortgage market, rates fell fairly significantly in the last couple of weeks, dropping under 5.5% and all bets are for a sub 5% rate just around the corner.  The Seattle Times and other local papers reported more buyers, especially at the entry level have begun looking seriously again. Reduced seller prices have allowed these buyers to look at properties closer to Seattle that previously were priced above their limits.

If you haven’t dropped by the sales office recently, stop by and pick up a new price sheet, standard features list and floor plans you can email Kim Mazzuca directly with any further inquiries.

Interest Rates Below 6% it’s a Good Day

Good News! Mortgage rates have dropped below 6% the first time since early spring. Freddie Mac  reports that 30-year fixed loans came in at an average of 5.93 percent this week, down from 6.35 percent a week ago and 6.31 percent at the same time last year(source: The Washington Post, Dina ElBoghdady (09/12/08) .No need to wait any longer to buy now with lower interest rates and good housing prices it’s the perfect time.

Detailed Federal Way Real Estate Statistics

We are going to post these Federal Way real estate statistics monthly. The data is from the local MLS.

We at the DiBello group are now able to provide you this data in this great format. You can login to the premium search and sign up for an account that will give it to you without waiting for us to post it.

We hope it is an interesting study.

To obtain these for your neighborhood you may register for advanced search – perform the search and look for the market analyzer in the looking glass.

This search tool is unique in that it has all of the listings, not just those agents allow to be published on the internet. Just register for our Premium Home Search here.

If you register one of us will check with you to see if it is working for you, or if we can assist. We will also email you the benefits of working with The DiBello group – which may surprise you.

Tags: federal+way, real+estate, statistics, graphs

Let Go of Buyer Fear. . . Or Don’t Believe All the National Gloom!

I wanted to include this information from an email I received from our broker so as to spread the word that the buyers here in the Seattle area can let go of some of their fear.   

A special Broker meeting for SKCAR was held a few days ago. It was to start the celebration for the 100 year SKCAR Anniversary and for us to hear from the Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors, Lawrence Yun.  His presentation was similar to the one Mathew Gardner gave us a few weeks ago, but with more comparisons to the national economy.  The bottom line, once again, was that the media is the problem as the real estate picture is not near as bad as it is portrayed and especially the
Seattle market is just fine!  The national average is up about 50% over the last 5 years and only down about 1.5% in the last year.  So, would any other industry, money fund or anything on earth be upset with that type of return?

It was interesting to find out that an often quoted professor,Robert Shiller (Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20 city home priceindex), who is responsible for many news media articles that the real estate is melting down, also is the same person with a hedge fund that is banking on a down market!  NAR is publicizing this little fact so as to properly discredit that organization and person.  This is just another example of hugely biased reporting. Case-Shiller not only uses a limited number of cities to compile their data, but for the most part they are in areas that have had more volatile markets such as California, Florida and Arizona.  When you read articles keep this in mind.   Mr. Yun said, in this area we have absolutely no negative indicators for any type of housing recession.  The only factor affecting us is buyer fear.

Thank you Wayne and Debra.

Come Out, Come Out, Where ever You Are. . . It’s A Sunshiney Day!!!

If you have been doing this, hiding away waiting for a better day. . .

It’s time to come out and play.

It was a beautiful day today for the Seattle area, Federal Way included.  People had places to go, people to see and things to do and it was just great!

So, in all your wonderings be sure to stop by those open houses when you see them.  Agents who take the time to do them during this colder time of year are really trying to help their clients get their property seen by YOU.  And they are usually a little more layed back.  And Buyers, if you are serious the Sellers are serious, too.

Things are getting better!  And it’s time to make a decision if you have been waiting to buy.

Good Luck!

Every Home Has A Special Feature

One of the great things about selling homes is the diversity in homes. Even though some neighborhoods have their characteristics or price ranges, the truth about real estate is that it is local. Hyper local perhaps, in that your home may be worth more than a home of the same size next door. What makes your home special?

Fortunate for Realtors is the fact that to prosper in the real estate business means you must know the market. To know the market means you must see a lot of homes. Guess what? This part gets old to those who don’t love houses. To most real estate agents looking at homes for sale is a labor of love, it is looking at each homes special features.

I often call Federal Way the enchanted neighborhoods. It applies to this area, wouldn’t you say?

It is truly a great business. It is truly a great time to have a Federal Way home for sale, or to buy a home.

Your Home Is For Sale and You Want Feedback, Right?

I wanted to call your attention to a common practice sellers expect from their listing agent. That is to talk to every agent that went through their home for feedback. As a buyers agent I don’t consider this a good practice. More Here on this Issaquah Highlands Post, Why I Don’t Give Listing Agents Feedback. Lar

I had to share this article and its many comments with you.  You will find this dialogue very helpful whether selling or buying because it will show you how seriously a good real estate agent values his/her agency agreement with their client.  I could relate to all view points and I found it very interesting, but I must say that Wendy Hughes-Jelen sums it up along with Larry Cragun very well.

Thanks so much!

Biting OFF a Little More Than We Can Chew. . .

Do you feel like you might be biting off more than you can chew?

I had to pay tribute to this article from Issaquah Undressed and to the picture once I saw it.  How often do we at times feel this way in our personal life, work life and all the other little lifes we have.  At times in Real Estate that is definitely how it feels.  And Larry in his artical “A Real Estate Question” expresses it well.  I found myself recently working very hard to find a great home for my clients.  What should have been a treasure hunt became more of a search for sunken treasure and a moment of wondering “what should we do now”  because it was hard to stay in the parameters of budget and yet meet their needs.  Neither one of us gave up and a happy ending came as a promised rainbow.   That’s when it feels good to be a real estate agent.  Thanks again Larry for these little reminders.