Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Six,

Welcome to another Friday, together. I wrapped up teaching Buyer Savvy Strategies at Professional Development this morning. As an instructor, these classes are a constant reminder that our brokers are constantly working to be at the highest level of professionalism.

#bestofthebest.

Ps, I’ll be teaching this class one more time in 2018 – Oct 11th with co-instructor, Kristin Munger. Today I have to give a special shout out to broker, Greg Lewis for sharing his toolkit in working with Buyers in this market! And if you are curious the content, feel free to listen in on Episode #5 Double Down podcast here as Kirstin + Greg + I dig in. The strategies + content are relevant in any market.  Key: have a process and make it consistent. Enjoy the conversation and tools!

Speaking of the #bestofthebest – we had well over a third of our Company at the CW’s Panel of Experts class this week. Topics ranged from wire fraud + discussions in including 22T or not + encroachments + mechanics liens etc…Thanks goodness we have Troy St George (CW) & Lars Neste (Demco) in the ring with us. This is 100% complicated content although we are supported. Know this. Ask questions – big or small!

Coming out of this class there are 2 items worth touching on…

Wire fraud & disclosure > Lars again recommended that a best practice is to keep the Wire Fraud Alert – one-page disclosure – a stand alone doc when working with your clients. Being a true epidemic right now this conversation and disclosure should stand all on it’s own vs getting lumped into a giant catch all of a disclosure packet. I checked the NWMLS – this Washington Realtors doc is located under the “pamphlets” section. Your offices have it handy for you as well.

NWMLS 22T  [Title Contingency Addendum] > Lars and I are working on crafting a clause that could be used to allow Buyers + Sellers the ability to include 22T yet limit it to the Supplemental piece. This will be a nice tool in our toolbox. Stay tuned on that…​

Stay curious my friends and enjoy the upcoming weekend in productive work + play.

Laura Smith, General Manager | Windermere Real Estate Co.

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Six,

I came across this excerpt from Matthew Ferrara this week – a good reminder as we roll up our sleeves and navigate out 2018 market.

“It’s up to you to counteract media headlines of worry and hesitation. When someone asks “How’s the market?” Be ready to respond with good news! Control the story. Don’t talk scarcity, limited inventory or bidding wars. That kind of language causes hesitation and doubt. Instead, tell happy stories of successful clients leading better lives with your help. The media sells sob-stories to survive. It’s up to you to sell joy and thrive.” – Matthew Ferrara

With this in mind, let’s begin to pull apart January 2018 and come up with the stories to tell – better yet, “show!” I’ll be digging into these stats over the weekend.

Full Seattle stats here. [password: wrefebruary]

Let’s continue to solve the rubik’s cube that is our local market – one side at a time!

Stay curious my friends,

Laura Smith, General Manager | Windermere Real Estate Co.

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Six,

It’s Tuesday – oops! Editor’s note (yes, me!). Regarding Zillow listing support, I provided an incorrect email address Friday. See below – this should do the trick! Reminder: check your listings!

Attention Listing Brokers! Zillow support

Next up in a digestible bite:: Remember to check your listings on Zillow! Your Seller will. Get ahead of any launch frustrations. We feed your listings to Zillow every 4-6 hours. Meaning, if you can not find your new listing on Zillow (or information is incorrect) by hour 7 or 8 of launch – this should raise a red flag. This also goes for relists and price adjustments. If Zillow does not have the listing info (or has the wrong info – price, for rent vs sale etc…) – we can help expedite a solution – this is how::

Email strategicsupport@zillow.com – cc, support@windermere.com (good idea to cc your manager as well to get eyes on the issue!) and let Zillow know of the issue. Remember, Zillow is NOT a brokerage – they depend on us to give them information vs being able to have access to MLS data. Education your Sellers on this early in the process and remind them at launch. All part of an effective launch strategy.

Stay curious my friends,

Laura Smith, General Manager | Windermere Real Estate Co.

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Six,

Funny question, I know – “would you marry yourself?” Jill & OB were at the Luxury Portfolio conference in Vegas this week and I asked for a digestible bite. Jill shared with me a bite on what an effective bio looks like…

Your bio homework:: read your bio. Does it tell your story? Is it authentically you? And yes “would you marry yourself?” – are you interesting?

If not, would you like your bio Tuned Up? Just ask Pattie of our Tune Up team. Send an email to tuneup@windermere.com and get in the queue for a re-write!

Attention Listing Brokers! Zillow support

Next up in a digestible bite:: Remember to check your listings on Zillow! Your Seller will. Get ahead of any launch frustrations. We feed your listings to Zillow every 4-6 hours. Meaning, if you can not find your new listing on Zillow (or information is incorrect) by hour 7 or 8 of launch – this should raise a red flag. This also goes for relists and price adjustments. If Zillow does not have the listing info (or has the wrong info – price, for rent vs sale etc…) – we can help expedite a solution – this is how::

Email strategicsupport@zillow.com – cc, support@windermere.com and let Zillow know of the issue. Remember, Zillow is NOT a brokerage – they depend on us to give them information vs being able to have access to MLS data. Education your Sellers on this early in the process and remind them at launch. All part of an effective launch strategy.

