Our company A Spring Cleaning has been working on some listings that will be coming on the market. The difference in Real Estate agent styles is noticeable. Some are extremely good.

In the very good category are the people who have a plan, and take charge. A client who wants to do things his, or her way, can make some blunders. Most of the best agents will pass on a client who has strong opinions. The first thing to keep in mind is that there are very few good agents, and if an agent is good, they are always in demand.

A second thought is the amount of experience the agent has in different settings. A good agent has brought hundreds of houses to the market place, and through trial, and error, knows what will get you the most money for a repair. Roger Turner is one of those agents who, over twenty some years, has tried a lot of things that worked out well.

One of the main points about this web site is to high light what is good about Real Estate agency. It is one of the few well paying jobs that is based on experience. At this time when every one thinks they are an expert, about Real Estate, I just want to stress that your property is a niche, it’s unique, and you need an agent to guide you.

I’m going to throw in about how it’s best you have a Buyer’s Agent, but we are working on that. Getting a good Buyer’s Agent is a little tougher, because of so many people having had to do it themselves. It’s kind of a lost art. Anne Babbs-Nordling is the only Buyer’s Agent I can think of. There again Brent Fosso will probably be a break out star in the coming year.

There are a couple of local blogs that I follow and the second one is at www.RainCityGuide.com that was the original inspiration for this blog. They have an article about refinancing a second mortgage that reminded me that we are still a ways away from being in a buyers market for Real Estate in Seattle.

A friend of mine who owns a Real Estate company has an investor/ agent that just bought a used new construction house in Puyallup for $162K, at auction, for cash! The house probably sold for about $140K new, about 2000. He intends to sell the house in two months for a profit, and he might get a buyer.

The math for home prices in the Seattle area is far from being a signal for a “good” buy. There are individual properties that are good well rounded purchases, but to say the market is at an equilibrium is more fair. You have to know what to buy, and structure a transaction so you can pay the property off quickly.

As always my advice is you need the help of an experienced Real Estate professional if you are buying, or selling in today’s market place.

By chance, after putting up my new blog site of www.aspringcleaning.com David Rush at Windermere came up with a new project. It’s a house that will be for sale near Green Lake. I’ll post the address after the house is listed, in about a month.

That’s what makes David my favorite Real Estate agent. He’s getting a property ready for sale a month in advance. My second favorite thing is that David sees the project for what it is. He makes a plan to do all the right things. There’s never been a time where his expectations exceeded the reality of the property.

He’s asked for yard work which we can do. There are a lot of people in the landscape business that are looking for work. We have two sets of people who are really good. There’s some work needed under the house, and painting inside, but it is a great place in a superior location.

David sees the potential of the property, and wants to show case that. He has never gone over board by selling a bunch of frills in his listing presentation. He knows the value of the property, and prices accordingly. In all the ups, and downs, David has been consistent in his pricing. The pricing has always matched the property, for potential, and it’s reality.

This has given him an edge in working a full spectrum of the market place. Knowing your Price, and Condition, for how they improve the Location is the all important formula. There has never been a time, even in the worst of times, when a listing by David Rush languished on the market. There have only been a couple of times that the price reduction has been used judiciously.

Anyway, David is another excellent resource for your Real Estate needs at: www.DavidRush.com

A Spring Cleaning has been in business since 1988. It was my original business, first domain name, and web site. It had been up since about 1998 with a couple of revisions along the way. I had it built for $2,000 and any time I wanted a change the guy would have to write code, I think, anyway that’s what he said, and it cost money.

My first Word Press site I put up in 2006. Many changes have happened since then and with great reluctance I converted the www.aspringcleaning.com site to Word Press. It’s now my newest project.

There are a lot of great untold stories in the A Spring Cleaning business. Most have to do with preparing properties for sale.

There are several things you need in today’s market place. Number one is that you need a good Real Estate agent. You need some one who knows how to work the system to your advantage. Over these past several months I’ve written about agents, and mentioned Marlow several times. She is the success story of Real Estate, and how the system works.

Marlow has bought, and sold properties in her personal portfolio to make a retirement plan that includes giving her four boys the best education. She has never stopped working, and though she would deny it, I have seen her working on her own properties, on more than one occasion. She has fulfilled every goal she has outlined during her career. She is the Top Producer in her office.

He husband Joe is an artist who has been way laid into working on Marlow’s web site at www.SeattleDreamHomes.com which has won numerous awards. She chose Coldwell Banker to hold her license for it’s national presence. It has worked out well for her site because Coldwell Banker was one of the first to set up web based Real Estate tools. In my opinion, for a national company, they have tools that work well.

In today’s Real Estate world you do need to have an agent with web presence of an International reach. Few companies, or especially individual agents, can make that claim. In this particular case you have both the company and agent on the same page, working for you.

This is a personal testimonial because Marlow has been my agent on more than one occasion. She is level headed with a focus on what’s best for the client. As a complete example of what is possible in Real Estate Marlow is the very best. If you are even considering buying or selling a property in the next three years Marlow is one of the few people you need to talk with.

It’s been a long time since we have had a rising inventory of houses. Here in King County the inventory has stayed fairly stable. Properties come, and go off the market. Since the tax credit has expired, and with what some people claim is a change in the North West Multiple Listing Service soft ware, about 400 residential properties came on the market this week.

400 residential properties is a lot, for one County, in a week. Now, no matter what the excuse, that makes a back log of housing units. I can address some of the other arguments, such as a housing tract, or a condo development coming on the market all at one time, but those are specific, in one kind of housing. Random, across the board, and a variety of housing, makes this week spectacular for buyers.

You have choices. Sellers also are going to be hearing from listing agaents that they will need to compete by lowering prices. Those properties that have been on the market for a while are especially vulnerable to an increase in inventory. My next post will be about how to structure an offer. This is different from what your agent will want you to do. There is a deeply entrenched idea that the seller is in control of the asking price. It has been that way for over a decade.

Even in the worst of markets there was a hopeful understanding that Real Estate was a solid investment. Today is much different with properties still over priced by at least 10% and possibly more. We’ll cover Real Estate values of the future, but right now I wanted to share that the time is coming to start making offers on property.

In the mean time get qualified for a mortgage from Scott Cunningham at Prime West Financial, 206-632-LOAN (5626). Scott’s a great guy and I have trusted him for over twenty years. He’s honest.