October 6, 2017

Home Buyer Workshop in Seattle, November 15th at Diva HQ

Home Buyer Workshop…Diva Style! Team Diva believes that educated clients make the best decisions. We strive to educate our clients through every step of the process. It’s important that buyers have a strong understanding of financing, current market conditions, and contingencies. We have developed a buyer workshop to help prepare our future Diva Dwellers for today’s market. Where/When? At Team Diva HQ (111 S Lander St #305 Seattle WA 98134) November 15th, 6pm to 8pm. Food and Drinks will be provided. More details at the Team Diva Facebook Page RSVP by Emailing: Rocky (at ) TeamDivaRealEstate.com What Will You Learn? How to obtain financing How much do you need for closing costs and down payment Advice on the inspection process Using contingencies to write the winning offer Getting Your Financing In Order There is more to financing than just applying for a loan. It’s important to know what documents you will need to start the… Read More »

May 19, 2017

Love It Or List It: Deciding When to Sell in Seattle

Making the decision to sell your home (probably your biggest investment) is not to be taken lightly. Before making the leap, here are a few questions you should consider. 1. Is your current home satisfying most of your living needs? This is probably the most important question to ask yourself and your family. Between job transitions, births, graduations, and just general changes in how we live, our home needs can fluctuate drastically in a few years. Are you struggling with finding space for your growing family? Do you find that you have whole rooms in your home devoted to just the cat? Have you acquired a love of BBQing but live in a condo? Has your new job added an hour to your commute time?  Have you wanted to sledgehammer open a wall just to feel less claustrophobic? If you no longer “love it,” then it may be time to “list… Read More »

May 11, 2017

What Are Closing Costs?

What are Closing Costs? A good down payment can significantly reduce one’s mortgage, but buyers have other costs to cover to close the deal, which can cut into that down payment. This is especially true for financed buyers. Cash buyers will pay escrow and HOA fees at closing. Financed buyers will pay these costs, plus loan fees and title insurance. Some closing costs will be prorated. Depending on what time of the month and/or year that you close on a property you may have charges or credits prorated on your settlement statement. An example of a pro-rated escrow cost: If the home has an oil heater and the seller has recently filled the tank, they will want to be reimbursed for the oil at closing. On the settlement statement, the value of the oil in the tank is added as an escrow charge. Closing costs can be separated into three basic… Read More »

May 11, 2017

Competing Against Cash Offers By Waiving Financing

Winning Against Cash Buyers – Waiving Financing Contingency As a buyer, before you decide to waive your financing contingency you should know what the financing contingency does: You need your personal loan approval to be sound, the property must be lendable, and you need to be prepared to deal with the appraisal. Once you have addressed all these conditions you are in a good position to waive your financing contingency and beat out cash offers. What Does Your Financing Contingency Do? The simple answer to this question is that it protects you from losing your earnest money if your financing fails during the process of you purchasing a home. Whether your personal financing failed, or the property failed to be approved by the lender, the financing contingency protects your earnest money. This all assumes that you have made a good faith effort to acquire a loan. A good faith effort means you… Read More »

April 6, 2017

Waive Appraisal, Win Like a Pro!

Waiving any part of the appraisal contingency can strike fear into the heart of most buyers. The best tool against fear is KNOWLEDGE. Below are a few strategies for addressing appraisal issues before you submit an offer. Getting these things sorted out with the seller beforehand puts their mind at ease.

March 2, 2017

Prepare Yourself for Pre-Inspections

Pre-inspecting a home is becoming the norm in Seattle. I’m personally not a fan of pre-inspections, but it’s the way the game is played in our market. It costs a buyer upwards of $750 every time they have to pre-inspect a home, and not all buyers win the first house on which they place an offer. Pre-inspection costs can add up fast, so you really need to be smart and savvy during this part of the process. Sellers are the ones to decide whether or not they are allowing pre-inspections, and most now expect that a buyer will pre-inspect their home and just remove that as a contingency when they submit their offer. Here are some things you can do to set yourself up to win the home when you need to do a pre-inspection. Prepare Yourself for a Pre-Inspection Prepare Your Cash  A typical home inspection can run between $250… Read More »

October 26, 2016

Diva Dweller Spotlight | Gary

Diva Dweller Wall of Fame – Gary Gary was introduced to Team Diva at the housewarming/remodel party of another lovely Diva Dweller and friend Stefanie. Upon meeting, we instantly realized this guy was smart, fun, witty, and above all else a super nice guy. Divaland is full of good peeps just like him so it was fate that our world came together. Gary was living on Capitol Hill for a long time and loving hill life. He knew this was an area of the city he wanted to live in or be close to. Gary started working with another agent with no success. He got to a point where all signs directed him to Team Diva. He set up a meeting with us and we hit the streets. Gary was a blast to look at condos with. Working together was awesome as we have similar tastes so we were looking at all of… Read More »

October 25, 2016

Appraisal Contingency: Should You Waive It?

Waiving Your Appraisal Contingency? I don’t like my clients waiving any of their contingencies. In this extreme seller’s market buyers are being forced to practically give away their first born child in order to win. I am seeing market conditions cause buyers to feel pressured to waive the appraisal contingency. In my opinion removing the appraisal is one of the riskiest contingencies a buyer can give up. However, this is an intense market and sometimes you have to take an informed risk to win. So What is an Appraisal and why Do I need one?   When the bank loans you money on your home they want to make sure that you are not paying an overinflated price. To ensure this, the lender contracts an appraiser to evaluate the fair market value of the property. The appraiser is also making sure the home is in livable condition. If everything checks out the bank… Read More »

September 16, 2016

The Seattle Market is Changing

The Seattle Times recently had an article talking about how the prices are starting to soften over the summer. Instead of seeing $100K over asking multiple offer situations we are now seeing a slightly more even market. The type where there are two or three offers, or maybe even just one good one. And yes in Seattle that is an even market. Team Diva started to feel these the tremors over the summer. We are still getting top dollar price per square footage compared to our counterparts. But we are only seeing about one or two offers for our Diva Dwellings. For our buyers, we are finally able to get them in good homes and even starting to get closing costs back. This is a small real estate miracle that has seen a hot market since late 2012. Whew! “The market is changing” Here is Our Smart Diva Dweller Advice… Read More »

August 18, 2016

The New Gayborhoods

My fiancée Shawna and I have always been city people at heart. For 18+ years, I’ve moved through the city of Seattle… first in Queen Anne, then Capitol Hill, then West Seattle. All fine gayborhoods!  I’ve felt comfortable in my city – in love with my city and all of its fabulous nooks and crannies. But our needs changed!  We were craving a house, a deck and a little more quiet. So, we did some soul searching while we did our house hunting and found out that – Yes!  We could indeed be Gays in the Burbs! There are tons of neighborhoods that seem to be poised to embrace our gay community as we expand outward and become gayborhoods. In our first three months in the burbs, I’m finding myself pleasantly surprised at the variety of options and festivities there are outside of the city limits.  There are drag shows,… Read More »