I speak to this Zillow issue briefly at the beginning of Episode #7, Double Down podcast. If you didn’t yet get a chance to tune in – here you go!  In 34 minutes, David Daniel (Demco), Chip Painter (VP, Windermere Services) Mark Hobbs (Eastlake assistant manager, the King of Standards of Practice!) and I digest our first legal bites of the year and set the table in a deeper dive into Windermere Standards of Practice.  Tap the image below and tune-in

Stay curious my friends,

Laura Smith, General Manager | Windermere Real Estate Co.

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Episode #7, Double Down podcast is ready to roll! In 34 minutes, David Daniel (Demco), Chip Painter (VP, Windermere Services) Mark Hobbs (Eastlake assistant manager, the King of Standards of Practice!) and I digest our first legal bites of the year and set the table in a deeper dive into Windermere Standards of Practice. And oh, a bit on Zillow too! Tap the image below and tune-in!

Stay curious my friends,

Laura Smith, General Manager | Windermere Real Estate Co.

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Six,

Yes, it’s Saturday – not Friday – the result of a long week spilling into Saturday morning. That happens! It was a good week – hope yours was too.

This week I’d like to share a conversation I had with a peer in our industry with respect to the power and importance of staying curious. 

On staying curious…what I notice is those that stay curious are successful. Those who stay curious stay relevant. To give a good example, I’ll again highlight Sol Vilarreal and his  incredible weekly habit in building his Civic Minute (weekly mailchip newsletter to his sphere). I asked Sol what a few of his favorite resources are in building his Civic Minute and staying curious…

(…and thank you Sol for your willingness to share!)

Most of Sol’s weekly real estate content comes from either The Seattle Times, Curbed Seattle, Seattle Bubble, the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Sol’s “Civic” content usually comes from:

The local section of the Seattle Times

Erica C. Barnett at The C is for Crank

Heidi Groover, Sydney Brownstone, and Steven Hsieh at The Stranger

Crosscut

Seattle Weekly (Sol’s found Twitter to be the best way to get their local politics articles)

Joel Connelly at the P-I

Publicola

And speaking to curiosity – sure interesting this week to follow Amazon’s reveal in their Top 20 cities still in the running for HQ2 – fascinating! The reveal here!

How might you stay curious in 2018? What habits will you create to stay curious? What will you read? What will you listen to?

That’s a wrap for this week! Next week, FWL will feature Episode #7 Double Down podcast – with David Daniel (Demco), Chip Painter (VP, Windermere Services) and Mark Hobbs (Eastlake assistant manager and the King of Standards of Practice. We’ll dive into our first legal bites of the year and set the table in a deeper dive into Standards of Practice. And oh, a bit on Zillow too!

Stay curious my friends,

Laura Smith, General Manager | Windermere Real Estate Co.

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Six,

Let’s jump right in and take a sweep of this week!  WRE Builder’s Breakfasts started back up again with keynote Matthew Gardner “speeching” (as he likes to say!) and yes, typically doing so in really cool socks. My favorite visual from his slides – this one. What do you notice? As he was speaking directly to both Seattle growth and unemployment rate he shared this graphic. I’d certainly say that this is a pictorial view of just that, growth and employment. Can you imagine how many jobs that will need to fill that Amazon square footage alone?! Had to share…

“The Science” | Windermere Stats updated

Click here for full reports | password: wrejanuary

…and a few digestible bites from the NWMLS statistical report:

Martin Luther King Day | Offices Closed this Monday.

Computation of Time

When computing time for the purchase and sale agreement, please regard Monday, January 15th as a legal holiday. Martin Luther King Day is a legal holiday under Washington law.

That’s a wrap for this week! Have a productive weekend in work + play – here to help – the ultimate goal. 206.227.7133 c – if you don’t yet have me plugged into your contacts!

In partnership,

Laura Smith, General Manager | Windermere Real Estate Co.

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Six,

Welcome to 2018 everyone! I’m going to jump right in…before we get back to business, a fun bird’s eye view of Seattle’s growth. In January 2015, a 360 webcam was installed on top of the Space Needle. Since then, it has taken a 360 panorama of the whole city every 10 minutes! Curious to take a look? This really is a remarkable birds eye view. Click here.

Let’s begin to unzip a New Year together…FWL will again be dedicated to bringing you weekly fresh relevant content – created to easily digest so that we can continue to educate the people that lean on us for our advisory. #wearewindermere #2018 #gameon

On Monday, January 8th Windermere will begin to introduce New Email Security Measures. Please watch for these updates! Recently, Windermere, and the industry as a whole, has experienced an increase in attempts to access email accounts for the purposes of phishing scams and wire fraud. With your help, and advancements in technology, we now have the ability to significantly improve Windermere’s security in order to protect us from fraudulent activity. First communication will be in your inbox this Monday!

Next item of business as we jump into 2018. The New Tax Code.

