Jennifer Hamilton's Blog

It never ceases to amaze me when I hear clients talking about "I'm just waiting for the exact right moment" or "I'm certain the Fed is going to lower rates further." Gary Keller does a wonderful example of how most people miss out when they are timing the market. I recently attended a "Shift" cla...

I just have to get this off my chest... I just happened to be watching a show the other night on HGTV, I think it was "Property Virgins" or some other of their First Time Home Buyer shows, and I noticed a freak occurance--Keys being given to the Buyers at the closing table. If you read nothing el...

We're fortunate in the State of Washington to have such an awesome program-Especially if your income exceeds the ceiling incomes for Tacoma Down Payment Assistance or Pierce Co. Down Payment Assistance. Washington State House Key Financing is a State Bond Lending program whose mission is to be "a...

Many of you may or may not know that FHA loans are making quite the comeback. One of the newest, most exciting of the FHA loan product family, is the 203k or the FHA Rehab loan. Here's how it works: Let's say you're in that oh-so-fun price range of less than $125k (Tacoma Market) where most of th...

Okay so...there seems to be a lot of misinformation going around about this possible advance on the First Time Home Buyer tax credit. It's not yet available, and we're not sure when that might happen, but it's certainly NOT a dead issue like some folks believe. Gov Gregoire is still working on an...

I just love it when I go looking for properties for my Buyers and I see "just a good old fashioned Real Estate transaction." Cracks me up every time. What am I talking about? I'm talking about Sellers who aren't upside down in their mortgages, and properties that aren't short sales or Bank Owned/...

This is a timely topic in our Puget Sound market, because this morning on the Today Show--the Real Estate expert proclaimed the Seattle area market as being one of the fastest markets to rebound. What does that have to do with a Home Inspection? Well, one of the key contingencies to be discarded ...

When I say "get in the game!" I mean, the Real Estate market. You have to be in the market to move around/up in the market. All too often I come across clients who are absolutely paralyzed because they feel if they can't get their dream house, why bother? I'll tell you "why bother?" If you go aro...

Or do you qualify at all? The pre-approval process with a Lender is the first place to beginAll too often I see clients who have started to search for a home for sale without consulting a Lender and they don't really know what they can afford, or if their credit is in need of repair. Whatever the...

Well, it looks as if the short sale process just became that much more impossible. I receive "legal bulletins" via the WA State Realtors every Friday evening. This past Friday I received some updated "Q&A" information from Annie Fitzsimmons of the "legal hotline": There is a trend happening among...