More • June 18, 2010

Support local YMCAs and tweet with us on Windermere’s Community Service Day

by Guest Author

Today is Windermere Real Estate's 26h Annual Community Service Day. Windermere agents will be completing service projects in our neighborhoods across the West. Community Service Day gives us an opportunity to give back to the communities where we live and work.

Every year since 1984, Windermere associates dedicate a day of work to complete neighborhood improvement projects as part of Windermere's Community Service Day. Each Windermere office selects a project that best serves its community needs.

Tweet with us today to support local YMCA programs!
Join us on Twitter as we share local projects as they happen. Tweet with us using the hashtag #wrecsd on June 18, 2010 and the Windermere Foundation will donate $1 per tweet to the Windermere Kids at the Y fund (up to $25,000), supporting 10 local YMCAs.

Look for Windermere volunteers giving their time on projects like these:

Office
Organization and project

Aberdeen-Grays Harbor
Coast Harvest Food Bank. Assisting in the sorting, storing and packaging of food.

Ashland
The Cottage, which is the Easter Seals Oregon. Six Windermere offices, Ashland, Eagle Point, Jacksonville Fifth Street, Medford-Investors, Medford-Van Vleet and Shady Cove will install a fence for a children's play area, build a ramp for visitors with mo

Auburn
Childhaven. Landscaping maintenance around the facility.

Bellevue Commons
Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center. Painting horseshoes and jumping poles, cleaning and general maintenance.

Bellevue South
Mamma's Hands. Building vegetable gardens, rebuilding deck areas, landscaping and gardening and general maintenance.

Bellingham- Bakerview
Boys and Girls Club in Blaine. Repaint the interior of the club, yard maintenance, repainting basketball court and resodding field.

Bend
Bend Community Center. Landscaping and painting.

Boise-Richard B. Smith
Jesse Tree. Assisting an organization that helps homeowners stay in their homes.

Bonney Lake- Lake Tapps
Local food bank. Coordinating a community food drive.

Cannon Beach
Seaside Victory Gardens. Gardens will be used to grow fruit and vegetables for local food banks. The office will be painting the tool shed and working in the garden.

Centralia
Historic Fox Theatre in Centralia.

Clackamas- Metro East
Oregon Food Bank. Assisting in the sorting, storing and packaging of food.

Eagle Point
The Cottage, which is the Easter Seals Oregon. Six Windermere offices, Ashland, Eagle Point, Jacksonville Fifth Street, Medford-Investors, Medford-Van Vleet and Shady Cove will install a fence for a children's play area, build a ramp for visitors with mo

Edmonds
Westgate Elementary. Returning for major clean up and landscaping.

Eugene
Food For Lane County Community Garden.

Gearhart
Seaside Victory Gardens. Gardens will be used to grow fruit and vegetables for local food banks. The office will be painting the tool shed and working in the garden.

Graham
Bethel School District. School yard work at two locations.

Hillsboro
Community Action. Landscaping and general maintenance.

Issaquah
Compassion House. Landscaping.

Jacksonville Fifth Street
The Cottage, which is the Easter Seals Oregon. Six Windermere offices, Ashland, Eagle Point, Jacksonville Fifth Street, Medford-Investors, Medford-Van Vleet and Shady Cove will install a fence for a children's play area, build a ramp for visitors with mo

Kahului-Maui
Kaunoa Senior Center. Working on a landscaping project.

Kingston
Public trail system. Working with other local volunteers.

Kona-Big Island
Kahakai Elementary. Lunch program.

Lake Chelan
Habitat for Humanity. Building siding and landscaping.

Lake Oswego
Medical Teams International. Packaging medical supplies and equipment and preparing them for overseas shipment.

Lynnwood
Community Garden for Lynnwood Food Bank. Building planter boxes and signs.

Maple Valley
Fred Habenicht Park and Black Diamond Ridge community area working in conjunction King County Parks and Recreation to prepare for summer visitors.

