An indication of increased market activity pending sales across King County moved up 15.09%, and pending sales on the Eastside were up 15%. We are still seeing inventory numbers decline. In January total active listings were down 28.5% in King County and down 25.44% on the Eastside from January of 2011. Declining inventory means sellers may have a easier time selling good homes.

See the raw numbers from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service: Real Estate Market Data for King County January 2012 Data . Also take a look at the housing numbers for Sammamish and Redmond. In Kirkland the Market Action Index(a gauge of market activity) remains strong. While it’s still a buyers market, it is much more balanced. With interest rates in the LOW 4′s buyers affordability is at an all time high. Also see the national real estate trends at Realtor.com

View Eastside in a larger map

Here is a breakdown of real estate homes sales in Seattle Eastside Communities of Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah and Sammamish, Washington for the week broken down by neighborhood. Just click on the link to your neighborhood for the complete breakdown of the homes that are on The chart below breaks down Seattle Washington’s Greater Eastside Real Estate homes sales by City, for the week of 02/21/2012.

To find out what your home is worth or If you are interested in selling your home for top dollar in the quickest amount of time, please contact me anytime at 206-818-8816 or Click here to send me an e-mail requesting further information.

Related posts:

1. Home Sales Report for the Eastside and King County – December 2011
2. Home Sales Report for the Eastside and King County – October 2011
3. Home Sales Report for the Eastside and King County – November 2011

Offered at $425,000

Lake & Mountain Views!!! Complete Remodel! High end finishes include: Granite counter tops, gas cook-top, stainless steel appliances. Luxurious master 5pcs suite, soaking master bath, “to die for” walk in closet. Family room plus office space. Sun deck off guest bedroom. Closet organizers throughout. Walking distance to schools, large fully fenced yard. 3 Decks to enjoy the million dollar views! Close to Freeways, Boeing, the Landing and Light Rail. Don’t miss this home.

• Listing Information:

  • Address: 8123 S 121st St
  • City: Seattle
  • State: WA
  • Zip: 98178
  • Area: 360
  • County: King

  • Price: $425,000
  • Listing #: 316739
  • Property Type: Single Family
  • Listing Type: Resale/New
  • Subdivision: Bryn Mawr
  • Status: A

• Property Information:

  • Style: 16-1 Story w/Bsmnt.
  • Bedrooms: 4
  • Total Baths: 2.75
  • Full Baths: 2
  • Half Baths: 1
  • Year Built: 1979
  • Sq. Feet: 3020
  • Lot Size: 0.28
  • View: Lake, Mountain, Territorial
  • Basement: Daylight, Fully Finished, Poured Concrete
  • Garage: Garage-Attached
  • Parking: 3
  • Taxes: 4865
  • Heat: Forced Air

  • Construction: Wood
  • Stories: 1
  • Exterior: Athletic Court, Cable TV, Deck, F
  • Interior: Bath Off Master, Dble Pane/Strm Windw, Dining Room, French Doors, Vaulted Ceilings, Walk-in Closet
  • Appliances: Dishwasher, Garbage Disposal, Microwave, Range/Oven, Refrigerator
  • Utilities: Public; Sewer Connected

• Listing School Information:

  • District: Renton
  • Jr. / Mid: Dimmitt Middle School

  • Elementary: Bryn Mawr Elementary
  • Sr. / High: Renton Senior High

View Bryn Mawr Remodel in a larger map

Related posts:

1. Just Listed in Kirkland Rose Hill 4 Bedroom Multi-level Home
2. $30K Price Reduction on this great Bothell 2 Story – $335,000
3. Home for Sale in Pine Lake Estates asking $599,900

Be Prepared

• Create a tax checklist to gather all of the documents you’ll need.
• Download the latest catalog of forms and publications from IRS.gov or have it mailed to you.
• Most tax software programs will allow you to input your information early. Start filling in your information now, so that you’re not rushing to complete it in April.
• If you have dependents, make sure you know their social security numbers, so that your return isn’t delayed. If you are divorced, decide which parent will claim the children beforehand to prevent
• an audit or delay.
• You have until April 17, 2012 to contribute to your traditional IRA for 2011. Check the IRS website to see if you’re eligible to deduct your contribution on your taxes.
• Keep important receipts and information in an expandable folder, organized by month or activity, so you won’t have to search for the information next year.

