Marguerite Giguere's (getrealtacoma) Blog

Here's one way to increase the pool of home buyers: Allow more skilled immigrants to enter the United States legally. Erik Emery wrote a post on a Thomas Friedman article in the New York Times that says we should do exactly that. “All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese ...

The New York Times has a great article out about some of the new tax breaks available to people buying, selling, and improving their homes! Among the highlights, more information about the $7500 home buyer credit, a new tax break for widows & widowers, residential energy credits, and more.  It a...

The News Tribune is reporting that construction on the Midtown Lofts on 11th & Fawcett have halted construction due to financing issues and laid off 40-50 construction workers who were constructing the building. While it is frustrating to see completed buildings like The Walker and The Roberson m...

One of the most common questions that first time homebuyers have is, "How much money do I need for a downpayment?" The answer is, "It depends!" Most of my first time homebuyer clients these days are opting for a loan program called FHA.  With FHA, the required down payment is 3.5% of the purchase...

Roxanne Hugging Her House By Roxanne Murphy Having an obsession isn’t always such a bad thing. At least that’s how I feel after the experiences that I went through in finding and buying the gorgeous Eastside home that I’m sitting in now. In 2003, I was a determined 27-year-old, and I had my sigh...

Jacob Rose of Better Properties Real Estate and the fabulous blog, Tacoma Untapped, is reporting that the McCarver Neighborhood is one step closer to getting a mixed use building! For those not familiar, McCarver is the name of the the neighborhood being bon out of the area between Hilltop and Un...

Some people want to buy a house in perfect shape. Other people see a house in disrepair and can imagine it reborn, remodeled, and tailored to their specific needs and tastes.   I confess to being in the latter group, I tend to get very excited about well priced homes that need fixing.   The prob...

    Yesterday through the magic of technology I found out that I have looked at 169 houses in Tacoma and South Pierce County in the past 6 months.  That's a lot of houses!  Since the majority of my buyers right now are looking for houses under $200,000, the majority of those houses were Foreclose...

  The Walker According to Jake over at Tacoma Untapped, the Walker Condos have shown up for rent on Craigslist.  Last time I checked there were more than 130 condos on the market downtown, most of them new construction.   This is good news for anyone trying to sell or planning to list anytime soo...

Tacoma Public Utilities is offering a series of workshops for improving your home.  The first is tomorrow night and has to do with working with what you've got as far as your heating sytem goes: Make the Most of Your Heating System Thursday, January 15th 7-8:30pm 3628 South 35th St (38th & Union...