Medford-Investors
The Cottage, which is the Easter Seals Oregon. Six Windermere offices, Ashland, Eagle Point, Jacksonville Fifth Street, Medford-Investors, Medford-Van Vleet and Shady Cove will install a fence for a children's play area, build a ramp for visitors with mo

Medford-Van Vleet
The Cottage, which is the Easter Seals Oregon. Six Windermere offices, Ashland, Eagle Point, Jacksonville Fifth Street, Medford-Investors, Medford-Van Vleet and Shady Cove will install a fence for a children's play area, build a ramp for visitors with mo

Mill Creek
YMCA in Mill Creek. Doing construction projects and hosting a community BBQ.

Monmouth
YMCA. Community swim day with free ice cream and discount admission.

Mukilteo
Mukilteo Food Bank. Donating and collecting food at various locations in the community.

Oak Harbor
Two projects at local Headstart and adopting a park from the city. At Headstart working on general maintenance and cleanup. At the park, The park was abandon several years ago until the office began cleaning it up. Others laughed saying no one would use t

Port Orchard
Senior housing. Cleaning up and taking care of landscaping for seniors in need.

Port Townsend
Port Townsend Mainstreet Program. Landscape maintenance and clean-up work in the historic downtown area of the city, for the Port Townsend Mainstreet Program non-profit group. Mainstreet Communities throughout the country are committed to the preservation

Portland Heights
Ainsworth Elementary School. Sanding, cleaning, painting and organizing around the school.

Portland NE – Broadway
Northwest Children's' Outreach. The office has been holding a drive collecting diapers, clothing, shoes, toys, books and more for the past month. On Community Service Day, they will be sorting donations and creating care packages from those donations and

Portland- NW Johnson
Friendly House. Sprucing up indoor and outdoor spaces.

Portland- Raleigh Hills
Hopewell House Hospice. Planting flowers along walkways to improve views and taking care of general maintenance.

Poulsbo-North Kitsap
Raab Park. Rehabbing a music stage in the park to hold community concerts and music festivals. Partnered with Home Depot to help with the build and provide supplies.

Property Management- Bellevue
Camp Korey.

Puyallup – Canyon Road
Pullman Parks and Recreation. Beatification project on South Grand Avenue, Pullman, WA.

Salem
Marion-Polk Food Share. Sorting and packaging items for distribution, and tending to the organization's vegetable garden.

Seattle-Green Lake
Daniel Bagley Elementary. Working on their new "Outdoor Classroom" area assisting with various projects including construction of a shed and benches as well as a work table. If time will get in a little weeding!

Seattle-Lake Forest Park
Ballinger (Low-income) Homes

Seattle-Lakeview
BF Day Elementary School

Seattle-Northgate
Olympic View Elementary School. Planting flower beds.

Seattle-Oak Tree
Greenwood Elementary school.

Seattle-Queen Anne
McClure Middle School & Queen Anne Community Center. Working on a very large landscaping project and some painting.

Seattle-Sand Point
Magnuson Park YMCA.

Seattle-Wedgwood
Theodora. A HUD 202 serving older adults who have an income less that 50% poverty.

Seattle-West Seattle
West Seattle and White Center Food Banks. Partnering with the Fauntleroy office to collect food. On Wednesday prior to CSD, the offices will canvass the neighborhood, dropping off grocery bags with a note attached explaining who they are, what they are do

Seattle-West Seattle/ Fauntleroy
West Seattle and White Center Food Banks. Partnering with the West Seattle office to collect food. On Wednesday prior to CSD, the offices will canvass the neighborhood, dropping off grocery bags with a note attached explaining who they are, what they are

Services – Oregon & SW Washington
The Children's Book Bank. Repairing, sorting and packaging children's books.

Services Company
Ryther Child Center. Landscaping and gardening the grounds and play areas.

Shady Cove
The Cottage, which is the Easter Seals Oregon. Six Windermere offices, Ashland, Eagle Point, Jacksonville Fifth Street, Medford-Investors, Medford-Van Vleet and Shady Cove will install a fence for a children's play area, build a ramp for visitors with mo

Shoreline
Dale Turner YMCA in Shoreline. Helping staff prepare for the up coming Summer camps provided for the youth in the area. This will include projects such as: painting 100's of ceramic tiles for awards for the kids, potting Plants to beautify the sign in are

Spokane-City Group
Garden of Hope for Ronald McDonald House. Taking a vacant lot and transforming into a garden.

