Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Copy Link
Shopping in Gig Harbor
Shopping in Gig Harbor is amazing! And we love and cherish our small businesses – and we have plenty of them! Here is a sampling of the great small shops and other venues to try when you are visiting. We promise to tour you around while you search for your new home.
Gift Shops
Rosedale Gardens
Treasures for Humanity
Salons
Studio Six Salon and Spa
Rebel’tude
Restaurants
BBQ2U
The Devoted Kiss
The NetShed
Thai Hut
Gardening
Raft Island Roses
Specialty Stores
For the Love of Spice
The Beach Basket
Leave a comment on your favorites – or list what you know of these businesses. It is so important to support small businesses, especially during this difficult time.
Happy Shopping!
Maria K. Two generations of the Schmidtke family are celebrating Gig Harbor’s gift shop, Beach Basket’s 50th year in business. From left, Kim Stokke, Julian Schmidtke, Leslie Schmidtke, and Michael Schmidtke. Photo Credit: The Gateway Staff, The News Tribune.
Suburban ‘Boom’ Coming? May be Time to Act!
More Telecommuters Might Want to Move to the Harbor
An interesting article came across my path from the Seattle PI.
“Zillow” found that 75% of Americans working from home due to COVID-19 would prefer to telecommute at least half of the time once the pandemic subsides, and 66% said they would consider moving if their job allowed them to continue telecommuting.”
This means if you are debating moving or downsizing, this may be the time!
Many of my clients live in the Washington State Peninsula. Our homes will be in top demand if more Seattleites or Bellevue dwellers decide to step away from the rat-race. They can buy a better, bigger home in Gig Harbor or Ollala and still be a ferry ride away from the city.
This was the quote that made my heart skip a beat: “Moving away from the central core has traditionally offered affordability at the cost of your time and gas money. Relaxing those costs by working remotely could mean more households choose those larger homes farther out, easing price pressure on urban and inner suburban areas,” said Zillow senior principal economist, Skylar Olsen.
Did you read that? LARGER HOMES FURTHER OUT?? That means our neck-of-the-woods may be store for a buyer boom.
And here is what I believe will be a big deciding factor: “More people will leave San Francisco, New York, and even Seattle, some for nearby towns like Sacramento and Tacoma that are close enough to support a weekly office visit.” Think about this… yes many may move south to Pierce County, but Tacoma isn’t that different from Seattle.
Gig Harbor though…that is another planet. A stunning, green, quiet heavenly planet. So while they may start looking in Tacoma, the traffic and rat-race mentality will eventually lead them to our paradise.
And if you are selling, get ready for a prime opportunity.
When people realize that their future commute might include a monthly Ferry Ride and taxi drive, they will start salivating at the possibilities that the Peninsula offers.
And that might make some sellers salivate at their options.
Call me, and we can talk about strategy! This may or may not be for you…but if you don’t call, you’ll never know.
Zillow Vs. Reality
Zillow is a very popular Real Estate estimation service…but does popularity mean accuracy?
As a real estate agent, I love helping people find, improve, sell or invest in real estate. I think I have the best job in the world. Every day, I get to walk alongside people who see a preferred future and have asked me to help them get to that preferred future.
Along the way, I get to answer many, many questions. And questions about Zillow are usually the first ones I get to answer.
Let’s clarify a few misconceptions about Zillow…
Since I am a positive person, I’ll start with Zillow’s positive attributes. Zillow brings together a ton of information in one place. If a buyer wants to make a first glance at the homes for sale in a given area, Zillow is thoroughly adequate. If someone wants statistics on how prices have changed in a zipcode over time… than Zillow works.
If a buyer wants a quick look at square footage, room numbers and age of a home than again, Zillow gives some great information.
Zillow’s proprietary calculations look at the LAST SALE price of a particular home and compare that price with CURRENT sale prices of similar homes in the area. From here, Zillow calculates their Zestimate.
Oh, one other good point about Zillow is they clearly state that this is an estimate and not an actual value.