Did You…
• Have a major life change in 2011, such as a new mortgage, marriage, divorce or baby? You may need to file a new W-4.
• Donate to charity? Be sure to keep your receipts to claim the deduction on your taxes.
• Move? Update your mailing address with your employers, clients and institutions that hold your investments and bank accounts. If the forms have already been sent, contact the companies and ask them to send copies through the mail, fax or email.

Individual taxpayers spend 3.5 billion hours each year doing their taxes.*

Top Tax Preparation Software
Though its always a good idea to consult a tax preparation professional, here are three popular DIY alternatives.

TurboTax®Software- TurboTax® Basic starts at $29.95 for federal filing, plus $39.95 for state filing)
Highlights:
• Available software packages include Basic, Deluxe, Premier, Home & Business and Business
• Import your W-2s and 1099 from participating employers • If you need help, click the “Guide Me Through” button for step-by-step instructions.
• Features full accesss to 700 live tax advisors

TaxACT Software  -Standard software package features free federal filing, plus $13.95 for each state filing)
Highlights:
• Available software plans include Standard, Deluxe and Ultimate Bundle
• Consistent navigation from previous versions
• Deluxe and Ultimate versions use tax information to populate a college financial aid worksheet to help parents and students fill out the Free Application for
Student Aid (FAFSA).

H&R Block® at Home™ Tax Preparation Software – Basic software package starts at $19.95, plus $29.95 per state tax filing)
Highlights:
• Available software packages include Basic, Deluxe, Premium and Premium & Business
• FAQ answers are written by H&R Block staff
• Features “Guide Me” questions intended to walk users through the forms
• Premium users are also entitled to one free session with a tax preparer.

Should You e-File?
Many Americans file their federal taxes online. By filing your taxes online, the IRS is able to check your return for errors right away and ensure that it’s complete. If you e-file and owe money, you can send a check, pay with a credit card for a small fee or direct debit your account and delay the debit payment until the filing deadline.

Free Web Tools
If you meet certain qualifications, you can file some forms for free on IRS.gov. Additionally, twenty states have created free state income tax filing programs for those who meet certain income requirements.

Beware of These Errors
• Overstating charitable contributions. If you contributed to charities throughout the year, keep your receipts so you can calculate exactly how much you donated.
• Incorrectly deducting mortgage points. “Points” are charges that you may have paid in the process of getting a home mortgage. Visit IRS.gov to see if you qualify for a deduction.
• Excluding small interest payments, even for interest amounts of less than $10. An omission here can make the IRS think that you may have forgotten to declare other things.
In 1940, instructions for Form 1040 were two pages long. Currently, the instructions for Form 1040EZ are nearly 40 pages long.

Related posts:

1. First time homebuyer’s tax credit – permanent?
2. Building The Economy one homeowner at a time
3. First time Homebuyer Tax Credit given new life! Extented and Expanded??

The Seattle area will be the nation’s fifth-best market for real estate investing next year and the top “buy” market for retail and industrial property, according to a new report.

A separate report released Wednesday says investors are snapping up homes in the area, but other potential buyers are staying on the sidelines.

First, the latest “Emerging Trends on Real Estate” report, by the Urban Land Institute (a real estate think tank) and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, says the Seattle area real estate market will bounce back next year thanks to its… More

When investing in real estate here are a few tips to help you make the most out of your investment:

• Realize that investment means risk (Don’t play with house money)
• Remember that the first rule of real estate is LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
• Look for homes near job centers or with a quick commute to job centers
• Base your Future Value on realistic, quick exit numbers.
• Have a Plan B, and a Plan C.

Related posts:

1. The Big 5 Seattle’s Eastside Cities Real Estate Market Report for 12/14/09
2. The Big 5 Seattle’s Eastside Cities Real Estate Market Report for 1/25/2010
3. Seattle Home Prices seem to be heading in the right direction

For the eighth  straight month, pending sales across King County moved up 19.84%, while pending sales on the Eastside were up 4.85%.  I am noticing quite a bit of potential in the market right now. We are still seeing inventory numbers decline, which is creating a supply and demand issues. In December total active listings were down 25.64% in King County and down 23.28% on the Eastside from December of 2010. Declining inventory means sellers may have a eaiser time selling good homes.

