Sammamish Traditional Home (Sold)

Sammamish Traditional Home (Sold)

At the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, this move-in-ready Deer Park home awaits. An ideal layout with 4 beds up, remodeled 5-piece master with stand-alone tub and walk-in closet plus hardly-used 3/4 bath. Main floor features hardwoods, 1/2-bath, formal living and dining rooms with wood-burning fireplaces, and an open kitchen with newer appliances. Fully fenced, level backyard and patio plus access to Deer Park trail right out your door! Just 5 minutes to Trader Joes, popular eateries and top rated schools!

Bryant Charmer (Sold)

Bryant Charmer (Sold)

Move right in to this irresistible Craftsman, where vintage charm meets chic updates including new roof, siding & windows. Refinished hardwoods flow from the fireside living room into a new kitchen w/ stainless appliances & quartz surfaces. 2 bedrooms & a remodeled bath on the main floor, while a family room, flex area, laundry & 1/2 bath await you downstairs. Cute yard & patio, too! Ideally located near Bryant Elementary, Children's Hospital, U-Village & quaint Bryant eateries & coffee shops.

Charming Queen Anne (Sold)

Charming Queen Anne (Sold)

Classic four-bedroom, 1.75-bath Craftsman just blocks to the shops and eateries on Queen Anne Ave. Original details like box beam ceilings are complemented with updates including a remodeled full bathroom w in-floor radiant heat, newer furnace, electrical, plumbing, and a spacious, fully finished basement. Two bedrooms, full bath and formal living and dining spaces on the main floor lead to a fantastic deck and fenced backyard for parties or pets! The recently finished basement includes a large family room, bathroom and two generous bedrooms (one with a walk-in closet!). You’ll love living in the heart of Queen Anne in this charming 1908 home!

Q1 2017 Market Report

Q1 2017 Market Report

Unless you’re living under a rock, you know that our region is growing like a weed in a swamp. Windermere just released Q1 market reports for SeattleMercer Island and the Eastside. The median home price in King County just hit $600,000 while Seattle’s median reached $700,000, double the 2012 level during the recession. If you bought a home five years ago—or two years for that matter—you should be sleeping well!

Remodel Series: Part 4 | Design

Remodel Series: Part 4 | Design

We started this project thinking we had a strong sense of the direction our design decisions would take. But designing a home is much more about solving problems than going shopping, so we hired a designer (our architect’s wife) on an hourly basis to help us out. We were worried about choosing trendy finishes that would look dated a few years down the road or would be impractical for our active household.

Remodel Series: Part 1 | A House and a Contractor

Remodel Series: Part 1 | A House and a Contractor

This is the first in a series of posts I’m writing to shed light on the often mysterious (and seldom exposed) process of remodeling a home. My wife and I recently bought a place in my hometown, Mercer Island, and we’re in the middle of our project now! I hope these posts will prove useful to anyone considering a remodel of similar scale and will lend insight into the challenges and decisions we’ve faced during our project.

Mercer Island Mid-Century Modern (Sold)

7282 W Mercer Way | Fred Bassetti MCM

Live out your Mad Men dreams in this sunny mid-century home on the South End of Mercer Island. This 19,800 square foot lot is home to a piece of architectural history designed by Fred Bassetti and built by Theo Caldwell. At the end of a quiet, four-home lane, this property offers privacy and room for outdoor entertaining and play. Walls of windows bring the outside in and take advantage of a private setting in the midst of old growth trees, sprawling lawns and mature landscaping. 

The renovated kitchen features period details, large island, newer appliances and a custom tile backsplash from Heath Ceramics. This home includes a large master bedroom with en suite bath plus three additional bedrooms, full bath, laundry room, two-car garage and open spaces that live larger than most homes this size. All of this just a half a mile to award winning elementary and middle schools and twenty minutes to downtown Seattle and Bellevue.

Offered at $1,095,000. View more details here!

This home sold for $1,193,000.

How Much Is a Home Worth?

I spend a lot of time thinking and talking about what homes are worth. This involves studying similar home sales, digging through listing photos and calling other agents to help form an opinion of value. It's the single most important part of my job when a homeowner enlists my help to sell her property

But when I work with someone looking to buy a home I'm sometimes at a loss trying to provide insights on value. This is because a home's value is extremely personal. Homes have intrinsic value that can't be captured with price-per-square-foot analysis. You'd probably agree that some homes are just good homes–others just don't feel right. It might be a result of the construction quality or remodeling through the years, but sometimes it's something you can't change like the neighborhood, the outlook, the way the home is positioned on the lot or the architectural style.

It's crazy that we put so much stock in comparable sales data when you think about the big picture. This data is pulled from the last six months and, in most cases, the nearby sales tell an incomplete story, in part because our region has such unique, storied old homes. It's also a small-minded way of looking at value because these past six months only tell you about this market…right now.

So I always try to back away and look at the big picture to gain perspective. A good home has much more value than what can be gleaned through an analysis because it brings enjoyment to its occupants and it may provide a place to come home to for a decade or more. I sometimes see buyers trying to fit a square peg into a round hole because they just haven't found the right house yet and they start making the wrong compromises. But I can't think of too many decisions more important than where we live (aside from who lives there with us!).

You should, of course, dig into the data and understand what you're buying. You have to consider things like:

  • What have similar homes sold for nearby?
  • Where does this home fit into the range of sale prices in the neighborhood?
  • What was the last sale price of the home?

But more importantly, ask yourself:

  • Would I enjoy walking around the neighborhood?
  • How long could I live here?
  • Where would I put all of my stuff, including my family members?!
  • How does the house feel?
  • Does the payment make sense considering our financial goals?
  • How will this home weather a down real estate market?

Four years ago, when our market was in the toilet, a local blogger (and former co-worker of mine) named Tim Ellis wrote great a post on his blog, Seattle Bubble, about "the right time to buy." In it he wrote:

There is never “a great time to buy.” There is only “your time to buy.

This sentiment is true for values as well. While we can take a big picture look at neighborhood data and nearby sales, what matters more is whether a home is right for you.