Now, let’s talk about the reality. Zillow can not know if you have spent $60,000 on home improvements. Likewise, Zillow can’t tell if you have significant water damage, a crack in the foundation or an old roof.
This is where real estate agents like myself come into the picture. We spend our days looking at and evaluating the values of a home. We are able to take into consideration the up-keep of a home. We are able to actually look at see that the shag carpet hasn’t been replaced since 1960. We look at comparable sales of homes in the neighborhood to give a true context to the prices that are requested.
Also remember that Zillow is funded by ad revenue. Over inflating someone’s home value is a sure way to get people to bring their eyeballs back to a site. The more eyeballs Zillow delivers, the more money they can charge advertisers.
Pricing your home for sale or knowing what price to pay for a home is what real estate professionals spend all our time discussing. When the right time comes, give me a call and we will sit down and make sure your next real estate transaction is your best real estate transaction.
COVID-19 Real Estate FAQ
COVID-19 has been a scary time for all of us. If you’re thinking about buying or selling, you may have some questions. I’m going to answer the ones I’m hearing most frequently.
Can I still buy a house during the COVID – 19 Crisis?
Yes, you absolutely can still buy a home during this crisis. There are just a few extra precautions that are implemented for sellers and buyers when showing a home-like: wear a mask, wear gloves, use hand sanitizer, and 2 people in a home at one time.
What do I do if I am in the middle of a move and house hunt?
House moves are still happening, movers are essential types of business. You can search for homes online, then when you find a home you want to see your agent makes a showing appointment for you both to see the home, use Marco Polo video to view the home, or face time.
Are you keeping regular business hours?
Yes, I am. 8am-6pm and answer phone up until 8pm. 7 days a week.
Are there special assistance programs available for purchasing homes?
You need to get a pre-approval from your lender or I can refer you to a few great people I work with that will go over all the loan programs, payments, rates, etc.
Are you still showing houses?
Yes I am.
Can you help me find a place to rent while I wait this out?
The Rental Market is very tight but you can check on Zillow rentals, Spinaker Property Management, & HCS Property Management.
How are you making sure the houses you show are clean and safe for my family?
When making showing appointments for buyers I ask the agent if the home has been cleaned and if there are masks, booties, hand sanitizer and I carry it all in my car in a showing basket that we can use before and after a showing.
Any community resources you know of?
I’m following the Governor’s recommendations, the NWMLS & CDC for the COVID-19 disease.
I am always here to help in any way that I can, don’t hesitate to give me a call if you need help selling or buying a home during the pandemic.
Don’t Turn Remodeling Projects Into a Money Pit!
A great article came across my desk the other week about the home featured in the mid-eighties movie “Money Pit.” This was the hysterical movie with Tom Hanks and Shelly Long who were two yuppie home buyers who decided to buy a fixer and …well, fix it! Every home-fixer on the planet laughed until they cried at their never-ending parade of disasters. Of course, the reason the laughter turned to tears is we all remember the tears we’ve shed working on a ‘fixer-upper.’ This article focused on the fact that the same house used in the movie was recently sold for a huge LOSS. The couple who purchased the house set out to remodel, and spent close to $6 MILLION fixing up the home they purchased for just over $2 million.
Eventually, our owners decided to put the home on the market and asked a cool $12 million.
(Crickets)
And so they dropped the price.
(Crickets)
And…dropped it again. And again… until they finally sold the property for $3.5 million dollars.
So what is the moral of this story? I’m glad you asked.
Remodeling is a two-edged sword. The upside is you invest money to get the home that meets your needs and hopefully satisfies a few desires. The downside is, something you may love might not be something a potential home buyer may even like. The experts looking at this story all agree the couple spent too much money on their very personal, very ornate tastes. They added en suite bedrooms, an elegant pool (complete with a pool house), stunning fireplaces, and a modern, open kitchen. Plus, their desires were to create an over-the-top entertaining
palace that would reek excess and elegance. Sadly, the experts agreed that they over-developed for the time and for the area.
How then does a couple know what they should remodel and how much should they spend? They should make sure to have a friend like me in their corner.