See the raw numbers from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Also take a look at the housing numbers for Sammamish and Redmond. In Kirkland the Market Action Index (a gauge of market activity) remains strong. While it’s still a buyers market, it is much more balanced. With interest rates in the LOW 4′s buyers affordability is at an all time high. See the national real estate trends at Realtor.com

View Eastside in a larger map

Here is a breakdown of real estate homes sales in Seattle Eastside Communities of Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah and Sammamish, Washington for the week broken down by neighborhood. Just click on the link to your neighborhood for the complete breakdown of the homes that are on The chart below breaks down Seattle Washington’s Greater Eastside Real Estate homes sales by City, for the week of 01/15/2012.

To find out what your home is worth or If you are interested in selling your home for top dollar in the quickest amount of time, please contact me anytime at 206-818-8816 or Click here to send me an e-mail requesting further information.

Related posts:

1. Home Sales Report for the Eastside and King County – September 2011
2. Home Sales Report for the Eastside and King County – October 2011
3. Home Sales Report for the Eastside and King County – November 2011

Smart phones

The Cool Factor
Apple iPhone 4S (From $199 with 2-year wireless contract)
The iPhone 4S offers new features with the functionality and seamless design one expects from Apple. What sets the iPhone 4S apart from other models is Siri, a voice-activated “virtual assistant” that schedules appointments, dictates texts, and Web searches and more. The iPhone 4S is Apple’s first world phone and features a dual-core A5 chip that’s seven times faster than previous models. Store all of your media within iCloud, and your photos, apps, mail and more will be available to you on all of your Apple devices.

Mind Your Business
BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900
(From $299.99 with new 2-year contract and data plan)
The BlackBerry® Bold™ features a 35-key backlit QWERTY keyboard as well as a touch screen. It runs BlackBerry 7 OS for faster browsing,
navigation and voice-activated search and supports Adobe Flash.

High-Tech on a Budget
Samsung® Galaxy™ Nexus™ (To be determined)
The latest member of the successful Galaxy phone series, the Samsung® Galaxy Nexus™ is one of the first phones to run on the Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” operating system, which features Face Unlock, the new facial recognition software that allows the user to unlock the phone without typing a password.

Tablets

The Champ
Apple iPad 2 (From $499) I was told the iPad3 is right around the corner.
The Apple iPad 2 has set the standard as the leading tablet on the market. Store your  music, movies, photos and e-books in iCloud, Apple’s cloud storage system for retrieval on your other mobile devices. The iPad 2 features a 9.7-inch screen with multi-touch technology. Thin and powerful with a 10-hour battery, it uses the iOS operating system and is available with Wi-Fi® or 3G. In addition to the built-in apps, you have access to more than 140,000 iPad apps through the App Store.

The Contender
Samsung® Galaxy Tab™ (From $499 unlocked)
Considered one of the closest rivals to Apple’s iPad 2, the Samsung® Galaxy Tab™ is available in three sizes: 7 inches, 8.9 inches and 10.1 inches. Available in 3G and Wi-Fi®, the 8.9-inch and 10.1-inch models utilize the Android 3.1 Honeycomb operating system, while the smaller model uses the Android 2.2 Froyo operating system. All models feature a 3.0-megapixel camera, geo-tagging, a camcorder for high definition recording and capabilities for video sharing and online image uploading. All models feature 16GB of internal memory, with an option of 32GB for the larger models, as well as compatibility with Microsoft® Office.

The Up-and-Comer
Amazon Kindle Fire™ (From $199)
Released in November, the Kindle Fire™ was heralded by many as “the iPad killer” and features a 7-inch full color touch screen and runs on the Android 2.3 operating system. While the Kindle Fire™ doesn’t have a camera like the other tablets, it does tout over 8GB of storage, enough for 80 apps, plus 10 movies, 800 songs or 6,000 e-books, which you can continue reading on your smart phone or computer. All Kindle products have access to over 1 million books, newspapers and magazines as well as the capability to borrow e-books from your local library.

The Challenger
NOOK Tablet™ (From $249)
Fastest most most powerful tablet for the money runs on the Aindroid 2.3 operating system.  The NOOK Tablet featrues a 7 inch VividView Color Touchscreen. 1024 x 600, 169 PPI.  8 text sizes, 6 font styles. Enhances web browsing including Flash Player.  Check and send email.  Parental controls to easily disable the web browser.  Build in Wi-Fi.  Microphone for recording narration for kids Read and Record.  Supports EPUB and many more formats.

No related posts.