St. Helens
Columbia Pacific Food Bank. Tending to the community garden.

Tri-Cities – Kennewick
YMCA. Re-do the landscaping at their soon to be new location with the Tri-Cities – Richland office.

Tri-Cities – Richland
YMCA. Re-do the landscaping at their soon to be new location with the Tri-Cities – Richland office.

Waimea-Big Island
Waimea Charter Middle School.

Whidbey Island- Freeland
Local Parks Department. Building a bike skills course at rec center they are developing to create a nice fun, safe place for kids on the island.

Yakima
YWCA Battered Women's Shelter of Yakima. Remodeling a safehouse for Women and children. Rod's House. Collecting basic necessities for a safehouse for homeless.

Let us know in the comments if you see any Windermere volunteers in your neighborhood or send a tweet! Remember each tweet with the hashtag #wrecsd will benefit the Windermere Kids at the Y fund!

This post was written by Katherine Garsi.

More • June 15, 2010

Joining together for our annual Community Service Day on June 18th

by Guest Author

The following post was written by Linda Casale, a real estate professional out of the Windermere Whidbey Island – Freeland office. You can find out more about Linda and explore her real estate and island living articles on her website and blog, Lindacasale.com.

What makes a great real estate professional? At Windermere, it’s a person who can cheerfully sort huge piles of miscellaneous clothing in different sizes, price them and ready them for sale at a local thrift store. He is a person who can work all day in rain or hot sun in a big community garden without complaining. She is a person who can lift boxes, sort items, fill shelves, break down boxes, sweep the floor and all the time be having fun with other agents getting the work done.

Why does this make a great real estate professional? Because Windermere believes in the importance of community. You will find Windermere busy in communities throughout the West making a difference.

This Friday, June 18th Windermere agents will come together to work as a team for our annual Community Service Day.

We all know that hard times are easy to come by lately. Every year since 1984, Windermere associates dedicate a day of work to complete neighborhood improvement projects as part of Windermere's Community Service Day.

There are many people who make a community. Some do it more than others; some do it as a lifetime commitment through government, hospitals and schools. What is important is that we all find a way to make our communities richer and rewarding for all its members. I for one, as a part of Windermere, am proud that this company takes this commitment seriously, and changes the lives of both the givers and the receivers. Take a look in your neighborhood and you will see Windermere there making difference.

By Linda Casale

More • June 9, 2010

Windermere Real Estate Nevada offices give $25,000 to HopeLink

by Christine Wood

Greetings from the Windermere Foundation,

Today, Windermere Real Estate offices in Nevada will be presenting a grant from the Windermere Foundation of $25,000 to Henderson Allied Community Advocates, also known as HopeLink. The gift represents the Nevada offices’ entire 2009 Windermere Foundation endowment and will be put toward Hopelink’s homelessness prevention efforts to continue fighting homelessness through 2011.

The 2009 endowment was raised by the agents over the last year. For every transaction a Windermere agent makes in the Las Vegas valley, a portion of the commission is donated to the Windermere Foundation. This year is the first time Windermere’s three Southern Nevada offices voted to combine their annual donations to the Windermere Foundation for the purpose of awarding it to a single charity.

Established in Henderson, Nevada in 1991, HopeLink focuses on preventing homelessness for families in crisis. For more than 18 years, the organization has worked to stabilize families and transition them back to permanent housing, through such services as emergency shelter, food pantry, transportation assistance and more.

“We are so thankful to be receiving these funds. HopeLink’s emergency shelter program is really geared to assist those who cannot be served by other programs, homeless individuals being discharged with medical conditions from hospitals, families who cannot be accommodated in other shelters, families with adult disabled children, and others who just can’t be served in a typical environment,” said Daniele Dreitzer, Executive Director of HopeLink. “We are seeing more and more families with children who just can’t keep their homes with the current economic situation. It can take several weeks, and sometimes longer to get families stabilized and into other programs. These funds will enable us to serve families that need additional assistance for a longer period of time, with an eye towards long term stability.”

