For Lease Lake Wilderness Country Club

Three bedroom two and one half bath two story home on the 12th Fairway of Lake Wilderness golf course now available for lease. Lot is fenced and has RV parking & Sports Court. Terms: 12 month lease, $1600 per month, Pets ok with restrictions. Contact Property Manager Nicole Cuccia for more information 206-948-6079

 

Update: This home has been leased

Available Bank Owned Homes Report

09/26/2008

As of today there are 17 available listings in the Maple Valley area owned by Banks or Asset Managers in the Maple Valley area. This number only reflects single family homes listed in the NWMLS database.

The lowest priced property is $165,000 and the highest is $545,000.

If you’re considering buying a bank owned home in Maple Valley, you may want to visit this previously published post.

 

Copyright 2008, All Rights Reserved Colleen Fi

Price Slashed on Gorgeous 5 BR MapleWoods Home

Seller’s loss is your gain in this impeccably appointed Polygon “Residence 6″ Model. This dramatic floorplan is big and beautiful with extensive cherry hardwood flooring, granite counters and stainless appliances. The main floor Den can function as a 5th Bedroom (has closet) and nearby bath. Upstairs the bonus room is at the top of the stairs (perfect for entertaining or little ones when you don’t want them traipsing past the bedrooms to get to the bonus room)! A cat-walk over looking the Dining room leads to the Master Suite w/ sumptuous 5 piece bath. The bedroom wing boasts 3 nice-sized rooms and bath with double sinks. Add all this to the MapleWoods community and you’ve got a definite winner at a sizzling hot price! Previous offered price: $599,950, now reduced to $548,950.

MapleWoods Neighborhood

Home Shopping-Buying in Maple Valley PT 2

In a previous post, I addressed the “getting ready” phase of  home buying, outlining the steps which should be taken prior to actually looking at homes as well as the process I go through with buyers who would like to have me represent them in the purchase of their greater Maple Valley area home.  

Once you’re committed and your preapproval is in hand, it’s time to go shopping!

The internet has altered the Home shopping experience tremendously.  In the past, I would have shown you many more homes than I would now, because you’ll probably have eliminated many and zero-ed in on a few “favorites”. 

Typically I plan to show no more than 8 homes in one outing unless there is a real constraint on time; a client in town only for the weekend, or someone who must be in their new home by the end of the month. The reason I don’t prefer to show more than that is because after awhile they all begin to blend together.  Was it house # 2 or 10 that had that waterfall in the backyard? The pink kitchen of house number 4 gets filed in the memory of house number 8….and even though I can gently remind you which home had which features, it becomes overwhelming and most people start to shut down.

So we arrive at the first house and what do I do?  Well I guarantee you I don’t fling open the doors and say “Now this is the Living Room” and “This is the Bathroom” like TV real estate agents seem to enjoy doing. I prefer to let me clients take the house in at their own pace, and move through the rooms as they would like to….want to go to the garage first?

Fine by me!

The house is yours to explore and imagine as your own. 

One thing I will do however, is point out features which you may not be aware of, or offer comparisons between this home and the last to help you decide whether this house would work for you or not. For instance, “This home has the 4″ baseboards whereas the last home had 2″, or pointing out a new furnace or larger than average hot water heater. If you told me you wanted a big backyard, I will ask you how you feel about the yard of the home we’re in…afterall, “big” is a subjective term and I need to see what you consider big.  If you begin to veer away from what you told me you really wanted in your next home (remember our “getting ready” meeting?), then I will remind you about that…”This is a great house, but remember you said that you absolutely had to have 4 bedrooms upstairs? Are you sure you would be willing to give that up?” You should make that decision without being swept up in the emotion of being in the house at that time, and that’s my job-to remind you of those things throughout the process.

Home shopping is a good time and my clients and I usually have alot of fun along the way. As we go through the homes they will inevitably get tagged with a nick-name. “The foofy house” (lots of lace curtains and dolls and doiles), “the orange house” or the “stinky house”.  The list of nicknames I’ve heard over the yeas could go on forever and some of them are pretty darn hysterical!

After viewing each home, we will usually put it in one of two categories-”forget about it” or “it’s a possibility”. Every now and they you’ll walk into a home and just know right away that it’s the right one. But sometimes the decision is a little harder to make. What I tell my clients is if you keep looking at more houses and are using another house by which to judge them all, then you’ve probably already made your choice.

My role in the home shopping process is not to sell you a house. It is to help you gather as much information as you need in order to make an educated decision about your financial investment.  And if we have some fun along the way….that’s ok too.

 

Copyright 2008, All Rights Reserved Colleen Fischesser

Part 3 in the Buying in Maple Valley series will be on Negotiating Your Offer 

Amazing Price Reduction-The Lake at Winterwood!

The owners of this beautifully maintained Schneider built two story have just reduced their offering price from $549,950 to $515,000. The traditional floorplan lives very well and feels more spacious that it’s 2750 square feet. Four spacious Bedrooms up and a Main floor den provides room for everyone and a home office. The Lake Winterwood neighborhood is located in Covington, close to shopping (new Costco coming this Winter). More details can be viewed here.

Where Do You Start?-Buying in Maple Valley PT 1

Whether you’re buying your first home or your fifth, once the decision is made, you may not know what the next step is or where to begin. Of course, being the biased Realtor that I am, I suggest you start with contacting your real estate professional-(that would be me….hopefully).  

The initial process goes like this:

Whenever I meet new clients for the first time, we sit down and talk informally about the home buying process as it’s pertains to the current market. Today more than ever, it’s important to understand pricing trends, recent changes in real estate laws and what to expect during the escrow process.  I view my role at this stage as an educator, offering scenarios and options so my clients are able to make informed decisions. That’s the key in the process…it’s your decision, but you must have the information and understanding to feel comfortable with making those decisions.

After that first meeting, the next step is to talk with a Lender to receive your pre-approval. When I first started in this business, buyers were pre-qualified. This is different from a pre-approval. A pre-qualification is based off a conversation and is more along the lines of “based on what you’re telling me, you should be able to qualify for a mortgage for $-x-amount.  A pre-approval on the other hand will require you to provide documentation to the Lender (usually tax returns, pay-stubs and bank statements) and agree to a credit check. After receipt, the Lender will say “based on our review, you qualify for a mortgage of $”x” amount. 

There are a few reasons the pre-approval process is  important. Right now, with things changing in the Lending world daily, it’s important to know what loan program is right for you based on income, downpayment and credit among other things.  Another reason is it’s not wise to look at homes without first knowing whether they fit within your allowable/comfortable price range. Trust me, it’s very hard to look at homes in one price range only to find out you have to scale back considerably. This is true no matter what the price range…it’s hard to go backwards.

Some would-be home buyers today are afraid to start the process. Not because of market conditions, but because they have apprehension of the unknown; afraid their credit isn’t good enough or they don’t have enough cash on hand or haven’t been at their jobs long enough. My advice to you is to at least find out. I’ve worked with clients before who have needed 6 months or more to work on raising their credit scores and once done, were able to buy. The not knowing is much harder to deal with than being told “not now”.  If it turns out you can’t buy now or the numbers don’t work in a way that’s comfortable for you,  you’ll have a game-plan for the future. 

And of course after the pre-approval, comes the fun part…home shopping!  But that’s another post entirely…more on that later!

UPDATE: Here you go for part 2 on Buying in Maple Valley-Home Shopping!

Copyright 2008, All Rights Reserved Colleen Fischesser

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