As a rule, bathrooms and kitchens are safest, but be sure that your remodels don’t push your price above what your neighborhood can sustain when your home goes for sale. And, when it comes to return on investment, pools sink your return on investment to the bottom. I’d love to talk to you before you remodel if you are thinking of making a few changes before you list! I
spend all my days looking at homes like yours and seeing how buyers respond. Before you make any changes- give me a call!
Thank you for reading…and keep me in mind if you are looking or thinking of listing. I’d love to make the
whole process easier and make sure you get the best financial result!
New and Unique Reason for Higher Home Prices
A couple of articles came across my desk this week that I found… interesting.
Redfin, a Seattle based Real Estate brokerage did some research and the Wall Street Journal expanded it into an article.
Their research showed them that home ownership has increased from an average of eight years to around thirteen years! This average increase has increased in just the last nine years.
If this five-year increase happened over a few decades, no one would notice much. Or, they would have attributed the change to an aging demographic. But this increase was five years occurring over a period of around nine years. A homeownership change like this has created a marked decrease in the available homes for sale!
Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather told The Wall Street Journal: “If people aren’t moving on, there just are fewer and fewer homes available for new-home buyers,”
As I suspected, Baby Boomers ages 67 to 85 are not moving. Freddie Mac blamed this reality for creating a shortage of 1.6 million homes
While I haven’t personally done similar research in the Pacific Northwest, I would concur that this is also happening here. More and more first-time buyers are finding it harder to find a home that is affordable. If you are a ‘statistic junkie’ like I am, you’ll love the info at the bottom of this post.
Now…don’t take this new reality as all bad news.
First, this information shows that the long-term investment in homeownership is stronger than ever. People who consistently pay off their homes will make their strongest investment!
If you are looking…don’t despair. You are on the right path and I would love to help you start making equity that will benefit you for decades.
But…if you’ve been in your home for a while… this would be a great time to at least test the waters. If you can downsize, or if you are thinking about moving somewhere new, now is a great time to call me and we can look at some comps and evaluate your possibilities.
In the real estate world, bad news to some people can be GREAT news to you…as long as you have a real estate agent who knows how to navigate the process.
I’d love to talk and weigh out some options. A tough time for buyers can be the perfect situation for someone wanting to maximize their selling price!
Fall Home Buying Could Mean Falling Prices!
Contrary to popular belief- buying homes in the Fall and Winter can be the best times if you know what to look for…and what to avoid.
Fewer Buyers Mean More Motivated Sellers!
This time of year, usually means the families with kids are already situated. Those owners of homes that didn’t sell will be extra motivated. Find a few homes you like and start the discussion. As your realtor, I can make sure you are negotiating from a place of strength to maximize your budget!
The year-end clock is ticking!
Many sellers will want to have their home sold by year-end! Tax considerations for the seller are a very real financial issue.
For a buyer, ‘Auld Lang Syne’ should be your theme song. Certainly, jump on the house you love at the price you can afford…but if you have a little flexibility in your timeline, waiting till the clock strikes twelve is to your advantage!
Winter Exposes Many Flaws
It’s easy to make a home look perfect when the grass is nice and green. But no leaves and drab gardens will give a buyer some more information and negotiating room. If the seller has been watching their home go from glorious Summer to drab-and-dreary Winter, they may start to panic a bit.
‘Days on Market’ Mean Dollars Off Price
Memorial Day…Mother’s Day…Father’s Day…Fourth of July… as those Holidays go buy and Thanksgiving and Christmas approach, a seller may get nervous. Especially as the Calendar says December and January.
If you have time on your side, you can score an amazing value if a seller has to get out from under their property. As your realtor, I’ve been watching homes age on the market and can inform you of when a great time might be to offer an extra-low price. This means you’ll either get more home or pay less for the home you want.
While most people are thinking of Football, Turkey and Mistletoe…we can be thinking about snagging the Real Estate bargain of the year!
Send me an email and we can start talking!
mariakalafatich@windermere.com