“Being in real estate, we put families in homes everyday,” said Robyn Yates, V.P. of Marketing for Windermere Real Estate Nevada. “Through our donations to the Windermere Foundation, we are able to provide housing for in-need families in all of our communities. It is our way of showing how blessed we feel as a company to be in such a position to give back.”

Click here to read the full press release.

Best,
Christine Wood

Buying • Living • June 9, 2010

Creating a household budget while we wait for our jetpacks

by Guest Author

If you’re like me you grew up in a world where technology promised exciting innovations like jetpacks, flying cars and monorails. Most of these promises never really materialized and we ended up with the Flowbee, Pepsi Clear and Betamax instead.

That’s why I always stop to appreciate when technology truly makes life easier. A program that I recently started using is a personal finance website called Mint.com.

Personal finance software has been around for ages, but Mint is a game changer because it doesn’t require a license, it is web based so you can use it from anywhere and it is FREE. In the past you had to buy a license for a product like Quicken or Microsoft Money for your computer and upgrade regularly which was time consuming and expensive.

I like Mint for current and aspiring homeowners because you can:

See where your money is really going by merging your account information from banks, credit cards, investments, assets and cash in one intuitive dashboard.

Track specific expenses and budget for home renovations and vacations to get away from home renovations.

Check out tons of resources especially if you are saving for a down payment, planning a home renovation project or you just need help with managing your household budget.

Manage your budget on the go with the Mint iPhone app.

Mint isn’t the only game in the personal finance town. What do you use to get your finances under control?

Living • June 2, 2010

Sort and save your vision of home

by Guest Author

When I first moved into my new place, I was naively excited for making it exactly the way I wanted…immediately. New paint, new furniture and all of it would be so stylish. Then I realized I have a mortgage payment due soon and even though I want a new chair, I need to buy groceries.

Lately, I've been channeling my energy to shop for new furniture and decor on a few websites that let you find, save and share your favorite items from across the web in one place. You can even group your saved items by each room to keep things really organized. Each of these sites also have fun community features and giveaways so it may be personal preference which one you like best. I recommend:

Kaboodle.com – in addition to saving your favorites, the styleboards feature lets you drag and drop items onto a digital bulletin board (like the example shown here).

Stylehive.com – fabulous for the fashionistas out there.

Thisnext.com – a very clean and simple interface makes this site easy to use.

Bonus: sort and save inspiration by room
On Houzz.com you can create and save "ideabooks" of various rooms around your home. Ideabooks are basically photo slideshows featuring inspiring interior design images added all the time by users. Ideabooks often have fun themes like “Feeling (wonderfully) Blue” and “Get Your Outdoor Party On.” You can look through other users’ ideabooks and save their photos to create your own.

How do you create your vision?

Post written by Katherine Garsi

Selling • May 25, 2010

Going from homeowner to home seller

by Guest Author

The following post was written by Kathryn Madison, a real estate broker out of the Windermere Portland-Raleigh Hills office. You can learn more about Kathryn and read more insightful articles on her blog, GoBeyondtheOrdinary.com.

How do we transition from the mindset of a homeowner to a home seller? Homes bring us shelter, comfort and are a place to express our individuality. But when it’s time to move on, that same home will now be the financial springboard to the next chapter in our lives.

We start by letting go of the home layer by layer.

Both buyer and seller benefit when the seller- perhaps with some judicious coaching from their skilled Realtor- peels away those things that made their home uniquely theirs. In essence, the serious packing begins once the decision has been made to sell; bookcases and closets should only suggest their function with a few items, rather than store seasons and years worth of books and clothes. Carefully removing prized collections and family photos is also vital- nothing should distract the buyer from seeing the house, and seeing themselves in it.

Personal colors are just as important to remove as objects. After all, if you were serving ice cream to a few thousand people (that’s how many will see your house photographed online)- would you serve them mango flavor? It’s a lot more likely you would choose vanilla- and that’s pretty much what the color of your walls should be- neutral or deep neutral tones.

The last touch is a good deep cleaning- ask your REALTOR^tm if they have the name of a reputable company.

The seller can then replace those familiar objects with a fresh new welcome mat at the front door.

This process allows the buyer the visual and emotional space to move in.

This process allows the seller to move on.