Related posts:

1. Finding a home near a school in the Bellevue WA School District
2. Find homes for sale near Issaquah School Districts award winning schools
3. Sammamish Washington Elementary School get’s award

As I look forward heading into my 7th year in Real Estate. I am very excited to  see where things are going.   It’s hard to believe I have been doing this for 6 years.  I look forward to the challenges and rewards that face me in the coming year.  I thank you for the many referrals and introduction.  I wouldn’t be in business with out them.   I just want to take a moment to thank each one of you for your continued support for my real estate practice.  2011 was a crazy year and 2012 proves to have it’s own set of challenges. Take a look at 5 Real Estate Trends from the folks at the KCM Blog.

For me success in real estate is all about developing strong relationships.  Strong relationships with my clients as well as my business partners.  Over the years I have had the pleasure to work with and for many of you and I have to say I have enjoyed every bit of it.  Many of you I  met for the first time this year and I have enjoyed getting to know each one of you and to deepening our relationship over the coming year.

So here is a toast to what the future has in store!

Related posts:

1. Dan Edwards, REALTOR – New real estate website just launched!
2. Dan Edwards, REALTOR, GREEN Designee for Sammamish, WA

1. Buyers Will Return

In 2011, a lack of consumer confidence in the overall economy dramatically impacted the housing market. Buyers were afraid to make a purchasing decision on any big ticket item. By the end of 2011, consumer confidence began to return and sales increased. Economic conditions will continue to improve throughout 2012 and consumer sentiment will solidify. Once that happens, home buyers will realize that now is the time to buy.

2. Foreclosures Will Increase

The ‘shadow inventory’ of foreclosures which has been growing since the robo-signing challenges of late 2010 will finally be introduced to the market. Distressed properties sell at discounted prices. They will impact the housing values of the non-distressed homes in the area.

3. Prices Will Soften

As more and more foreclosures come to market, there will be greater downward pressure on the values of houses in the region. Foreclosures impact values of non-distressed properties in two ways:

They will eat up some of the buyer demand in the market.

They will impact the appraisal on ALL transactions in the area.

An increase in foreclosures will have a negative impact on values. This will cause more homes to be underwater.

4. Short Sales Will Increase

As mentioned above, we strongly believe that home prices will soften through at least the first half of 2012. Falling prices will force more homeowners into a position of negative equity. Negative equity is one of the triggers that cause people to strategically default on their mortgage obligations. If this happens, there could be an increase in the number of foreclosures. However, we predict that banks will take preventative measures which will help many of these homes avoid foreclosure by easing the requirements in the short sale process for both homeowners and real estate professionals.

5. Great Agents Will Be VERY Successful

Real Estate professionals who have invested the money, time and energy to truly understand what is happening and why it is happening will separate themselves from their competition and do very well this year.

Those who take that next step of learning how to simply and effectively communicate the market to their clients will be seen as industry leaders. These experts will dominate their markets.

via 5 Real Estate Trends to Look For in 2012.

Related posts:

1. Why Real Estate is still America’s Best Investment
2. 2009 Real Estate Market Outlook
3. Will real estate stop being an obssession in 2009?

For the seventh straight month, pending sales across King County moved up 23.44%, while pending sales on the Eastside were up 11.98%. In addition I am noticing quite a bit of potential in the market. We are still seeing inventory numbers decline. In November total active listings were down 25.93% in King County and down 24.12% on the Eastside from November of 2010. Declining inventory means sellers may have a eaiser time selling good homes.

See the raw numbers from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Also take a look at the housing numbers for Sammamish and Redmond. In Kirkland the Market Action Index(a gauge of market activity) remains strong. While it’s still a buyers market, it is much more balanced. With interest rates in the LOW 4′s buyers affordability is at an all time high. Also see the national real estate trends at Realtor.com

View Eastside in a larger map

Here is a breakdown of real estate homes sales in Seattle Eastside Communities of Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah and Sammamish, Washington for the week broken down by neighborhood. Just click on the link to your neighborhood for the complete breakdown of the homes that are on The chart below breaks down Seattle Washington’s Greater Eastside Real Estate homes sales by City, for the week of 11/15/2011.

To find out what your home is worth or If you are interested in selling your home for top dollar in the quickest amount of time, please contact me anytime at 206-818-8816 or Click here to send me an e-mail requesting further information.

Related posts:

1. Home Sales Report for the Eastside and King County – September 2011
2. Home Sales Report for the Eastside and King County – October 2011
3. July 2011 Home Sales Report for the Eastside