Moving Sale!

We were busy this weekend with a real estate open house AND a moving sale! It's the first time I've ever had a moving/garage sale. It was actually pretty easy since I borrowed the 13 year old daughter of my friend and hairstylist, Lien. I stayed upstairs to handle real estate inquiries, Steve was stationed in the back yard greeting people arriving at the sale, and Jennifer was assigned the indoor sale area downstairs. There were some slow times so she did a great job arranging items for sale so it looks real nice. Now I can put the signs out whenever I happen to be home between now and when we move and eventually we will get rid of stuff!

We are signed up for the Community-wide Garage Sale in West Seattle on May 12th, being organized by Megawatt. It's for a good cause and they send a truck at the end of the day to pick up items to donate to the NW Center that weren't sold during the sale. We'll see if there is anything left! Craigslist has been real effective as well.

I mentioned in a post yesterday in the launch of my professional blog, Green Spaces Real Estate, that I wrote up a contract for the sale of our house. He's about our age and built the 2 newest houses just up the street from us. We are subject to inspection and also a feasability period of 20 days to verify the property will be subdividable and usable for the purpose of constructing another house. Once those 20 days have passed then I will truly be able to relax!!

We continue to be able to buy gas and groceries with the cash we make each weekend selling items on craigslist and thru our moving sale!

Green Spaces Real Estate

Last week I attended a real estate conference downtown. I took a couple of very good classes, and one was called Real Estate 2.0 and talked about alternative business models for the industry in addition to using new forms of technology to communicate with your network. Thus I have created a new professional blog, Green Spaces Real Estate. This new blog's theme is

Pacific Northwest Life and Living:
Pocket parks and open spaces ~
OLAs and pet places ~
Real estate and home graces

Steve created the banner for me. It is one of the first photos I took of Switch outside here at home. Unfortunately we lost Switch to a car last July 5th - in this way I can memorialize him. And our pets are one good reason to live someplace that has green space. Sort of the whole point of my blog.

I will continue to maintain my personal blog with fun pictures and personal updates. But remember to also check my other blog for good and interesting information. I will probably discontinue the newsletter I just launched for my real estate business. I can write more frequently on a blog and my personal network is all online anyway, so using the internet as my means of communication with my personal sphere just makes sense!

Look under COOL LINKS on the right hand side of your screen for a link to Green Spaces Real Estate!

Off and Running

Yesterday I wrote up my first sale – and today I make my first listing presentation.

How did that happen?

On March 2nd Linda sent me out to preview a bunch of mobile homes for someone she is working with who has to relocate from Tyee Village in SeaTac, the current mobile home park the Port has purchased (they’re working on the next one now…). I drove around Tacoma, Puyallup and Auburn looking at listed mobiles for sale (in the pouring rain, ALL DAY). I returned to the office and typed up nice information sheets with photo tours that will go in the book at the airport so everyone has access to the information. At the end of the day I find out they have made an offer on a FSBO unit in Auburn. Which I thought was silly since he worked in Tacoma and I saw some really nice places. Oh well!

Well, yesterday he came in to talk to Linda. The FSBO deal fell thru cuz the seller upped the price. Linda had given the buyer my info sheets the previous week and they had driven by and peeked in the windows. In Puyallup I had toured a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom, nearly 1,800 square foot mobile in a quiet family park pretty convenient to 512. Well, they want to buy it! Who wouldn’t? It was HUGE. Linda had me do up the paperwork and is going to split the commission with me (not very much money really, but we also get paid by the hour by the Port).

Also yesterday while I was at the eye doctor having my eyes dilated a woman was leaving me a message about wanting a market analysis for her brother’s mobile home in Auburn. He has had a recent series of strokes and they are considering moving him to an assisted living facility. I called her back quite late last night (once I could see paper and pen and take notes). They want a fast sale if they go that route. Fortunately for her she called ME, since last week I toured 8 assisted living facilities for a report for the Port and am quite up on them. I’ll be putting some information together this morning and have a meeting at 3 PM today with her. Oh – she got my number from another home owner in the park there I met in September when touring FSBOs for more Port buyers. I was assigned the FSBOs since I didn’t have my key and no one else likes dealing with them. Hah! Who’s laughing now?

Now, if I could just get out of the darn trailer parks and into REAL houses…

It's actually my 4th sale and would be my 2nd listing if you consider my previous incarnation as a Windermere sales agent (1999-2001).