Al's Blog

You hate to see bad things happen to good people, and perhaps that's why it has taken so long for me to write this article.  It happened to someone I know.  But it's a story that needs to be told to protect those that I make it a point of protecting; you. You may have heard me speak of the challe...

Each month I am in a LOT of homes.  The ones that are selling at the time of this writing have one or two things in common; they are either better "staged" than the others, they are better priced, or they are both. Staging doesn't always mean place settings and flower arrangements, though that ca...

Homeowners, you are an important factor in the sale of the homes around you.  On more than one occasion I've had clients tell me as we're pulling into a driveway that they weren't interested in looking at the interior of a home.  The reason?  "The house next door looks scary."  You might wonder w...

There is nothing worse for a home seller than to enter into an agreement with a prospective buyer, virtually take the home off the market, and then find out somewhere down the road that the buyer isn't qualified. During the peak of the housing boom, Realtors would advise their clients to investig...

  Recently I visited a neighbor's home as he prepared it for sale.  He mentioned he had a company coming to replace several windows with blown seals (condensation between the panes).  He then told me how much it was costing him.  I examined the windows and noticed they were Milgard windows, and I...

While many homeowners interested in selling their home are waiting for the market to improve, others have taken the steps to sell their homes now.  I recently sold a home (my own) within five days.  Another home nearby sold within 7 days.  What made these houses appealing was the prep work done ...

    Many builders enter into relationships with lenders that go well beyond a property or building loan.  Often wrapped up into these arrangements is marketing services and other "seed" money that the builder might require to sell the properties the bank has financed. That leaves the builder beho...

I bought a new home and am faced with selling my old one.  We all know that this is a tough market, and there is lots of inventory to choose from.  Here are some of the actions I've taken to make sure my house sells: In evaluating the pricing strategy I was going to use, I first made sure my clie...

My Real Estate Partner, Sandy Nelson, blogged not long ago about Washington's new law requiring a contractor's license for "laymen" who flip houses.  Recently, Dennis Yonker, Assistant Chief of Contractor Compliance with the Department of Labor and Industries, was the guest speaker at the weekly ...

My professional pest control expert, Evan Ogden with Venables Pest told me the other day that Thurston county is experiencing a "weird" infestation of rats.  "They're everywhere this year.  If you are up in the early morning hours, you'll likely see them scurry across tops of the fences." n Wheth...