The below is taken directly from KCM.  The team at Keeping Current Matters is doing an excellent job of creating a Tax Reform Reference Page. If you are not a KCM member, see your office staff for this resource. Most recently a 12 minute video has been posted to KCM –  “The New Tax Code and It’s Impact on Residential Real Estate.”

Ps, you can email, call or text me for this resource as well.

As Steve Harney likes to say, “It’s not good news. It’s not bad news. I’m just reporting THE news.”  KCM.

What about the three major concerns of real estate practitioners?

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Six,

As we prepare to wrap up 2017 and unzip a New Year I want to have a little fun with this FWL post – and you can help (I really do hope you will!). I’d like to start a conversation – a conversation in sharing a few of our favorite things of 2017. In the upper right hand corner of this blog there is a “leave a comment” section. Please share your favorite thing(s) of 2017. We are curious. We care. We want to know!

I’ll start with a few of my favorite things of 2017!

Favorite book:: Shoe Dog (recommended by Jill Wood!)

Favorite podcast:: NPRs “How I Built This” with Guy Raz (recommended by Alexandra Cummings)

Favorite thing I learned:: How to do podcasts! Double Down podcast episodes 1-6 are all hosted on the homepage of my website > wreimpact.com

Jill’s favorite things!

Favorite business book:: Shoe Dog – A memoir by the creator of Nike

Favorite experience:: being able to meet my daughters on their 3 month SE Asia adventure

Favorite WRE Co thing:: distributing $193,454 to our local communities through the WRE Foundation (just our 6 offices!)

OB’s favorite things::

M’s game with the fellas

Symposium with Charlie Plumb

Great new hires! *I owe you all a bbq at my house!

Manager Rob Graham is a new dad!

All the snow we had in the mountains

Heidi and I bought a house in Boise

…now, it’s your turn! Drop your favorite thing(s) in the comment box – let’s build on this and then we can together turn the page to 2018 – and build that next chapter.

Time to wrap up this year.  We are ready. I believe you are ready. Thank you for continuing to inspire us, learn with us, grow with us, innovate with us, navigate with us and give back with us. 2018 is full of possibility. #gameon

…and what will I will take with me heading into 2018?  a beginners mind. “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” – Suzuki Roshi

We are here to help, the ultimate goal. #wearewindermere

In partnership,

Laura Smith, General Manager | Windermere Real Estate Co.

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood

Six,

2017 is just about a wrap! Before we put a bow on it and ring in the New Year, let’s sweep this week and prepare for the last of 2017, together. FWL at a glance  for this week > tax reform resource + our city’s announcement of $100 million in affordable housing funding + Matthew Gardner’s 2018 crystal ball + holiday computation of time + our office hours + Sand Point office gets a refresh + Eastlake gets a sneak peek of their new digs! Lots to share in 2018 – can’t wait!

Here we go, let’s sweep this week – we’ll start with a few articles worth shouting out…

City announces $100 million in affordable housing funding. “$100 Million in affordable housing investments will create 896 new rental homes, 25 homeownership opportunities, and upgrades to 535 apartments, in 13 Seattle neighborhoods.” Full article.

Matthew Gardner’s 2018 Crystal Ball. Note: posted 12.8.17 – without yet clarity on Tax Reform. More to come from Mr. Gardner on that item.  Full blog post.

Looking for Tax Reform information + resources? Our friends at Keeping Current Matters (KCM) have compiled one spot dedicated to resources for all pertinent details of the tax reform legislation and the potential impact on the residential housing market. As Steve Harney likes to say, “It’s not good news. It’s not bad news. I’m just reporting THE news.”  KCM.

NOte: if you do not have a KCM account, ping me (206.227.7133 or laurasmith@windermere.com) – I’ll get you the full information. *Your office also has Access to this information. steve Harney is the best at bringing “a heart of a teacher” to us and our industry.

Computation of Time | When computing time for purchase and sale agreements, please regard Monday, December 25th as a legal holiday. Christmas is a legal holiday under Washington law.

Today! | Friday, December 22nd | Closing at 3pm

Saturday, December 23rd | 10-2pm (*EL Closed)

Sunday, December 24th | Closed

Christmas Day Closed

Saturday, December 30th | 10-2pm

Sunday, December 31st | 10-2pm

New Year’s Day Closed

Today begins a quick refresh at the Sand Point office. Who knew redoing carpet could create such havoc – although looking forward to the end result! Sand Point brokers, the Wedgwood office + staff are ready to support you. Just walk in or call and let them know how they can help. They are prepped to set your table. You’ll be back at your desk in no time!  Spring cleaning came early for you!

Eastlake brokers – you had the most fantastic Seattle day this week to get a sneak peek at your new digs! We are so excited to welcome you to your new desks in 2018. Grateful you had an opportunity to see why we are so excited to move you dockside on South Lake Union. Oh the fun we will have!

Before signing off for the upcoming holiday – a wish for snow for all – in the form of kindness. Had to share!

#letitsnow #everywhere #peace #joy #wearewindermere

In partnership,

Laura Smith, General Manager | Windermere Real Estate Co.

Ballard + Eastlake + Madison Park + Northgate + Sand Point + Wedgwood