Your Home Needs Annual Check-Ups too!

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1 Your Home Needs Annual Check-Ups too! Dear Friend, October 2012 Although it s only October, it s time to prepare for cold and flu season. No one likes to be ill and I know a lot of people who are already dealing with nasty colds. Thankfully, there are some steps that you can take to keep yourself and your family healthy when the weather changes. This month s flyer encourages helpful habits to prevent you from catching a cold or the flu, or at least shortening the duration of your illness. Page one outlines several tips to build your immunity and keep germs and viruses at bay. Since you and your loved ones will be spending more time indoors this winter, page two provides tips to improve your indoor air quality. With Fall also comes an important time of year to give your property a check-up to be sure that it is as safe and healthy as possible. Deferring home maintenance can be risky even small issues often have the potential to become more serious in a heartbeat. And what might have been a simple do it yourself cleanup or weekend project can become expensive if the issue is allowed to worsen, requiring an expert to actually resolve it. (It is important to note here that homeowners insurance does not cover repairs that become necessary as a result of normal use and aging.) This month, I want to remind you about the preventive maintenance that we all can do to hopefully avoid those unforeseen, and frequently urgent, costs. Below, you will find a summarized reminder list of all of the resources that we have available for you if you need help with any of these items. Every time we refer these resources, we follow up and ask for feedback so that, going forward, we can give you the best possible experience with anyone we recommend. I consider helping you keep your home in good condition and protecting your investment an important component of the service I am committed to delivering to you. What kind of preventive maintenance resources do we have for you? A snapshot of the vendor types follows. I would like to tell you we already have someone for everything you might need, but that s not quite accurate. What we do have is an extensive list of resources, and we are always refining it. If you do need a resource that we do not already have, we will go to the trusted resources we have in a related field. And we will get a referral from them to the more specialized vendor that you might need. We are happy to do that it helps you with what you need and continues to expand our level of service. So please ask and keep asking! We enjoy hearing from you Christine Estes Chris@GroupEstes.com AN AFFILIATE OF THE IRWIN GROUP Group Estes Realty NE Novelty Hill Road Suite B-221, #402 Redmond WA 98053

2 Crawlspace work Licensed Contractors Chimney Cleaning Chimney Repair Inspectors Interior Painters Exterior Painters Gutter Repair Gutter Cleaners Roof Cleaners Roofers Window Cleaners House Cleaners Window Replacement Garage Door Repair Electricians Plumbers Heating System Service Septic Inspection Septic Pumping Landscapers Tree Service Air Quality Mold Remediation Pest Treatment Remember that your car may also need a checkup, new tires, new washer fluid, etc Oh yes! I want to share a quick tip from one of our inspectors. Ever wonder why your lovely white wall heaters tend to get black over time? The heat meets the dust that has built up on the louvers and incinerates it to black. To avoid it, all you need to do is vacuum them once in a while. Let s move on to the local market. You ve likely been hearing and reading that more properties are selling and they are selling for higher prices. We have the numbers on the website to show you the specifics. As of last month, Seattle Metro and both SE and SW Snohomish County are Seller s Markets there is less than three months of inventory. The Eastside is at 3.2 months, just barely high enough to move into a Balanced Market instead of a Seller s Market. Even Pierce County, now at 5.1 months of inventory, is a Balanced Market. As a frame of reference, a Buyer s Market has more than 6 months of inventory available From a pricing perspective, I am more comfortable sharing appreciation for larger periods of time than a 30-day month. Comparing 2012 year-to-date with the average pricing for 2011, Seattle Metro and the Eastside are up 2%. King County as a whole is up 2% as well. While SE Snohomish is stable, SW Snohomish is up almost 5%. Snohomish as a whole is up 3%. Pierce is stable. And the amount of time that properties are taking to sell is down throughout the region. For some longer term perspective, our local market usually runs at annual appreciation levels of 3-to-5%. This appreciation presumes preventive maintenance and updating carpets, kitchens and baths especially. And is certainly nowhere near the levels of 15+% that many areas saw in the crazy years. However, the numbers I am reporting above are clearly closer to normal than we have been for quite some time. These next six months will tell us a lot. Will buyers keep taking advantage of the historically low interest rates? Will more sellers come into the market, giving buyers more choices and still boosting appreciation by offering well-prepared properties? We ll watch and advise! There is a wide range of new articles on the website again this month, from our own Capitol Hill being named one of the Top 10 Hippest Neighborhoods, to more on the economy and the housing recovery, revised FHA condo rules, updated rent or buy math (one report shows Seattle as 42% cheaper to own than to rent), and quite a few fix-it and interior design articles. Page 2 of 3

3 One distressing article reported that hunger in our state is now above the national average. Making me all the more pleased that our thank you events for you are in support of Northwest Harvest. Keep an eye out for your postcard on the November 10 th event our winemaker will be donating his tasting fees too! or go now to Read on for our highlighted vendors this month. And please do share this information with anyone who may find it helpful. I would be happy to include them in our distribution too. Spotlight Vendors for October Amber Ledford - National Door amber@nationaldoor.net Garage Door Sales & Service Lorraine Ohman - Ohman & Associates, Inc l-ohman@msn.com Accountant Willard's Pest Control Company Organic Pest Control Kent Schwartzenberger - Double Eagle Interiors kent@doubleeagleinteriors.com Countertops, Floors & Tile Sales & Service Haight Abbey Carpet Carpet Sales & Installation Sincerely, Always looking for more ways to be of service if you know of someone who would appreciate the level of service I provide, please call or me with their name and business number, and I ll be happy to follow up and take great care of them. Page 3 of 3

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