Rain City Guide

Some of the most Frequently Asked Questions in a Real Estate Transaction involve the Earnest Money Deposit. The Earnest Money usually follows with the transaction from day one all the way through to the last day, as in “follow the money”.
The buyer usually writes a check for the Earnest Money deposit at the same time [...]

Ok, this post is really not about golf balls but they are part of the story. A recent case illustrates how courts are putting more obligations on buyers of residential property to understand the condition of the property notwithstanding the seller’s customary obligation to provide a disclosure form to the buyer.
This case involved a [...]

After playing with Zillow for the past couple of days, the first words that come to mind are “Impressive, but you are not a Jedi yet”. I have a hunch the guys at HouseValues are going to get “Netscaped” if they don’t take their game to next level.
The Good
The UI is slick. The mapping isn’t [...]

Zillow has launched!
I just got an email from Zillow’s Director of Communications and she passed along the fact that not only is their blog live, but a beta version of their site is live as well… Rich and David flipped the switch!
So, what does Zillow do?
In two minutes of of a Skype [...]

I doubt it’s here so soon (but I don’t claim to know a thing about market-timing). Here are the stories:
Marketplace
New York Times
Investors Insight - goodness that’s dense! (and a couple of weeks old)
I expect Ardell to further suss out where the bubble is popping and where it is not popping as she expertly did for [...]

Four out of five homeowners use the services of a real estate agent to list and sell their home. Twenty percent will try to do a For Sale by Owner — should you?
I think that if you have the time, patience and real estate transaction experience – absolutely. I sold my last house as a [...]

It looks like ShackPrices just had their first major update.
ShackPrices is a Seattle-based outfit that focuses on helping sellers value (or “appraise”) their homes.
The new layout is clean and very straightforward. If you’re a King County resident curious to find out what homes in your area are selling for, then using their [...]

The NY Times ran an article a few weeks ago on how hard it is for new real estate agents to break into the market (I’d like to the article but it is now behind a password-protected wall, so instead I’ll just link to the Property Grunt’s excellent summary and analysis). This article got [...]

I called a prospect whose name I purchased from a lead vendor. This is something we do regularly in the mortgage business. Rather than word of mouth, mailing, cold-calling, or some other marketing means, we can purchase the names, phone numbers, and other relevant information from a lead vendor. These leads come [...]

(This is a guest post by Craig Blackmon, an attorney in Seattle whose practice focuses on residential real estate — see www.lawofficeofcraigblackmon for more information. Please note that this post is not legal advice. You should consult an attorney for specific legal counsel.)
Last week, the Washington Appellate Court decided a case dealing with [...]