Market News • May 18, 2010

Life After The Homebuyer Tax Credit

by Windermere Economics

Much has been said about the expiration of the homebuyer tax that occurred at the end of last month. Everything from a move to extend it through 2010 (a very bad idea in my opinion, but one that didn't stop the state of California from extending their own $10,000 credit through this year), to arguments saying that all we are doing is stealing future demand. So what will actually happen?

Certainly, if we look at the U.S. as a whole, it is clear that the expiration of this credit has been followed by a substantial slowdown in market activity as evidenced by mortgage purchase applications declining by 9.5 percent in the first week of May. With more than a year of the federal government’s involvement in stabilizing the U.S. real estate market, we are now re-entering the free market system. I am sure that as we readjust to a market without assistance, I do expect to see turbulence hit some markets across the U.S.

So what will be the effect on local markets?

Any recovery will be localized and not broad based. Data in the Seattle area for example, for the first two weeks in May is still showing improving numbers for pending sales over the same period last year, suggesting that we appear to be somewhat resilient and were not wholly dependent on the credit.

If you’ve been thinking about buying, I believe you may start to see stability in transactional prices and list prices coming more into line as seller’s expectations are becoming more realistic. This stability has led to improving sales and I anticipate this continuing through the summer.

That being said, there is an issue on the horizon though that is worthy of mention. It is starting to look as if we are getting low on overall supply in the more affordable price ranges, especially in neighborhoods close to our job centers. This is an issue as it may stave off increased transactional activity as buyers fail to find houses that they can afford. This in turn may leave us with increasing supplies of higher priced product and sellers fighting for fewer buyers. Time will tell.

I believe that the tax credit worked and did function to stabilize the housing market at a crucial time. I, myself, am happy that it was allowed to expire as markets need to find their own balance. If we did steal from future demand we will not really know this until later in the summer when the peak buying season is behind us. I do, however, remain firm in my belief that, if we see the job growth that I am predicting, we will continue to see sales move along at a reasonable pace through 2010 – tax credit or no tax credit.

More • May 18, 2010

Windermere Foundation ranked in Top 25 of Corporate Philanthropists

by Christine Wood

Greetings from the Windermere Foundation,

On May 13th, I attended the Puget Sound Business Journal’s annual Corporate Citizenship Awards luncheon where the Windermere Foundation was honored as one of the area’s Top 25 corporate philanthropists among large companies!

The Windermere Foundation ranked #23 with an amazing group of companies like Starbucks, Weyerhaeuser, REI, Boeing and Microsoft – all because of your amazing generosity over the past year!

Pick up the latest issue of the Puget Sound Business Journal for full coverage of corporate philanthropists throughout the Northwest.

Best,
Christine Wood

More • May 17, 2010

Windermere Blog name winner is official: Neighborly News

by Guest Author

Neighborly News is the official new name for the Windermere Real Estate blog. There were so many extraordinary names it was hard to choose just one. Neighborly News is a blend of entries primarily inspired by Sherry Moore of Windermere Exclusive Properties in La Costa/Encinitas and her entry “A Little Neighborly Advice." Thank you Sherry! Your winning prize will ship today.

Thank you to everyone for participating!

Honorable Mentions:
Around the Block
Front Porch
Homepage
Make Yourself At Home
Out of the Blue
The Windermere Way
Windermere Blog
Windermere Wisdom
Windermere Words

More • May 12, 2010

Update on Northwest MLS

by Windermere Staff

You may have noticed that in the past week there haven’t been many new properties for sale online in Western Washington.

Well actually there are plenty of properties for sale. Last week the Northwest Multiple Listing Service converted all of their IT systems to a new vendor and as sometimes happens in big conversions, not everything went according to plan.

The main impact to consumers is that not all of the new properties for sale are getting to other websites.

This is affecting all members of the NWMLS and those who get real estate listings from them. The folks over at the NWMLS are working around the clock to fix the problem and we are confident they will. The NWMLS has been a strong MLS for many years and we know they will continue to be.

In the meantime…your best source for real estate information is still your real estate agent! If you would like to be put in touch with a Windermere agent please email us at torid@windermere.com and we will make sure you get a great agent to work with.